5 Feb
2012
5 Feb
'12
10:21 p.m.
I'd like to undergo an effort to cleanup and
reorganize all of our kcm modules. Over time there have been
features added which are placed in the wrong section, other
times things have been done inefficiently or made to be
overly complicated.
I am going to open an etherpad for this. I would
also like any users/developers to respond to this email with
anything they find to be weird/out of place.
I'll start: the Kicker configure screen,
underneath appearance has an "advanced options"
button. There is nothing advanced about these options and it
should be more clearly organized.
Okay, here are some conversation starters:
* Refer to bug report 841 for branding issues. (KDE -> TDE)
* All of the "Advanced" button dialogs should be moved to the parent dialog.
Another Advanced button example is in the Screen Savers section.
* Merge the Appearance & Themes and Desktop categories into one category named
Appearance.
* Rename Desktop/Behavior to Menu & Icon Behavior (to identify what is being
configured and distinguish from Window Behavior).
* Move Desktop/Multiple Desktops to TDE Components.
* Move Window-Specific Settings as a new tab option in Window Behavior. Name the tab
Specific Settings.
* In Window Behavior, Advanced tab, move all items to the Window Actions tab. Delete the
Advanced tab.
* Rename Panels to Panel/Kicker. (Both terms are used often and interchangeably.)
* Rename Splash Screen to Startup Splash Image.
* Rename Style to Theme Style. (Coincides more nicely with Theme Manager.)
* Split Regional & Accessibility into two separate categories: 1) Regional Settings
and 2) Accessibility.
* Under Regional & Accessibility, move Keyboard Layout and Keyboard Shortcuts to
Peripherals/Keyboard.
* Move Regional & Accessibility/Input Actions to TDE Components.
* Move the TDE Components/KDE Performance/Konqueror tab to TDE Components/File Manager.
* Move the TDE Components/KDE Performance/System tab to TDE Components/Session Manager and
eliminate the tab by moving the "System Configuration" group box to the Session
Manager parent dialog.
* Eliminate the TDE Components/KDE Performance option.
* Move Peripherals/Monitor and Display to System Administration. Actions require Admin
access.
* Move Peripherals/ICC Color Profile to System Administration. Actions require Admin
access.
* Rename Peripherals/Display/Power Control tab to Power Management (provides naming
consistency with the same tab in Peripherals/Monitor and Display).
* Move Power Control/Laptop Battery to Peripherals/Laptop Battery. Delete the Power
Control category.
* Many of the Peripherals items came from the not-yet-fully-purged KInfoCenter (bug report
289). The items in Peripherals should be those that are configurable. Move the
non-configurable informational items to a new category called System Information:
CD-ROM Information (rename to CDs/DVDs)
DMA Channels
Devices (Rename to Kernel Device Assignments. Many users think of "devices" as
the things they grab with their hands --- "Devices" is not distinguishable from
IEEE 1394 Devices, Storage Devices, or USB Devices.)
IEEE 1394 Devices
IO-Ports
Interrupts
Memory
PCI
PCMCIA
Partitions (Rename to Hard Drive Partitions)
Processor
SCSI
Sound
Storage Devices
USB Devices
X-Server
* Rename Peripherals category to Hardware. "Peripherals" is a throw-back term
used primarily by geeks. :)
* Split Sound & Multimedia into two categories: 1) Sound and 2) Multimedia. Sound
contains Sound System, System Bell, and System Notifications. Multimedia contains Audio
CDs and CDDB Retrieval.
* Why in System Administration is there is a configuration option for LILO but not for
GRUB? Both should be supported.
* Some items should appear ghosted when the underlying system does not support the option.
That is, the list item itself in the tree should be ghosted. For example, in System
Administration, the IBM Thinkpad Laptop (useless anywhere other than a Thinkpad), Image
Index (useless unless GNU Image Finding Tool is installed), and Sony Vaio Laptop (useless
anywhere other than a Sony Vaio). Likewise for Power Control/Laptop Battery and
Peripherals/Remote Control.
As you noted, experienced users acclimate to the existing layout. You'll find good
feedback if you recruit some not-computer-savvy people to sit at a default Trinity desktop
and ask them to reconfigure as much as possible. Let them ask questions to find options.
Encourage them to say "WTF!" ;) Take notes where they struggle to find anything
or ask. Pizza and beverages should be a sufficient exchange for their time and
evaluations. :)
Many of these changes should be straightforward reorganization and could (should?) be part
of R14.
Darrell