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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Impressions about KDE 3.1 beta 2
From:       Irwin K <emerald-arcana () rogers ! com>
Date:       2002-10-14 2:02:29
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I've just installed KDE 3.1 beta 2 (Sorry, I'm not hardcore enough to install 
the current CVS).

Hey, it's quite nice. :)  It's the first KDE that's worked for me right out of 
the box without any difficulties (such as Flash plugin errors, crashing, 
unable to find ___).

Okay, I'm going to move on to the stuff that counts: that is, usability.  I've 
been out of it for a while (since KDE 3.0 days) and so moving to KDE 3.1 is 
sort of a new adventure for me.

A few things I'm noticing:

- Smaller menus, smaller KControl, smaller Panel buttons.  GOOD GOOD GOOD!  
I'm glad that this has finally occured because these things have bothered me 
for a long time.  In my personal opinion, I still find that the KMenu is 
still a little lengthy on the initial pop-up.  I also still advotate the "big 
icon (32x32) idea for the KMenu for the root menu.  While KControl is still a 
big of a baffling beast, it's much easier to navigate than it was before.
- Tabbed browsing is *sweet*.
- Previewing music through cursor hovering is *sweet*.
- KWrite finally has a "wrap to window" option!  THANK YOU!
- Other than those, most everything looks to be in place.  I'll have to play 
more with it to see what else might have changed.

Some criticisms (that I hope are constructive):

- I have a question about this "kdooble" or "kboodle" multimedia player.  Is 
this media player in any way different than NoAtun is?  It's set as the 
default for audio files.  It took a while of me looking for the Playlist and 
then discovering that I was actually NOT running NoAtun.  Adding multiple 
applications (especially apps that look the same) in the default KDE 
installation is confusing.
- An error: KMenuEdit has its "Apply/Reset" buttons in the following order: 
"Reset Apply".  The rest of KDE has its Apply/Reset buttons as "Apply Reset".  
I suggest that this be changed.  I'd flag a KDE bug but right now Bugzilla's 
acting up with a big, red error box and I can't launch a submission.
- I have a question.  Is there a "standard" key shortcut used for walking 
through multiple desktops?  Windowmaker (which I predominantly use) uses the 
key shortcut of "Alt-1, Alt-2", etc to walk through desktops.  KDE uses 
"Ctrl-F1, Ctrl-F2" to do the same thing.  I'm wondering what the majority of 
Window Managers use to do this so it's easier for users coming from other 
desktops to adapt.
- As mentioned above, it would be nice to have 32 x 32 size icons for the 
KMenu root.
- I would like to see NoAtun be able to "unify" its equalizer, playlist, and 
"control bar", similar to how XMMS does it, i.e. have the possibility of 
joining the windows together so that they are dragged as one unit.  I believe 
it would be easier than dragging around three separate windows when you play 
your MP3's.
- Kate is still annoying because you can only open one instance of it.  I 
think you should be able to open as many Kates as you want because you may 
want to work with multiple projects, each with one Kate window.
- KWebDesktop lacks an adequate description.  The comment says, "KDE Web 
Desktop".  I can get that much out of the title.  A better comment may be 
"Display Web Page on Desktop".
- KTips, for some reason, opens up stretched fully horizontally.  This occurs 
only for the Application KTips, and not the KDE startup KTips.  Bug?

My apologies, I don't have anything groundbreaking to say here (such as 
suggesting a new user interface paradigm or presenting a pach for ANY of the 
above complaints), so please take this all above at face value.  I haven't 
been really involved lately (if ever).

Thanks for good work!  KDE's making some leaps and bounds with great features.


-- 
-- Arcana  (Irwin)
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