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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Simplified windowing mode (+ colourful idea at bottom)
From:       David Laban <alsuren () gmail ! com>
Date:       2005-08-07 13:44:13
Message-ID: 200508071444.13100.alsuren () gmail ! com
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On Sunday 07 August 2005 00:53, Jaroslaw Staniek wrote:
>I hope you've not proposed here to make VD's pager to act just like 
>taskbar?

I only really proposed the VD thing because Maurizio Colucci was suggesting 
that we should have an option to always maximise our windows, and I really 
don't think it's a good idea because maximised windows tend to go in random 
orders and are an absolute nightmare to use for doing more than one thing at 
a time. I personally try to keep only a few windows per virtual desktop 
because I can only multi-task about 3 things at the same time. My proposal 
was intended as a way for people to break the habit of always maximising 
things, and possibly start to automatically put more than one thing on a VD 
if there's room on the screen to have them just slightly overlapping


On Sunday 07 August 2005 04:05, Joseph Garvin wrote:
> Also, myself and the rest of the younger generation don't maximize all
> of our windows, especially for IM :)
I think you definitely have a point. We really don't have a problem with 
maximising windows anymore because we've learned though using IM apps. I 
never thought of that before. I've yet to find a way to get my IM apps to be 
usable with multiple desktops though, because often you need to paste stuff 
into the windows etc. so you always find yourself having to bring the window 
to the current desktop and it is tres annoying

On Sunday 07 August 2005 00:53, Jaroslaw Staniek wrote:
> But... isn't the idea too exotic to the currently-mainstream (lower 80%)
> users of MS and Apple products? If so, not forcing to use VD wouldn't hurt.
> I can see (say, at my workplace) these users having virtual desktop's pager
> configured in KDE <=3.4 (because it's the default) and if it's not used at
> all, it seems to be ok - they can learn why VDs were provided for them
> (btw, is this really so easy discover or could be easier?).


I've recently switched to using the svn sources and the new kicker makes VD 
management really easy because it's drag and drop like a mini kpager or 
something. I've found that in the last 2 days of updating, my VD use has been 
dramatically increased, because in the past I've always had the problem that 
they're hard to manage. I reckon KDE 3.5 should see a lot more people using 
the virtual desktops



I would also like to put an idea forward that would make VDs even nicer to 
use:

At present, it's possible to  change the desktop background on each VD, and 
also give it a new name. These are both good ways to let you know where you 
are on the desktop, but anyone who works in the electronics industry will 
tell you that the best way to organise messy things(think wires etc.) is with 
a colour code.

I think it would be an interesting experiment to let you change the colours of 
the desktops, so the little desktop preview/pager in the kicker would show 
different colours, and also windows in focus on the red desktop would be red, 
and blue on blue and green on green etc. (I would suggest purple as the 4th 
desktop because yellow doesn't fade to black very gracefully and also it's my 
favourite colour :P )

What do you all think?
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