[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: screen management plasmoid for KDE 4.4?
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2009-11-17 19:52:43
Message-ID: 200911171152.43726.aseigo () kde ! org
[Download RAW message or body]

[Attachment #2 (multipart/signed)]


On November 17, 2009, Allan Sandfeld Jensen wrote:
> On Monday 16 November 2009, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > On November 16, 2009, Allan Sandfeld Jensen wrote:

> > what's the kephal maintainer's position on this?
> 
> I think this is a deliberate design. In theory this could make different
> setups autodetectable (imagine laptop on the road or laptop on the desk).
>  The real problem is that the backend code is active while the frontend
>  that would make it really useful is still missing. Autodetecting based on
>  predefined profiles that the user can not control is potentially buggy at
>  best, and deliberately destructive at worst.
> 
> Fortunately I think krandrtray which does not use kephal is loaded later
>  and does our current randr layout, undoing anything weird kephal might
>  have done. Kephal is however still reporting information based on its own
>  selected profile, if that profile does not match reality, applications
>  using data from kephal will have a wrong picture of how the desktop is
>  configured.

this would explain some remaining panel positioning bugs in plasma-desktop 
when krandr resets the resolution on log in. 

personally, i really don't like that behaviour of krandr at all, but maybe 
it's needed for certain use cases (what are they?) and regardless of what is 
done we should be doing this in ONE place.

> Some of the bugs are also caused by other applications using Kephal in a
>  wrong way. For instance to detect if multiple screens are attached to
>  provide actions to activate them or use them. Kephal is however not
>  reporting hardware details it is only reporting the current selected
>  kephal configuration. If kephal has selected a 1 screen configuration for
>  a dual-headed setup, kephal is reporting the setup has 1 screen.

interesting; and broken sounding.

if kephal maintains this position, which i can see as being useful as a way to 
shield most apps from the more complex (and irrelevant to them) reality under 
the hood, we will need to add some API to it that also provides information on 
what's actually there.

> > > I've been trying to fix multiscreen support in kwin and kephal, and the
> > >  only sensible solution I can come up with is removing kephal or at
> > > least stop using it anywhere.
> >
> > without a replacement, not using it isn't an option. fewer things are
> >  broken, at least for our use cases in plasma, than before we had it. if
> >  there are things that need fixing, let's identify and fix them. but
> > let's move forward rather than backward or sideways.
> 
> Which is why I haven't complained about it before. There was an alternative
> discussed in this thread, and I am merely pointing out that kephal in its
> current state is not a good argument against new projects in the same
>  field.

true enough; hm. we should find some time on irc to sit together and work 
through some ideas for kephal, pref with their developers.

-- 
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 Development Frameworks

["signature.asc" (application/pgp-signature)]

>> Visit http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-devel#unsub to unsubscribe <<


[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]