[rekonq] Feature Idea

Stefan Buller stefan.buller at gmail.com
Sat Jul 24 17:36:31 CEST 2010


Hello rekonq list.

Let me start off by saying I'm pleased with where rekonq is, and where
it's going. I still find myself using Chrome & Firefox, but rekonq
does meet a lot of my needs, and that's an exciting change from
Konqueror. Actually, on the topic of Konqueror, I've thought about it
a number of times recently - particularly the feature whereby tapping
ctrl- will offer shortcuts for the links on a page - very useful when
all you have is a keyboard.

Anyway, the reason I have come calling, is that I've been doing some
reflection on my browser usage. I find myself with an always
increasing collection of open tabs, and have been wondering how best
to manage this. I have discovered a couple of the main reasons my list
of tabs grows so crazily. I will discuss some of the things I have
observed, and then move on to some of my thoughts on how a browser
could be improved, based on these observations.

Problem/Context
---------------

I have realized that my tabs are generally grouped according to what I
am doing. Programming documentation is a big one. If I'm writing
something with Rails I'll have the Rails reference open (maybe even
more than once), the Ruby reference open, plus guides on a couple
relevant topics (blog posts or tutorials). Writing a Rails program
also leads to writing XHTML & CSS & JS, for which I'll find myself
opening references. Until I'm satisfied that a particular task (or an
aspect of a task) is complete, the relevant tabs will remain open for
quick reference. When a such a project is delayed, or loses priority,
I keep these tabs open so that I can return to the project without
having to rediscover all my sources. Since I find myself picking up
new projects before I complete old ones, I find myself with a growing
collection of these activities.

Other activities can also lead to groups of tabs. 'Comparing
alternatives' seems to summarize these cases. For example, I'll be
looking at a variety of different hardware options on some site, and
I'm waiting to offer someone else my opinion, and to hear theirs, on
what I'm looking at. These pages will remain open until a decision can
be reached on which piece of hardware to purchase, or it's been
decided that such hardware isn't really needed. Another of these cases
is when I'm reading up on a variety of different programs implementing
different solutions to a particular problem - distributed file systems
for example. I'll open tabs to look into the different solutions,
closing tabs that aren't relevant - completely closing off solutions
that don't meet my needs, but leaving open tabs which summarize a
particular solution well or highlight features that are useful.

That leads me to the last major source of tabs that I have identified
- general reading. I will from time to time find myself reading up
into topics which have no immediate activity, but are very useful or
interesting generally. Sometimes these get left open because I get
pulled away from reading them, other times because I imagine they'll
be useful in the future, or I want to think further on the material
presented.

Solution
--------

These observations have lead to a number of ideas on how things might
be improved - having lots of tabs open is difficult to manage, and
strains the computer unnecessarily. Let me start with the general
reading. The needs of this use case are almost met by bookmarks. I
haven't nailed down exactly what's missing, but some thoughts are
context (connection with other tabs I'm reading, and history),
completedness (I'm part way through - either a single page, or
multiple pages - history again), and my intent to resume reading.
Perhaps Nepomuk is the answer here - semantic bookmarking?

As for the rest, I believe grouping tabs is the solution. Important
features are: visually distinguishing groups, saving groups to disk
(like sessions, complete with history), and restoring from disk. I
think this would tie in very nicely with Chani's 'activities'.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my ponderings, and I
hope they have been of use to you. I hope you have been inspired, and
if I have been unclear on any topic or insufficiently elaborate, I'm
more than willing to add what I can.

-- 
Stefan Buller


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