Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (1558 mails)

[Roger Oberholtzer <roger@xxxxxx>]

On Mon, 2009-08-31 at 12:25 +0200, Clayton wrote:
> > Perhaps when adding new users (or to whatever extent it is possible with
> > existing users), a program to set all settings to mimic KDE3 behavior
> > when possible would make a few people happy. Perhaps this has been
> > suggested an I missed it. I know that in our own software, when we make
> > a previously fixed setting into one that can be changed, we ALWAYS AND
> > INVARIABLY set the initial default to the original behavior - no matter
> > how fun and wonderful or new setting may make life on this planet.
>
> I don't know if this is really possible.  The concept of how the
> desktop works has been reworked and redesigned.  in a lot of cases
> there simply isn't an 1 to 1 relation from the KDE3 way to the KDE4
> way... in some cases the functionality is not there... others it's
> been moved to a totally different place, and in others, it's a
> completely new bit.  Being able to default identical to the old
> behavior... would be difficult in many cases.
>
> In your own software, the new features are likely new on top of
> existing functionality... not a complete rewrite?

A bit of both. Depends on what is happening. I think the biggest
frustrations many folk have in the KDE3->KDE4 transition is not merely
the reorganization, but the reorganization with out any concern for
backward compatibility - even when it is discovered that the KDE3
functionality is still available, but things are set so that you would
never guess.

If, as is implied, KDE4 has rethought things from scratch, one might
expect the developers to at least start with an understanding of (1)
what the current system does (2) what should be improved (3) how to make
these changes without compromising item 1, (4) how much needs to be
changed in user-land to accomplish this change. I suspect items 3 and 4
were way down on the list of priorities. Surely it was not expected that
this would not have consequences.

Having said all this, on the whole I am happy with KDE4. The often
unnecessary disconnect with KDE3 is unfortunate, and has led to lots of
wasted time on the part of the users. Obviously we will all get past
this. But what will happen with KDE5?

> C.
-- 
Roger Oberholtzer

OPQ Systems / Ramböll RST

Ramböll Sverige AB
Krukmakargatan 21
P.O. Box 17009
SE-104 62 Stockholm, Sweden

Office: Int +46 8-615 60 20
Mobile: Int +46 70-815 1696

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