[rekonq] Re: Re : [RFC] Better Integration of Web Applications into Window Management

[Martin Gräßlin]

On Tuesday 11 January 2011 18:51:17 you wrote:
> To understand if a link is a web app, we can create a db, ask user (with a
> spin in the tab menu) or check for metatags.
Just remember that having a window for each web application is a change in the 
user's workflow and that we have been at the stage where every web page was in 
each own window and it was considered as bad ;-)

I don't think it's something you will be able to handle properly in the 
browser and really my idea is completely orthogonal to that and does not 
change the existing workflow but allows to extend it for users who want to use 
it.

I had a chat with Lionel and I dare to paste the log here, in the hope it 
helps to understand the idea better :-)

Cheers Martin

[17:36] <Lionel_> hi
[17:38] <mgraesslin> hi
[17:39] <Lionel_> did you read our mails about web apps and rekonq ?
[17:40] <mgraesslin> yes and I just replied :-)
[17:43] <Lionel_> yes but before talk about web apps, don't you think we 
should first be able to completely manage tabs with kwin ? with a new tab 
button in the windeco
[17:44] <mgraesslin> no
[17:44] <mgraesslin> I thought about it for quite some time and am against 
extending the window tabbing feature
[17:44] <mgraesslin> it does not solve the problem
[17:45] <mgraesslin> what I presented as an idea can also be implemented by 
Firefox and Chromium and Metacity and Compiz
[17:45] <mgraesslin> window tabs is kwin specific
[17:46] <mgraesslin> oh and btw my idea would be easier to implement than 
extending window tabs
[17:53] <Lionel_> mgraesslin: what you want is rekonq registers its tabs in 
kwin
[17:54] <Lionel_> like IE does for its task bar
[17:54] <mgraesslin> not in kwin, just announce that there are some "whatever"
[17:54] <mgraesslin> yes it get's close to IE, but IE just shows all tabs
[17:54] <mgraesslin> I am thinking of something smarter
[17:54] <mgraesslin> and IE only provides tooltips
[17:54] <Lionel_> yes
[17:55] <Lionel_> but the first step is unrelated to web apps
[17:55] <mgraesslin> well it has to be web-apps or you start cluttering the 
workspace
[17:56] <mgraesslin> e.g. if five facebook tabs are open, there may only be 
one announced
[17:56] <Lionel_> or five announced by rekonq but one displayed by kwin
[17:57] <mgraesslin> no kwin won't do filtering
[17:57] <mgraesslin> as that would duplicate code in kwin and plasma
[17:57] <Lionel_> ok
[17:57] <mgraesslin> filtering has to be done in the application
[17:57] <mgraesslin> what makes sense is this "Pin Tabbed"
[17:58] <mgraesslin> so each pinned tab gets exposed to the outside world
[17:59] <mgraesslin> with this pinned tabs feature rekonq almost have all the 
code for it
[17:59] <Lionel_> yes it makes perhaps more sense than web apps
[17:59] <mgraesslin> you just need to set the properties and react on outside 
changes
[17:59] <mgraesslin> that's less than 100 lines of code in rekonq
[18:01] <Lionel_> pinned tabs can be information websites, it doesn't make 
sense to create a web application for them so they don't need a separated 
window
[18:03] <mgraesslin> that's exactly the point of my idea - everything would 
stay in *one* browser window
[18:04] <mgraesslin> unlike silk or window tabbing, where each web app has an 
own window
[18:04] <mgraesslin> which kind of brings us back to 1995 with IE 4
[18:04] <Lionel_> ok, imo you should change the title of your idea for the 
meeting
[18:06] <mgraesslin> well it's basically the same thing, whether it is web 
apps or pinned tabs
[18:06] <mgraesslin> the implementation on rekonq part is your thing
[18:14] <Lionel_> mgraesslin: all are websites so it is the same thing, but I 
would use pinned tabs for planetkde.org, and a web app (dedicated window) for 
gmail
[18:14] <mgraesslin> planetkde.org is also a webapp
[18:15] <Lionel_> not really, it doesn't provide tools
[18:17] <Lionel_> but I agree with you, if you pinned planetkde.org, it should 
be easily accessible from outside
[18:21] <mgraesslin> for me a web app is anything that replaces a desktop app 
and that makes planetkde a web app - it replaces an RSS akregator
[18:22] <Lionel_> :) a RSS agregator is an app that replace several websites
[18:23] <mgraesslin> minor details :-)
[18:23] <Lionel_> :)
[18:33] <Lionel_> mgraesslin: with you idea, this website will have their own 
item in the task bar ?
[18:33] <mgraesslin> it could have
[18:33] <Lionel_> these websites*
[18:33] <mgraesslin> or could be grouped together as one item
[18:33] <Lionel_> it will be weird
[18:33] <mgraesslin> it does not need to be this way
[18:34] <mgraesslin> think of you have one item of rekonq and when you click 
on it you get the group menu with the web sites
[18:34] <mgraesslin> and when you hover the entry you see all thumbnails like 
in windows
[18:35] <Lionel_> when I click on the task item, want focus the window (with 
its current tab)
[18:37] <Lionel_> I don't know how you idea can be used
[18:37] <Lionel_> your
[18:37] <mgraesslin> it does not need to integrate into tasks
[18:37] <Lionel_> ok
[18:37] <mgraesslin> it is just possible to do so
[18:37] <Lionel_> where it will be integrated ?
[18:38] <mgraesslin> to get one thing right: I won't work on it, so "will be 
integrated" is definately the wrong wording
[18:38] <mgraesslin> it's more a where could it be integrated
[18:38] <mgraesslin> and that I outlined in my mail
[18:39] <Lionel_> I don't say you must do something, I just want imagine how 
it can be used
[18:40] <mgraesslin> well I don't know what I could explain more to the ideas 
I outlined
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