Activities KCM

[todd rme]

On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 11:47 AM, Ivan Čukić <ivan.cukic at kde.org> wrote:
> Thanks for the suggestions.
>
> First, lets start with the feature requests.
>
>> 1. Which applications start automatically with a given activity.
>
> As Marco said (and I agree), this shouldn't be for per-activity settings.
> But I do think we should have this feature.

I thought that might be the case, but I wasn't sure whether the
question was meant for this particular KCM or more generally.

>> 2. Which activities are started automatically on boot
>> 3. Which activity is shown when the system starts
>
> 2 and 3 are not something I think should be configurable, but maybe can be
> persuaded - the system is restored to the state you left it - both the
> activities that are running and the current activity.

I can think of some use-cases for these, but they are probably not
common enough to be worth it.

>> 4. Location, network APN, or time-aware activities.
>
> This should be done automatically - the activities should be scored based on
> the current location and stuff like in Plasma Active, and the switcher should
> sort them by the score, or mark them in some way.

I don't really agree here.  There are some activities you probably
never want to have at work, for instance a "games" activity.

> I don't like the idea of starting/switching/stopping activities automatically
> for any reason. (can exist as a plugin, like VD switching, global shortcuts)

Is there a plugin system for activity behavior?

>> From the screenshots:
>
> New screenshots (some advice followed):
> http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/6324/kamdsettings231.png
> http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/8627/kamdsettings232.png
> http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8717/kamdsettings233.png

Much better.

However, how does size work?  It looks like there is a ton of wated
space in the first and second mode (especially second), but suddenly
all this space gets taken up.  Perhaps the GUI elements should be
grayed out instead of invisible?

>> 1. What is being blacklisted?  Activity support, remembering document,
>
> +1

Better now.

>>  Same for the checkbox on the bottom.
>
> Is the blacklist checkbox still confusing? (mind that the application view +
> checkbox are shown only when the appr radio button is selected.

I don't know, I guess it depends on how well-known the term
"blacklist" is.  I am sure it is known amongst programmers, but how
common it is in the general population I am not sure.  I don't
normally encounter it in everyday speech, or in the user interfaces of
software I commonly use.

However, I think something like "Only remember for applications in
this list" is just as clear, is exactly the same length (in character
count), but avoids the problem entirely.  It is also put in a positive
manner rather than negative.

>> 3. I am not sure how this would look, or if it would work with other
>> widget themes, but could you put the "Keep History" dropdown next to
>> "Remember open documents"?, and get rid of the "Keep History" text?
>
> Didn't quite understand this. Did you mean to move it above, so that it says
> Remember opened documents [forever]
> Remember opened documents [for 5 months]
>
> If yes, the problem is that visibility of those depends on the "don't
> remember" radio button not being selected. Hiding something above is not
> something that I'd consider pretty.

Good point.  Nevermind.

-Todd