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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: RFC: System Settings categorisation overhaul
From:       Darío Andrés <andresbajotierra () gmail ! com>
Date:       2009-10-03 23:41:56
Message-ID: a2c126ef0910031641n3bf73b9fid2104f82e2a5fdd5 () mail ! gmail ! com
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On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 7:07 PM, Jacopo De Simoi <wilderkde@gmail.com> \
wrote:
> > One thing that also needs to be done (and "going through all \
> > systemsettings' .desktop files sounds like a terrific opportunity) is \
> > adding keywords so they're easier to find from other places (like \
> > KRunner). It might also mean removing keyword from lower-level items to \
> > not pollute the matches too much.
> 
> Sorry for the long posting, but this ^^^^  is imho what the most \
> important part of this work would be. Categorizing modules is something \
> quite intrinsically very personal, and sometimes we, as devs, need to \
> make choices which are completely arbitrary. Sometimes there are the \
> "developer point of view" and the "user point of view" which are in clear \
> contrast, sometimes they are not; sometimes it is just a matter of \
> growing accustomed to someone else's categorization, which, when changed, \
> leads to frustration and angry comments like "wtf did you do to \
> kcontrol?". 
> ----Long story:
> Categorization (or a tree [0] if you like) does not provide a good way \
> for organizing the huge quantity of settings that we give the users \
> access to. In contrast, a graph ([1])  seems to me more useful to expose \
> the concept. Of course the big deal with trees is the ease of navigation; \
> almost everybody is used to deal with trees, starting from their very own \
> Document folder. On the other hand, how are you supposed to navigate a \
> graph? Two guys answered this question 11 years ago coming up with \
> Google; KDE is today making use of Nepomuk, which as far as I understand, \
> aims to create connections between pieces of data of different nature \
> scattered around the computer and even outside and be able to expose them \
> in a natural way (which is currently _the_ big problem with it for a lot \
> of people afaiu). 
> What do we do when we don't find the option we want in systemsettings? we \
> fire up a browser, write "keyboard layout setting kde4" on google, find \
> hopefully the right page in a few tries, go back to systemsettings, \
> follow the right sequence of categories and.. we get it. Why shouldn't we \
> take a shortcut? 
> ----Short story:
> We should put _much_ more emphasis on the search box; put it in the \
> middle of a white page with a colored writing on top (ouch it has been \
> patented! [2]) and the user will not miss it. Just type "keyboard \
> layout", hit enter, the top result would be the right one, and done. \
> Following category trees is very 1995, searching is just 2010. People now \
> are a lot more inclined to "google around" than to parse information \
> given by hopefully meaningful names, which then in practice might be far \
> less meaningful than intended simply because of translation issues. 

> ----Before you flame me:
> Now, obviously this is not going to work, as maybe the biggest problem is \
> that we cannot have a keyword for every single word that every single \
> user will ever use as a query. On the other hand think about the \
> benefits: the user wants to change something in particular (e.g. "Desktop \
> Effects", or "splash screen", "automounting"), which is usually something \
> very concrete and much easier to fully and uniquely translate than \
> "Workspace" "login settings" "external devices". By making the KCM \
> modules themselves with their keywords exposed to the user via a search \
> facility, we can completely forget about a hierarchical structure and \
> think of categories as "tags", rather than folders. 
> In practice what I suggest is the following:
> 1) Put the search box somewhere obvious, above the categories, but \
> /inside/ the white frame, to make clear it's part of the game and not \
> some external "I'm never gonna use it" accessory. Give keyboard focus to \
> it, invite the user to try it out. 2) Consider categories as tags, not as \
> folders, make ss look as a web browser rather than a file manager, so \
> that we can have one kcm "linked" by more than one category (keyboard \
> layout accessible by "locale setting" and "keyboard and mouse", for \
> instance) 
> Sorry again for the length of this post, but I do believe that we could \
> change this in a way that we won't need to change again in a few months \
> time and which is non-disruptive to the user. 

You got a nice idea. I like it :), and the "google way" makes sense
(or at least, I feel it that way) , but I can't really discuss/view
this from an user point of view (as I'm not an user most of the time).
so I can't add too much.
I hope you get more feedback about this
Thanks!

Regards
Darío

> --J
> 
> [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_(graph_theory)
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_(mathematics)
> [2] http://valleywag.gawker.com/5350982/google-patents-worlds-simplest-home-page
>  


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