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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: KSysGuard renaming
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2006-06-06 16:46:05
Message-ID: 200606061046.05768.aseigo () kde ! org
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On Tuesday 06 June 2006 09:34, Greg Martyn wrote:
> 3. Think of the packagers!
> Even if we don't switch all the way over to kde-system-monitor, I
> think there is a strong argument for switching away from ksysguard.
> IIRC, 'guard' meant something in a non-English language, but that
> doesn't make it any less misleading to English speakers. I remember
> being confused that the "system guard" has nothing to do with backing
> up my files or protecting me from black hats. Guard -> Monitor is the
> logical choice. Google tells me that that ksysmon may be in use, but I
> can't find an actual ksysmon program to download. There is already a
> kicker applet that goes by "System Monitor", but by the time KDE4
> comes out, I hope to have ksysguard's applet encapsulate System
> Monitor's behavior.
>
>
> Personally I think that gnome got it right with their gnome-something
> names. They are easy to guess (try typing 'gnome-'[tab][tab] for a
> nice list of the gnome system apps), self explanatory, and anyone
> without tab completion is used to suffering anyway. Even if you knew

my experience with users on IRC says it gives no real advantage. this rename 
is mostly change for change's sake; one -still- has to know:

 - it's a kde app
 - it's called "system monitor" (not the first name that springs to my mind, 
btw, it's a learned thing)
 - that it needs to get started

and ksysguard is pretty easy to arrive from from "kde system guard".

what's bad here is that we now have a new style of names that doesn't mesh 
with anything else.

> that you wanted to open KDE System Guard, would you know to type
> ksysguard? I think that it's time for a change.

to be perfectly honest, i'm personally highly skeptical of ksysguard in 
general. (that's not the same as saying i'm skeptical of your abilities, 
which i'm not.) 

in fact, i really hope this naming thing doesn't end up becoming a big 
discussion that distracts from more important issues. instead of spending 
energy on renaming questions, i'd hope to see the performance[1], 
integration[2] and UI complexity issues of ksysguard be sorted out. once it's 
become all the app it can be ("in the a-a-a-army", sorry couldn't resist ;) 
and we're all fans of it again, -then- perhaps we can visit a renaming.

as it is this just becomes one more reason to go "ugh" about ksysguard. my 
first thought when i saw the naming debacle on the commit digest list 
was, "so i wonder how long before ksysguard, er, 
kde-system-guard-with-a-long-name and kde-system-monitor-too, gets punted out 
to KEG?"

so, to completely hijack this thread ;) ....

WHO is the audience for ksysguard these days? because right now i see a 
big-system sys admin's tool that gets shipped with kdebase, and that's not 
what kdebase is for. if it's going to be an app for people who use kde in 
general, then a new UI is in order. i'd go so far as to suggest that the 
system monitor daemon ought to be farmed out to fd.o where everyone can use 
it and hack on it, the UI shipped in kdebase should be a simplified 
not-over-configurable (if at all!) but -very fast- (esp to launch) and small 
app (set of apps?) that simply show the basics of a process table and 
memory / cpu stats. the complex UI can move to kdeadmin for all the sysadmins 
of the world to revel in. the panel applet should also similarly be rethough 
along similar lines. 

that's just my 0.02 and perhaps that's already what you are considering doing. 
either way, discussing these issues rather than discussing naming would be 
much more productive at this point.

[1] in particular the kicker applet is just attrocious
[2] right now the process table takes too long to come up. IMHO it should 
be "always running" and really ought to be integrated with a select 
few 'core' ui pieces such as the 'run command' dialog

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

Full time KDE developer sponsored by Trolltech (http://www.trolltech.com)

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