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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Techical Reason Why Konqueror File Management Engine Can't be
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2009-06-30 3:41:12
Message-ID: 200906292141.12858.aseigo () kde ! org
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On Monday 29 June 2009, David C. Rankin wrote:
> 	Is there some reason the konqueror file management engine ( "backend" or
> whatever you want to call it) in kde4 cannot be restored to the kde3
> konqueror file manager engine instead of the dolphin backend? There are

first, David, this is not a "my list of bugs" discussion list. you're going to 
end up frustrating people by treating it as such, and i don't blame them. it's 
a misuse of the resource.

now, as for "why is kong file manager engine replaced with the dolphin one" .. 
well, let's not rewrite history: konq's views were already being rewritten 
before dolphin came along to use the model/view architecture. this was going 
to happen regardless of dolphin being there or not.

dolphin's views were also rewritten because, well, it shared this effort.

when dolphin came along there was ~1 person working on the file management 
stuff. when dolphin came there were a few more people doing so. things would 
be _worse_, not better, without dolphin because the move to m/v was already 
underway.

why?

because it results in less code duplication, greater consistency, allows for 
greater speed in certain kinds of operations and is easier to maintain. that 
was a decision that the konqueror maintainer made before dolphin arrived on 
the scene.

given that i can now delete huge numbers of files in a reasonable time frame 
and have several rather nice features due to how painting is handled in m/v, 
not to mention consistency between different views even in different areas of 
the UI (e.g. file dialog)

the downside is that there was quite a few years of features added to the 
konqueror views, many good and many not so good. some of these have made it 
back in, some will in the future and some simply won't depending on the merit 
of the feature.

> 	Restoring correct konqueror focus handling would also greatly improve the
> ability for people with disabilities or an unsteady hand to use it as well.
> With the konqueror file management backend, you set focus on a file without
> activating it by clicking "anywhere" in the blank space between the end of
> the file name text and the "size" column. That was a big target and
> sufficient real-estate for people to hit who had unsteady hands or impaired
> vision. That's now broken and you have to be able to hit that tiny icon
> just before the file name to accomplish the same thing.

you actually don't have to hit the icon. you can right click on the icon, you 
can rubber band it. but yes, hover-to-select would be a nice feature to have 
back.

> 	I'm doing my best to understand why all of this stuff is still broken on
> the eve of the .3 release, and I am doing my best to help fix it (38 bug
> reports in 30 days)

filing reports is great. using those reports to needle developers isn't. and 
in the end it takes patches to fix things.
 
> developers take the position that "yes, we know what you could do with
> konqueror in kde3, we know you can't now, but that isn't a 'bug', that is a
> 'wishlist' item." Huh??

as Ivan and i both explained: "wishlist" is what bugzilla calls "feature 
requests" and we keep feature that need implementing separate from features 
that need fixing. it's part of our development work flow. you are reading far, 
far too much into this and in the process wasting time and energy that could 
be spent on more productive things.

> 	Is mediocrity the new gold standard for kde?

that question is flame bait, insulting, and insinuating. do better than this, 
please.

> 	With kde3 shut down, one
> would think more emphasis would be placed on making sure its functionality
> at least existed in kde4 as a priority and not simply an afterthought.

you will find that every single release of kde4 has seen more of the good 
features that were in kde3 but not in kde 4.0 emerge. 

> functionality issues that seem to be completely overlooked, swept under the
> rug, or basically ignored in a rush to get the glitz and glamor aspects of
> kde4 ironed out. 

the word is "seem". assigning motivation to people's actions you have little 
insight into is a perfect way to lose your message on them. your analysis is 
pretty much wrong, but i don't think your analysis was needed in the first 
place.

you have a list of bugs, great .. let's fix them! and the "let's" includes 
you.

> 	I don't know what it will take to get the attention focused on these type
> of problems, 

writing code.

> 	Now I know this post will piss 1/2 the readers off and garner agreement
> from the other 1/2,

you've neither pissed me off nor garnered my agreement. it is clear to me that 
you want various changes made, what isn't clear to me is that you have any 
personal commitment to making that happen. it's personal commitment that makes 
change happen in f/oss. we used to just call it "scratching an itch". many 
thing have changed since kde3, haven't they? ;)

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

KDE core developer sponsored by Qt Software

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