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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: program loading
From:       "Robert Hagemann" <rhagemann () psipenta ! com>
Date:       1999-02-24 7:00:25
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Hi,
<cite>
> Please, can anybody implement this marvellous feature as described
> above, as soon as possible?
> I fear, if nobody does it, other will come and the %*!& hourglass cursor
> from M$-Windoze will hurt my eyes even on my KDE box!


I am not trying to start anything, but it occurs to me that we make KDE
so that we can have the power of unix under the windows interface.  I am
a really anti-microsft person, but I think that refusing features just
because microsoft thought of it first is wrong. They pay alot of people
alot of money to think about it.  And for the most part, what they come up
with is quickly accepted by users everywhere.

I don't care if kde looks identical to windows (other than trademark
problems).  The main thing I try to do with my kde is show people that my
unix box can do every bit as much as there windows.  So what is the point
in refusing a windows feature?
</cite>

As stated before on this list several times, the metaphor of the
hourglass cursor is: "Wait a minute, there is nothing You can do for the
moment." This is/was true in the single task environment of M$ Win 3.x.
But on KDE, You don't have to wait for a window popping up, You can do
something more interesting in the meantime. The cursor gives You no
hint, which program is involved in the ongoing activity and is therefore
an suboptimal solution. Besides, *if* You do sth. more interesting in
the meantime, entering an other app, the cursor has to restore his original
shape and gives You no hint at all.

During the discussion 3 better ideas has arisen,
as far as I remember. Each of them takes more efforts to implement, but
it's worth doing, IMHO:
- animated icon in the task bar
- transient window for the currently launching app
- one window, that shows animated icons for all KDE apps
- a blinking light in the panel

A few other ideas come to our mind, as well: Killing or renicing an app
that is launching -- how do You want to implement this with an
hourglass cursor?

Ciao,
Robert
.

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