QML Placces design discussion

[Mark]

Hi,

As requested, posting this on the plasma-devel mailing list.

A little background information otherwise the first few lines are odd.
With the KDE 4.10 release the places plasmoid is partly recreated in
QML (much kudos to that!). However, it looks like an "odd" decision
was made to make the places plasmoid invisible if you only have one
virtual desktop. I think that's the wrong decision for a couple of
reasons. (listed below)

-----
I understand your reasoning, but i don't think you should do this. In
my opinion a plasmoid - and certainly one that's on the panel - should
never be invisible but still take up room. If you do it you'd better
show a big warning notifying the user of that. Or you should just
prohibit the plasmoid if the user has just one virtual desktop.

Another usecase that apparently hasn't been considered is my usecase
(obviously ;)). I have 3 "displays" attached. 2 monitors and one
beamer. The beamer obviously isn't on by default yet it is possible
that windows open in the beamer area. Thus i don't see those windows.
If the pager would just show itself i would instantly notice that some
windows where opened on a display that isn't turned on which would
very easily allow me to drag those windows back to one of the enabled
displays.

So yes, i think this is a regression.
-----

Also this has been reported as a bug:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=312684 which i marked as a
regression. Another issue is that it shows an empty places area if you
have only one virtual desktop. One that you can clearly see here:
http://www.muktware.com/5194/kde-410-review-time-switch-kde in the
first screenshot. (the empty space between the activities icon and
dolphin) Do note that you see a default setup there! This is what any
user will see by default. I can't imagine that to be the intention.

My points:
1. do never (make it a policy please) allow a plasmoid to be visible
without any content in it. Give a clear warning to the user as to why
it's empty.
2. Allow the user to have the places visible even when there is just
one virtual desktop.

Again note that this is all with the default settings! Anyone
installing KDE will see this.

Kind regards,
Mark