Pedantic Nitpicking Issues in KRunner

[todd rme]

On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 11:07 AM, Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org> wrote:
> On Monday, March 19, 2012 10:10:49 todd rme wrote:
>> On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 8:47 PM, Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org> wrote:
>> > On Sunday, March 18, 2012 01:33:09 David Edmundson wrote:
>> >> * The help view is scrollable, but there is no indication of this.
>> >>
>> >>     On the desktop, it's not natural to try to scroll on areas without
>> >> scrollbars. All scroll areas should have scrollbars.
>> >
>> > this has been discussed before. krunner's view area will not have scroll
>> > bars.
>> >
>> > the help info is shown in a very quick-n-dirty way: re-using the results
>> > view method. a nice help info specific presentation would be nice and is
>> > probably the best solution here.
>>
>> What about putting the help in the "about" dialog for each runner?
>
> it uses the generic kde plugin selector, so this would require some work on
> that component in kdelibs (which isn't a showstopper, just means it needs to
> become a generic solution)
>
> however, i'm not sure that the user should be concerned about which runner
> something comes from. it should just be "the set of features currently
> available"
>
> --
> Aaron J. Seigo

That makes sense of users are trying to see what krunner can do.  But
there is currently no easy way to figure out how to use a specific
runner.

So say someone downloads a third-party runner, say the public
transport runner, because they want to use it to find a departure
time.  This person has installed a specific runner with the goal of
carrying out a specific task.  Now the user wants to know how to carry
out that task.  The only way to do that is to look individually at
every entry in the help list, since they are sorted by command (which
the user in this situation does not know).  On my computer that is
entry number 40 in the help list.

This is true in any situation where a user has a specific goal they
want to accomplish.  If users want get an introduction to krunner and
what it can do, the help function is useful.  But it is tedious to
find out how to user a specific runner or carry out a specific task.

It is also an issue if a user is deciding whether to turn a runner on
or off, and wants to know what it is capable of so they can determine
if they need it or not.

-Todd