On Thursday 30 April 2009 23:15:20 Dotan Cohen wrote:
> > * System Monitor Configuration Applet:
> >
> > Other than choosing the network interfaces and a keyboard shortcut (what
> > for?) there is nothing to configure. Only plotting method is graph bar
> > and the only color available is grey. I used to have monitors for CPU
> > temperature, User and system load, incoming outgoing traffic and CPU
> > frequency. These monitors had distinctive colors, some of them combined
> > (net traffic) and I could immediately see what was going on. Not so
> > anymore. Three applets beside eachother look like one piece of of gray
> > modern art. Oh, and resizing them is not an option.
>
> I will file an issue on that, please create a screenshot of the KDE 3
> System Monitor to attach to the issue.

Paul Hyde has already done that much better than I could have done. It is pretty self-explanatory.

What is not obvious is the fact that the "old" system monitor is inextrinsically linked to ksysguard in a way that you could define monitors in ksysguard with all relevant parameters, i.e. defined range, color, sensor, vertical and horizontal lines and then drag&drop them into the panel.

While there is a ksysguard that basically replicates all the functions in KDE4, it completely misses this very aspect, leaving you with two different ksysguards: One as a stand alone application and one on the panel with no interaction between the two. That is a serious regression.

[...]

> > What also totally sucks is the relativity of all these applets. In 3.5.*
> > one could give ranges for the individual monitors, i.e. 1-100 for CPU
> > load. Not so anymore. All you get are relative estimates, but certainly
> > nothing close to serious system monitoring. Basically useless and a huge
> > regression.
>
> I think that I'll file that as a separate issue. Give me about an hour
> to start posting bug reports here.

Thank you for taking care of that. I find your way of handling these things admirable and I think I can speak for all the other participants on the list in this respect.

> > * Spacing between icons
> >
> > Always the same, no difference between starting an application, viewing
> > the desktop, and as soon as you got a couple of windows open the taskbar
> > icons have just the same size, making the whole panel look like an icon
> > regatta.
>
> When you mention icons, do you mean Taskbar tasks? I really don't
> understand this, please reword. Thanks.

Panel is the whole thing on the bottom of the screen. Taskbar is the thing that shows active windows. Clicking on the the taskbar thingy makes the respective window come up front. Taskbar is part of the panel and what I was trying to say is that as soon as you have a certain number of applications open, their respective icons are not distinguishable from icons in other parts of the panel, leaving you with a large number of icons which looks overwhelming and cluttered. I mentioned separators between various aspects of the panel and these could help to know what's what.

> Agreed. I'll dig up and post links to the issues open on this. I think
> they're mostly WONTFIX but more people complaining might get the
> message across. This is seriously one of KDE 4's weak points.

It is and I seriously hope for reconsideration on this issue.

> > * Visual feedback
> >
> > Hovering over an application button and then clicking it makes no visual
> > difference. Basically you need to wait for the applicatin to start to
> > know whether you clicked the icon correctly or not. 3.5.* had a depth
> > change on the icons, which I found helpful.
>
> Nice catch! Please try and capture screenshots of the different icons
> situations. Ksnapshot's timer might help here, but you will need to be
> a sharpshooter! Screenshots for these types of issues are important,
> as the person designing them in KDE 4 will be doing it from scratch.

There are only two states of an icon. Full colored and slightly opaque when you move the mouse pointer over it. There is no difference between hovering with the mouse and clicking it. Screenshot doesn't help in this case.

[...]

> > Also, I want that tree view back, seriously.
>
> It's back! It should be in Trunk in the next few days, and KDE 4.3 is
> a good possibility.

Halleluja!

> > * Applets/widgets
> >
> > Whatever you call them. The plug in device thingy is useless. I want to
> > mount/unmount a device, not use one specific application for that.
>
> You can do that from within Dolphin, you don't need the plasmoid (ha!
> Not applet and not widget!) for that.

I call BS. Mounting, unmounting, properties, size, filesystem etc. are pieces of important information and I want to have these available before using a basically crappy file manager. My file manager is cp, mv, ls, dd and rm (plus cat and grep) and I'd like to use it on pluggable devices before starting Dolphin.

> > Did I
> > mention I find Dolphin a waste of time and screen estate?
>
> I most certainly _was_ in d3lphin and in KDE 4.0. Take a look at it
> now, I never though I'd say this but it's already replaced Konqueror
> for me. I absolutely love Dolphin now. The dev, Peter, is also very
> open to suggestions and bug reports, so if there is anything that you
> think should be changed, file it or let me know and I'll file it.

As I said, my file manager is 5 two letter words and I'd like to use it with pluggable devices. Give me a mount/umount/properties option on pluggable devices and I'll be happy. I don't need graphical overhead to do simple file operations.

> > And I'd like my
> > weather applet that I can I can actually read, not some gray on gray
> > thingy.
>
> Amen! Be specific as to what you would like changed, though. Don't
> ever leave the dev/designer to guess!

1. Gray on gray sucks.
2. Hovering with mouse I want information: Location, forecast, Air pressure
3. I want icons that say overcast, sunny, rainy, snow etc.

Basically: give me all the looks and functions of the 3.5 weather applet.

> > And I'd like to see which location the applet is using.
>
> I'll note that as well, once I know what else you'd like. Please, be
> specific.

See above.

> > There's a lot more, but that's it for the moment.
>
> We'll get these filed and whenever you find other issues, you can file
> them at bugs.kde.org or you can contact me and I'll file them.

I'd rather discuss them here first, because this gives me the opportunity of seeing whether other people feel the same way or whether there is a different way of getting the same results in 4.2 that I haven't figured out yet.

Thanks for your great work!

Peter Lemken
DF5JT

PS: I'd like my dynamic background back. I used to have a desktop background with xplanet updating every 10 minutes, giving me the day/nigh line on earth, something that I find very helpful as a ham radio operator.

Here is a screenshot:

http://bloatware.de/DXCC.png