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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: Support for animated icons (on mouseover)
From:       Andreas Pour <pour () mieterra ! com>
Date:       2002-01-18 1:48:03
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David Faure wrote:

[ ... ]
 
> No need to be ironic. I didn't say it didn't use the CPU while the animation
> was running (it's just about displaying 5 pixmaps btw, i.e. same as if you
> had 5 more files in the directory).
> I said that this happens while the CPU isn't used by something else (in this
> process at least), and it doesn't slow the _user_ down - that was my main
> point.

Hiya,

First, let me make clear that I am not opposed to this idea -- I think
eye candy is good.  But I do have some questions and concerns, I hope
they prove helpful.

Question:  when are these icons loaded?  I think it was on demand.  Now,
let's say you are currently accessing the disk a lot -- whether b/c you
launched an application, or you are low on memory and things are
swapping, or whatever.  Doesn't loading 5 icons then cause a "jump"
effect, which would be very annoying?  There is of course a way to deal
with that -- start a timer and if the icons have not all been loaded
within some short period of time, skip the animation.

The other thing that's worrying to me about these types of animations is
their effect on bandwidth.  I recall people were discussing at some
point auto-detecting if the server is on a different machine and, if so,
automatically turning these things off.  This is particularly important
for enterprises which run thin clients -- they don't need tons of
bandwidth used for these things.
 
> > Seriously though, this patch does nothing useful.  It doesn't allow the
> > user to do anything faster, better, or easier.  It doesn't make KDE
> > runnable in more places, with less CPU, RAM, or disk space.  This behavior
> > falls into the same category as pseudo-transparency in menus or animated
> > combo boxes, yet those are defaulted off.  Why should this one be any
> > different.

Can this type of thing go into KPersonalizer?  There's the "slow
processor" <=> "fast processor" page, shouldn't this setting effect
whether these things are turned on by default?

BTW, it would be nice to also have a radio button there for "local
interface" or "network connection", so that in the latter case a lot of
the animation-type stuff can be disabled (which of course has nothign to
do with the processor speed).

[ ... ]

Ciao,

Dre
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