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List:       kde-bugs-dist
Subject:    [Bug 143995] add tabs to dolphin
From:       Jorden Mauro <photonman007 () gmail ! com>
Date:       2008-04-12 1:25:51
Message-ID: 20080412012551.32689.qmail () ktown ! kde ! org
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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=143995         




------- Additional Comments From photonman007 gmail com  2008-04-12 03:25 -------
The problem is that wanting a "simple" Dolphin coupled with removing features and \
developers from Konqueror narrows KDE's target userbase. This is bad. With Konqueror, \
people could at least ignore features if they were put off by complexity, but now \
there's no way to do something. It's either no tabs or it's tabs and a browser with \
reduced functionality compared to the previous version. This is obviously going to \
piss users off. 

And if people don't have time to get acquainted with the new Qt and KDE libs /and/ \
patch someone else's code then they're just going to keep asking until they either \
get it, a new app comes out, or they switch DEs. 

I understand the OSS philosophy of "release early and often," but (and I'm not the \
only person that's said this, please don't take it personally) KDE's handling of the \
4.0 cycle was taking it too far. The environment was not feature complete, it was \
buggy, it crashed for a lot of people, etc. You can still release early and often, \
but a .0 release is for when it's pretty much done. I think a longer beta/RC phase \
would have helped KDE a lot. Just because the project waited does /not/ mean I \
wouldn't have noticed. I tracked KDE 4 development and installed the betas and RCs to \
test them. I noticed Dolphin didn't have tabs months ago, I noticed the discussions \
on the internet, and hoped that it would be resolved. It hasn't. It's just getting \
there now.

But what about when the next feature that a minority wants comes along? I'm inclined \
to suggest that Dolphin become a bit of a plugins platform so people can get what \
they want. It works for Firefox. But I'm sure that would get shot down.

And as for you getting pissed because I said crippled, well, what else do you call it \
when features are /removed/ from an application? (And again, I was not trying to \
bring Konqueror's problems into this thread, I was trying to show that it's not an \
alternative as a file mananger anymore) and crap, well, come on... the reason for no \
tabs was essentially "it's too complex." You are the people who develop a huge \
desktop environment on a portable framework that offers features a lot of other \
desktops don't. And if you have a lot of people who don't want tabs, if the \
configuration menu is organized well, all they have to do is skip right over the tabs \
section and not worry since they are off by default. How can this be a stumbling \
block?

I really didn't want to start a flamewar here (yeah, I know I was baiting), but I \
can't help be angry that something I was used to having/using was taken away, and so \
are other people. I want to use KDE4, but it's not appealing in a lot of little ways \
like this. 

In any event, this back and forth isn't helping, I'm sorry, can we stop?

/rant

Use cases:
1)
I traverse a long directory path and want to copy/move a file to an equally complex \
path, but I also want to keep working in the first path (or both). I open up a new \
tab for the other path, traverse down, drag the item from path A to the tab for path \
B and drop. Done. 

This would otherwise have to be done with 2 panes or windows, but two panes reduce my \
screen real estate for each directory (let's say path A and B have a lot of items) \
and I can't ignore path B when I'm looking at path A (which is distracting). 2 \
windows clutter up my desktop because I've already got browser, IM, music, package \
manager, shells, word processor, etc. open

2)
I have a directory I'm working in, and suddenly I need to do something quick in a \
heavily-nested directory (maybe I need to tar up some files  to give to someone or \
something like that) I only want to work in the other directory for a minute or so, \
so I hit ^T and type the directory, do my work and I'm done, then I close the tab. \
Without tabs, I could just leave the current directory, but then I have to traverse \
back to it, or I could open another window, but this is slower and again clutters my \
desktop

As for the menus, just the way dolphin is now, you could add an entry in the \
preferences popup along with "general" and "view modes" titled "tabs." The setting is \
initially off, but can be activated and further tweaked if desired. This will be \
unobtrusive to the users who don't want tabs because they can skip over the option \
and easily accessible for those who do.


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