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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: whatever happenned to Iconfiy?
From:       Maarten ter Huurne <mth () stack ! nl>
Date:       2001-10-08 22:26:47
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On Monday 08 October 2001 19:53, Joshua Spoerri wrote:

> What led kde to support only the microsoft style taskbar, and not the unix
> style iconification? By iconification, I mean positioning the
> representation of a window anywhere on the desktop.

Tastes vary. I used iconification in CDE, but did not like it at all. 

> IMO, the taskbar has the following problems:
> 1 with many windows, not enough of the title of each window representation
> is visible.

Running out of space is a problem for any kind of visualisation. Workarounds 
like scaling and scroll bars help, but are not ideal.

> 2 the small icons are harder to identify.

Fortunately, the KDE icon designers did a good job: I usually have very 
little problem finding the app I'm looking for in the task bar. I guess the 
color is what I react to most: orange means KMail, yellowish is KWrite or 
Kate, blue is Konqueror in file manager mode, black is Konsole etc.

> 3 the location on the screen (by start time, and slightly different for
> every extra window opened) is not very useful.

I agree that this is a problem. The varying location and size makes it 
impossible to learn an application's location and switch quicker.

> Iconification has none of these problems.

It has one additional problem though: the desktop can be obscured by windows. 
Maybe it's because my screen is only 1024x768 or maybe it's just a personal 
habit, but I hardly see my desktop at all, it's always covered with windows. 

> B blurring the distinction between a running and not-yet-running tasks
> (for example, when i want to check my mail, i don't care if kmail is
> currently running or not, i just want to click on the little kmail icon. if
> it's twenty seconds quicker, great. :))

I like the integration of "start" and "bring to foreground" as well. Window 
Maker uses it, for example.

> OK, as much it might seem like it, I don't want to start a flame war.
> I just want to ask:
> Besides following microsoft, is there a reason for the current situation?

Some people like a taskbar. Or at least prefer it to other solutions.

> and
> Would a well written re-implementation of iconification be accepted into
> kwin, or should i instead hack it using dcop (and patch kwin to allow a
> generic mechanism for the feature A above), or should I give up and use a
> different window manager?

Choice is good. Also, well written code is usually not rejected.


Actually, I would be interested more in iconification into the panel, instead 
of the desktop. If the application is always in the panel (common apps like 
KMail, Konqueror, Kate and Konsole) the icon could change subtly to indicate 
the app is running. If the app is usually not in the panel, it is added in an 
allocated space for that purpose (like the taskbar is now). Think of a cross 
of the current panel and Kasbar.

A bit like OS X does it, but without the implementation problems it has:
- fixed panel size, so permanent panel members have absolute positions
- use the app icon for identification, just snapshots does not work because 
most windows contain black text on a white background (a combination of 
snapshot and app icon may work though)

Bye,
		Maarten
 
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