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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: [patch] to add "close on click" functionality to konqueror
From:       Damien Uern <morpheus_2606 () internode ! on ! net>
Date:       2004-07-19 13:57:31
Message-ID: 200407192315.40139.morpheus_2606 () internode ! on ! net
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On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 10:18 pm, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> patch attached - compilation is taking so damn long that i'm sending
> this to the list for review assistance and comments before the thing's
> finished.
>
> [i've raised a bug 260195@bugs.debian.org for this one.]
>
> the idea is to have konqueror close a window when you click on an icon
> _in_ a window.
>
> the principle is to have desktop icons and also icons in a folder where
> the icons run the following commands:
>
> icon 1: konqueror --profile Office
> icon 2: konqueror --profile Games
> icon 3: konqueror --profile Internet
> ...
> icon N: konqueror --profile NNNN
>
> then, when you click on the desktop icons, the profile opens
> up a Konqueror window which has no menu, no toolbars - nothing
> but icons e.g.  for the Office profile it will show you a
> whole bunch of KOffice and OpenOffice icons.
>
> now, in the Office profile, the close-on-click option is selected.
>
> so, when you click one of the icons, the program is run, and also
> the konqueror Office profile window closes.
>
> in other words, konqueror-with-the-new-"close-on-click" option turns
> konqueror into a menu.
>
> the neat thing is that the Office profile can have a background
> specific to Office usage, it can have its window location and
> size set, and can generally be made really useful and simple.
>
> on the distribution i am setting up i intend to use this
> to REPLACE the kde menu because i find the KDE menu to be
> so overcrowded, cluttered and awkward that it's a complete arse to
> find anything and to navigate to it.
>
> with a really stonking big window [konqueror --profile Internet]
> covering 20% of the desktop, mouse accuracy is a secondary
> consideration :)
>
> i've been using computers for 15 years and i find "Start" menus to be
> totally impossible to navigate correctly and quickly with a mouse.
>
> the guys at microsoft in the NT team who wrote newshell.exe
> didn't do us many favours :)
>
> anyway.
>
> issues i'm having is that closeURL() doesn't do what i expect
> it to do: close the URL i.e file:/home/whoever/whatever :)
>
> so, how do i get to close the actual konqueror window i.e.
> emulate the same effect as ctrl-q or alt-f4 or
> whatever-it-takes-to-activate-the-file-quit-menu-option?
>
> thanks,
>
> l.
>

Just another thought. I've been thinking about this recently actually. I think 
in the next few years we'll evolve beyond the whole "start menu" concept. At 
the moment, we are trained to think "I need to use application X to work on 
document Y". Thus we look in a menu to find application X, then inside the 
application, we open document Y. There are hacks around this, like "recent 
documents". And some people use the file browser to locate their stuff and 
load the associated application with it.

With the integration of search into future desktops (see GNOME's libstorage, 
Mac OSX Tiger, and Longhorn), I can see how we'll work mostly with the file 
browser and search facilities. We don't have to wait for search to change how 
we work though. I have an idea that could probably be built on current KDE 
technology (very similar to your idea).

Instead of our default home location being ~, we would have a higher level 
virtual file system that lists common items we might interact with, e.g.:

Devices (links to the devices:/ url)
Personal Files (links to ~)
Documents 
Music 
Pictures
Settings

Lets look at the Documents folder. This actually is a VFS that displays the 
documents in ~/Documents (or some other folder) in a different way. Say at 
the top it could have "most recently worked on" documents, then most 
frequently worked on.. then perhaps the others listed in alphabetical order, 
with whatever meta information can be gotten from them. In my head, it looks 
like a nice clean web page (sort of). The top items are presented more 
prominently than the other items.

I got this inspiration from amaroK actually, so it's probably better to look 
at the Music folder. If you click on the music folder, it actually opens up a 
collection, just like you would see in amaroK. So you view things by albums 
(or by artist, whatever), can change id3 tags, and queue albums in amaroK (or 
any other media player I guess). It shows statistics like, most recently 
added song, most popular songs, most popular bands, etc. Just like in amaroK. 
So I guess it's kind of a amaroK KPart, or amarok VFS. At least inspired by 
it.

So extend that to the documents folder: meta information is collected about 
documents you work on, to present them in a better way. Clicking the 
document, launches the application associated with it.

The Pictures folder launches a gallery VFS (or KPart, whatever, like Gwenview 
image browser, except more complete), so images can be viewed in a gallery, 
or as photo albums, etc. It can have nice ways to organise files of this type 
(like other photo organisers that already exist). Why load other apps to do 
this? This is file management stuff, so present it in the file manager, but 
just in ways that's easier to think about and organise.

Other applications can add their own meta directory to the top hierarchy (call 
this computer:/ or something). E.g., what if you had a kdevelop 
meta-directory. It shows the most recent projects you've worked on, most 
popular projects, any other statistics that are useful. 

Above all, it organises items so you don't have to navigate a bunch of 
directories to find stuff. Most used/recent things presented first, and a 
powerful search engine available to find stuff (a search box should be in the 
toolbar on the right hand side, like the google search box, except for your 
local "smart" directory).

The mentality moves from looking in a start menu, to just loading up the file 
manager, and working with documents that way. Presented in a way that takes 
advantage of usage statistics and meta information in the files. I imagine 
this is similar to Mac OS X Tigers "smart" directories.

All of these meta-directories have a consistent look and feel, as it is all 
handled by the same thing but perhaps with plugins to gather the necessary 
meta information. Save-As dialogs could automatically save and categorise 
files in these smart directories based on file type, etc.

An ability to right click->view as flat file list, would probably be wanted as 
well.

Hope some of this made sense :) Just think "amaroK embedded in the file 
manager, except extended to other document types".

Cheers,

Damien

P.S: No these ideas aren't new, I just think that we could probably get part 
way there now, even without search technology available.

>
> --

- -- 
 "I love this planet. I've got wealth, fame, and access to the depths of
sleaze that those things bring." -Bender
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