From kde-bugs-dist  Sun Dec 31 14:27:37 2000
From: martijnklingens () netscape ! net
Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 14:27:37 +0000
To: kde-bugs-dist
Subject: Bug#17908: missing features in right-button menu on desktop
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-bugs-dist&m=97828764015019

Package: kdesktop
Version: KDE 2.1 Beta 1
Severity: wishlist
Installed from: SuSE 7.0 RPMs

Looking at the right-button popup menu of the KDE desktop 
I think there are many small things that will make the 
desktop more intuitive, especially to novice users.

I know they are all small details and I can file lots of 
other wishlist reports for other apps this way (and maybe 
I will), but I think that they do help to make KDE more 
user friendly towards Windows and Mac users. For Unix, KDE 
is already one of the most user friendy environments, but 
Windows users definitely won't call KDE as it is now user 
friendly.

Here are the options I'm thinking of:

- Mention keyboard shortcuts when they exist. They can be 
retrieved from the control center settings, but even 
mentioning the defaults would be better than not 
mentioning them at all.

- Line-up icons does not what you'd expect. Not the icons 
are lined up, but their captions. This results in icons 
that look very messy. The Windows approach of lining up 
the icons and not caring about the captions is IMHO better 
in this case.

- Mount/unmount option is not always available, but is 
shown in the menu though. Whenever fstab doesn't mention a 
mount point to be user mountable, only root can mount it. 
Therefore, the option should be disabled or not available 
at all. Even better would be a simple check if the mount 
program is suid root, but at least the fstab check should 
IMHO be done.

- CD-Writer devices are shown as normal CD-Roms, but there 
are separate icons available. I know it is difficult to 
separate writers from cd-roms, but i'd suggest to give it 
a try. Worse, I can change the unmounted icon, but *NOT* 
the mounted icon, which is a real flaw to me. Now my 
writer is just a cdrom after mounting.

- The 'edit file type' option for shortcuts and things 
like the waste basket are inappropriate and even 
potentially dangerous because novices might break the 
default associations for these objects thinking they're 
only editing the wastebasket, which is not a normal folder 
to novices.

- The icon for online help is not the normal khelp icon. 
Maybe this has a reason, but it is confusing though.

- The option 'activate desktop menu' should be a checkbox 
and not be a normal option that is renamed 'deactivate 
...' when the menu is active.

- The delete and shred options have no icon on the 
desktop, but the same option in konqueror has. The same 
icons could (and should) be used.

Thanks in advance for looking at these suggestions. If you 
have any questions, feel free to drop me a line.

Martijn Klingens


(submitted via bugs.kde.org)