From kde-devel Tue Jul 13 10:56:41 1999 From: Waldo Bastian Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 10:56:41 +0000 To: kde-devel Subject: Re: RFC: new KPanel application menu X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-devel&m=93186346021118 Pietro Iglio wrote: > > At 11.57 13/07/99 +0200, Waldo Bastian wrote: > >Pietro Iglio wrote: > > > >> Note that I'm not considering any other directory layer, such > >> as the "group" layer suggested by Stephan because (a) the > >> implementation would be much harder and (b) more than two > >> layers can be too confusing for users and administrators. > >> > >> Comments and criticisms will be appreciated. > > > >First of all I like it very much. > > > >Some small points: > > > >$HOME/.kde and $KDEDIR don't exist any more in KDE 2.0. > > > >Instead of $HOME/.kde you should use 'locateLocal()' to find > >the location where to store stuff. By default this will be > >$HOME/.kde but you can't count on it. > > > >$KDEDIR doesn't exist any more either. Instead the user can > >provide a ordered list of directories which to check. When > >searching for resources, the most 'specific' directory is > >looked up first. > > > >For kpanel I suggest to use for 'publishing' the > >"least specific directory the user can write to". > > > >Example: > >It he user has > >KDEDIRS="/opt/kde:/usr/local/kde:/home/department/.kde:$HOME/.kde" > > > >Then the "most specific" directory is "$HOME/.kde" > >the "least specific" directory is "/opt/kde". > > > >When the user has write access to /usr/local/kde, > >/home/department/.kde and $HOME/.kde > >publishing the application will write it to /usr/local/kde. > > In principle, I agree with you. Your approach would also be > more complete, because you can publish at any level (eg. local, > workgroup, all users). > > In practice, however, I think that more than two levels can confuse > users. Two levels (personal/global) looks like a right trade-off > between flexibility and simplicity. Thus I'm suggesting, at least for > applications, to keep the old, two-levels model. Yes. 95% of the users will most likely just use 2 levels. But 5% has a need for more levels and then it would be odd that each and every KDE application supports this apart from kpanel. Think of schools with classes. You have the system setting provided by the distributor/system administrator. Depending on the class, a teacher can 'publish' new applications for his/her complete class, but not for the whole school. The children/students themselves can of course also make changes. (Or maybe they can't :) It needs some work (by the distributor/administrator) to set it up right, but once set up I think it is very convenient (for the students/teachers). Users on a sinlge user system won't notice the difference because they will useally not have more levels than the current ones ($HOME/.kde and /usr/local/kde or similair) Cheers, Waldo -- The "gui" in "Penguin" is pronounced "K-D-E"