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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Superlous configuration?
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2005-01-05 20:57:04
Message-ID: 200501051357.13441.aseigo () kde ! org
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hey all...

so, it's been shown that this option is useful for some, and with good reasons 
ranging from "i like delete better" to "i have remotely mounted partitions" 
to "all my windows users that i'm migrating over are used to it". that this 
needs to be an option is at this point basically a given, AFAIC. even the 
"usability that owns yo momma desktop"[1], GNOME, has this exact option in 
its GUI configs, so pls don't tak to me about GNOME here.[2]

some have suggested a menu editor for XMLGUI menus. while an interesting idea, 
i don't think this will fly very well as long as only some of our menus use 
XMLGUI. in fact, if you look at the konqi RMB menu, some of it is 
KActionCollection driven, but some of it is mimetype/servicemenu driven.. i 
fear such an approach would come off as a patchwork quilt with no hint to the 
user as to why and where it would work (or not, as the case may be)

so having it in the config GUI seems to be something of a necessity. the 
question is: where and how.

now, obviously hiding something so dear to so many in a text file isn't the 
way to go, otherwise why are we creating a GUI? certainly not to force people 
to use the command line and text editors. Ah! but we have KConfigEditor! 
which.... isn't installed with KDE, and which is sort of a cop out really. i 
mean, it certainly does have its place, but we aren't going to find it by 
arguing over single options whenever they happen to piss off someone (which 
i'm sure is probably every 10 minutes, somewhere in the world ;) on the other 
hand, just because KDE is flexible doesn't mean it must be unwieldly.

and that, really, is the root of the problem, here isn't it? that there are 
configuration dialogs that are unwieldly in KDE.

it isn't that KDE can do too many things[3], nor is it that users are 
stupid/smart/wizards/learning/bunny rabiits, nor is it this option worth a 
40-email thread.

the issue is one of unwieldly config dialogs. that challenge needs a holistic 
answer, not a "let's look at hits one option" argument.

some things that have been discussed include:

	- splitting Konqueror's UI into file management and web browser more visually 
in KDE4

	- providing a smarter, less static configuration GUI in KDE4. i think that 
some people's observation that this is one of those "set once and never touch 
again" settings is relevant as a clue here.

	- looking at ALL the options in the Konqi dialogs and organizing and wording 
them ALL more ergonomically. (for kde4 =) e.g. look at how vertical alignment 
is generally not taken into consideration, or how options like "Popup 
Blocking" are not in plaes users tend to look (i know this from doing irc 
tech support =) a from-the-pixels-up organization efofrt of these dialogs 
would go a LONG way to easing people's pain.

if you have holistic solutions and are able to implement them for KDE4, then:

					KDE4 Needs You!

but arguing over a single option is only getting people frustrated with each 
other, not producing any useful conclusions and IMHO taking time away from 
hacking that should be done in prep for 3.4


[1] before the GNOME haters club beats me down, i'm simply paraphrasing the 
positions of certain people in this thread.

[2] btw, using Firefox as an example application here as someone did makes 
about as much sense as comparing the Delete option to peanut butter on raisin 
bread.

[3] some postulate that having too many options results in having unwieldly 
config dialogs. to which i point out MacOS X which is quite flexible and yet 
one never hears about these complaints. one may also look to GNOME which has 
a habit of starting with simple apps that acrete options that users desire 
until they are too big and "unwieldly" at which point they get tossed. web 
browsers and window managers come to mind here. this seems to indicate that 
there are some apps that, to be satisfactorally complete, require more 
flexibility than is easily handled in a static dialog as we have them.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

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