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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: TOM and the task oriented KDE
From:       "Nathaniel W. Turner" <nate () houseofnate ! net>
Date:       2002-10-31 14:33:03
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On Thursday 31 October 2002 09:02 am, Datschge@gmx.de wrote:
> > code. but now is not the time. i'm still playing around with the
> > taskgroup config file format.
>
> Uhm, isn't that a rather technical aspect which isn't related to and
> thus shouldn't stop the talk about TOM's usability points? *wink wink* ;)

Well, you can only have a very limited discussion about a program's usability 
if you haven't actually used it.  ;-)

> > also, think about things like spreadsheets. the mimetypes include
> > application/msexcel, application/x-applixspread,
> > application/x-kspread, etc. how are we supposed to know that these
> > are all spreadsheets w/out hardcoding this knowledge in?
>
> Thanks for giving a perfect example how mimetypes already are abused,
> poluted and hacked. Above example is an example how NOT to do it imo.

What do you mean?  The preceding mimetypes are all for different types of 
files.  The fact that they are all file types in the "spreadsheet" family 
does not mean that a program that can open one of them can open them all.  I 
think you are (understandably) upset by the fact that there are so many 
different formats for storing spreadsheets; this however, is a totally 
seperate topic.  One of the great things about the mimetype system is that it 
is flexible enough to handle this situation.

> > speaking of which, konqueror needs an "edit this" button/entry
> > somewhere prominent when viewing via a read-only part
>
> YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!
> As I suggested before that button should then show all programs which
> are said to be able to handle that particular file.
> (Nobody else is mentioning this issue... is nobody listening to me?)

Well, the Location menu already lists an "Open with ___" entry for each 
application that is registered to open the type of file you are viewing.

I agree though that an "edit this" button would be an awesome usability 
improvement.  Perhaps it could live to the left of the "clear" button on the 
location bar?  (and be like the "New" button in Konsole, so that clicking 
would open whatever editor had the highest priority, and click-holding or 
click-dragging would show a list of programs that can edit the current 
filetype)

> My point was that there should be an "extended" and an "everyday"
> mode. Extended would be default and include all settings, so newbies
> can get used to them, and Everyday optionally removed all fine tuning
> settings which are only distracting when you want to finish your task

It would be nice if there was a global way to toggle things like this, kicker 
applet handles, etc.  95% of the time they are just visual noise.  
Unfortunately, the other 5% of the time they damn well better be easy to 
find.  Alas, I don't have a clever idea for how to implement this.  =(

Cheers,
- -- 
Nathaniel W. Turner
http://www.houseofnate.net/
Tel: +1 508 579 1948 (mobile)
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