From kde-core-devel  Wed May 16 13:56:50 2001
From: m_elter () t-online ! de (Matthias Elter)
Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 13:56:50 +0000
To: kde-core-devel
Subject: Re: taskbar grouping, off by default please.
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-core-devel&m=99002151100765

On Wednesday 16 May 2001 14:44, David Faure wrote:
> On Wednesday 16 May 2001 15:15, Matthias Elter wrote:
> > On Wednesday 16 May 2001 14:51, Ralf Nolden wrote:
> > > The toplevel mode is not the default either :-)
> > > BTW this feature was exactly thought for people that use apps with =
this
> > > behavoir like Gimp. Gimp is one of the most widely used apps on Lin=
ux
> > > and this will stay this way for the user. We're all talking from th=
e
> > > *Developers* point of view here, but not from the users. We should
> > > accept that the users have different preferences and that we as
> > > developers like it *different* which requires US to deselect featur=
es,
> > > not all users IMHO. This is selfish if we all claim "let's put this=
 off
> > > by default because I can't handle it". We'll end of that we can do
> > > everything but nobody's using it because we put it off by default.
> > > Please follow tackat's suggestion to leave it on to see if we get
> > > complaints by the users.
> >
> > Discussion closed, it will remain the default for Beta 1 to get more =
user
> > feedback. Up to now I have not received any real complaints about thi=
s
> > feature. Only one user who did not like it was unable to find the
> > configuration option to turn it off. But I don't feel religious about
> > this feature. The implementation was motivated by popular request. Pe=
ople
> > were asking for task grouping. If it turns out that it confuses more
> > users than it makes happy it will be off by default in KDE 2.2 final.
>
> Sorry to give my voice after you say the discussion is closed ...
> But I'd like to point that it's not only all or nothing.
> What emerged from the discussion is also that with few windows
> grouping sucks (if I have only two konsoles why shouldn't they be
> two separate buttons), and that with many windows, it helps sorting thi=
ngs.
> So I guess a third solution after "default is on" and "default is off",
> would be: improving the feature so that the grouping only happens when
> there are enough windows (i.e. when there isn't enough space).

Dynamic grouping based on the amount of similar tasks or based on the fre=
e=20
space on the taskbar is what I had in mind when I implemented the new=20
taskbar. The problem is (tackat made me aware of it some time ago) that t=
his=20
is even more confusing for users because it is not trivial to understand =
when=20
and why tasks are grouped. So I will not implement this for now but maybe=
=20
reconsider it after beta1.

Matthias