On Monday 13 February 2012 12:23:22 Timothy Pearson wrote:
On Monday, February 13, 2012 12:04:42 Timothy Pearson wrote:
I ask you this: If QWidget is so stable (i.e. did not change much between Qt3 and Qt4), why do Qt4/KDE4 applications always use more screen space to display less information?
they don't; but where there is more whitespace usage it's due to the QStyle. a QStyle that using the same pixelmetrics as you are familiar with from Qt3 would have the same layout and proportions. few people like that, however, so there are few styles as cramped.
Why do KDE4 applications tend to require more mouse clicks for each operation?
they don't. see how easy it is to make assertions when no supporting facts are required?
well, here: http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2010/01/gwenview-user-friendly.html
Can you state 100% that the Qt4 developers did not modify widget parameters to be touch friendly?
yes, i can. you may recall i worked at the same company as these guys for 6 years, the years that happen to be in question.
You would have needed to be on the Qt4 development team to be able to state this. :-)
unfortunately for you, i worked with them extensively during this time period. i saw new things before others did, i worked with APIs before others did, i had long discussions with the developers as they were working on things.
How is that unfortunate for me? It is good to know the truth!
I already know the whitespace is embedded in the widget metrics. If I needed to I could fix that one problem programatically, but it still leaves all the others open.
Remember I said *almost* all applications? There are a handful that have finally grown up and become better than the KDE3 originals, but right now the only one I can think of is krdc. It took many years, and their presence frankly does not justify using the rest of KDE4.
Also, you are trying to tell me that e.g. changing to the /media/flash directory requires fewer clicks in Dolphin than in Konqueror? In Konqueror it would take exactly two mouse clicks, and if media/ was already expanded it would take one click. In Dolphin I don't even know where to begin, other than poking around trying to get my location bar back. Heck, I don't even know where to begin looking for that configuration option.
in Dolphin it takes one click because media devices are listed in the side bar :-)
KDE4 has serious discoverability issues which are separate from the ease of use issues.
May I suggest that you report bugs for such issues if you find them :-)
Cheers Martin