2008/12/22 Sven Burmeister
Am Montag, 22. Dezember 2008 13:27:15 schrieb Rob OpenSuSE:
2008/12/22 Graham Anderson
: On Saturday 20 December 2008 01:20:40 David C. Rankin wrote:
One click on the "Show plasma dashboard" button brings the folder view applets to the front plane and into focus, without minimising any open windows.
I tried that, and it just appeared to show the desktop, without program windows.
That's its purpose, show the desktop and its applets and not the program windows. Why would you click on a button to show the program windows you see already anyway?
The point was... "Then What?" was what I thinking. I tried it, and it appeared to do similar to the 'show desktop' icon.
A second click on any of the folders launches a dolphin session in split view mode with the selected target in one pane and my home in the other. The locations of the folder applets can be configured to work with a whole load of handy locations courtesy of our friends the kio slaves. ( ssh(fish), ipod, smb, to name just a few)
But how on earth are we supposed to know that?
How did you know that you could right-click the desktop in kde3? How did you know that one can drag and drop?
This is the nub, through previous experience with other window systems. There was an expectation that right clicking would show what I could do with the object. Similarly with Drag N' Drop, it's a feature common to many systems, actually one that tend to neglect, in favour of lower mouse movement context menu. When things don't work as you expect, it's very unsettling and confusing. KDE 4's the biggest change I've seen, KDE 1, 2 & 3 all basically evolved on, you could upgrade, not be suprised but see improvements. With KDE 4, it's so different, you're not sure anymore how things 'work'.
I'd not think of clicking on a folder, and as I had default SuSE desktop, what was shown was not of particular interest to me.
Since it contains the same icons as kde3 did, I guess you deleted all of them on your default kde3 desktop too?
I didn't know at time what the default KDE 3.5.10 desktop would give me, in 11.1, as I'd not installed it. Though a clean desktop is something I like, I wouldn't actually delete stuff until I'd had a good play, and understood what the things were there for.
May be, it needs some kind of tutorial mode, a bit like games, which guide you through the basics to get you started?
More of the usual terse stuff, a page I've viewed many times before and been disappointed by. I've read this kind of pointer, over and over again, since the -rc series of 4.0, and read articles on the changes, and no matter how simple it seems, in practical use I end up befuddled, when I really try to use it. This could be, because I've always so far been running buggy versions, with unpredictable behaviours. I'm not one of the "usual suspects", I'm actually willing to take a proper look at KDE4 again, and put some effort in. Just that pointing to a mini-tutorial like you have done, which is 1 page summary, is frankly, patronising. There really must be somewhere, some kind of guide with exercises, that don't overload the KDE 3 converter with buzz words like Plasma, Phonon, Dashboard, and that name for the photo-realistic icon set, which I've now totally forgotten. I can't seriously use KDE-4.1.3 as delivered in 11.1. Desktops are meant to be a time saving tool, something that enables me to get stuff done, not a time sink that gets in the way. I don't have the time to join KDE mail lists, and learn how the features work through following development. So please, if anyone has found some really good materials, for self training in KDE4 then please post links. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org