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List:       kde-debian
Subject:    Re: Control Center or separate application? Was: Kalternatives 0.2
From:       510077896189-0001 () t-online ! de (Paul Mallach)
Date:       2004-01-04 16:19:43
Message-ID: opr09ea5s8pao430 () smtp ! t-online ! de
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On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 00:06:07 +0100, Dominique Devriese 
<dominique.devriese@student.kuleuven.ac.be> wrote:

> Paul Mallach writes:
>> I quite like that idea as well, but the Control Center is here right
>> now and won't go away. I'm quite certain, that it will be reworked
>> for next 3.3 release of KDE in one way or the other.
> Just for reference, KControl is not here to stay.  I'm sure you didn't
> mean this, but there is of course no reason why it could not be
> significantly modified or even ( should the need and the better
> alternative arise ) replaced in KDE 4 and above.

Just for the record: I meant the framework, not the current implementation
of the user interface. I wanted to make the point, that creating something
totally new is useless and that out configuration modules should be
KCModules, even if this means a little more work that just building
separate applications.

> What I would like to see is an application that gets rid of the ugly
> left navigation pane, to replace it with a more browser-like feel.  I
> imagine a KControl showing a list of pretty big icons with cursive,
> gray text next to them, like its Windows competition.  If you click
> one of the options, you would either be shown the entire KCM
> full-screen, or, if you clicked on a sub-category, get to a similar
> screen like the first showing you the subentries.  There would be a
> back/forward button for navigation and such.  I think we should try to
> do this with minimal changes to the API ( existing KCModule's need to
> continue working properly ).  I have read some of the discussions
> about KControl on kde-usability and other places, and it seems a lot
> of people have similar views on the future KControl, I hope it gets
> fixed in the future KDE versions.
That was my point: The CC framework is here to stay and just about 
everything
that has been proposed here could be implemented by adding a new view mode 
in
kcontrol and maybe adding some new attributed to the .desktop files. 
Please note,
that there are a lot of people as well who seem to love the current Tree 
View.

> About this discussion, I'd like to add the following points:
>
> 1. KControl, KCModules etc. are part of a public API, and this means
>    that KDE will definitely not change things in a way that will make
>    older third-party KControl Modules unusable.  This can only be done
>    for KDE 4, KDE 3.x policy does simply not allow such a
>    change. period.  This doesn't mean that nothing can be changed,
>    just that we have to design the changes such that this is not
>    necessary.  I think this is possible.
Yes. To implement the Ark-Linux view for example you would just have to 
add description
tags to the .desktop files for the directories and add "X-KDE-Priority" or 
something
like that to indicate important modules that should be mentioned in the 
left pane as
"Quick Tasks". Then all the information needed is available and will be 
translated
by the KDE team. Oh, and actually add the code for this new view to 
KControl. :-)

>> Maybe someone should contact the Control Center maintainer
>> molkentin@kde.org and ask him, what his plans are and if he would
>> accept patches that make the big changes that are required. I'm not
>> quite sure, where these should be discussed (kde-usability?)
> I don't think you can ask someone "We'd like to make a lot of changes
> to your app, we're not really sure what they are yet, how they would
> be implemented, or who would do it, but would you accept them ?".
No, but you could check if he already has plans for post 3.2 development.
He probably has a lot more insight into the requests people have made for
the future. I didn't want to get a charter (is this the word?) to do what
I want, I just wanted to check if he thinks that big changes (in the UI!)
will be feasible.

bye, Paul.
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