It was interesting to read Johan Thelin's blog entry on moving to KDE 4, particularly how much he likes the device notifier. I say this because that Plasma widget has been seeing a flurry of activity for KDE 4.4 so the timing was pretty neat.
The device notifier debuted in KDE 4.0 and the primary goal was to make the announcement of devices that become available during a session feel more organic. As a starting point, we harmonized it with the desktop workspace by providing a Plasmoid for this functionality. In past releases these announcements were accomplished using a pop-up dialog using a window that looked like any other application window.
In KDE 4, we've tried to make a clear distinction between what is "application" (and therefore the use focus) and what is "workspace" (and therefore is perceived as part of the "system" and separate from the application). This separation allows the user to focus with clarity on the task at hand while allowing the workspace to both communicate with and provide opportunity for interaction in a clear fashion.
Having device announcements happen as part of the workspace user interface was therefore a natural decision, and Alexis made that idea a reality with the first version of the notifier. It was decided that device notifications have some similar but mostly different usage requirements than other system notifications, so a separate Plasmoid was created along with a couple of DataEngines (hotplug and soliddevices) for easy of re-use by other Plasmoids that may come along.
Although there were some nice improvements over time to the device notifier widget, there were several areas of potential improvement. For one, it never looked as visually continuous with other Plasmoids due to using a standard Qt list view rather than something on the canvas. For another, it fell back to using a pop-up dialog when there were multiple available actions for a given device.
The device notifier saw one full rewrite attempt but that effort didn't achieved a final production state. Recently, it saw another, this time thanks to the combined efforts of Giulio Camuffo and Jacopo De Simoi, with Marco Martin and I helping out with feedback and some patches. The new Plasmoid is in kdereview and will be a part of KDE 4.4. There are still a few areas of polish left (biggest remaining TODO is keyboard navigation) but given Johan's blog I figured it might be nice to share what we have now.
As you can see in the screencast (which has no audio) below, the new widget rather nicely addresses both of the major outstanding issues with the current device notifier. It also adds two new features: the ability to hide certain items and the ability to also display fixed devices. Both are optional and don't interfere with the primary interface and only one new item appears in the configuration dialog.
You can grab the OGG file here or watch the screencast via blip.tv below (though it is inexplicably enlarged; very odd):
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
46 comments:
Wow, this looks gorgeous! Congratulations to you and all plasma developers to yet another really good refinement. The degree of polish which seems to be going into 4.4 is astonishing. :)
Great improvement! KDE rocks!
Schmexy!
Love the more plasma-like look.
Seeing actions from the plasmoid = joy!
Mount a drive without opening Dolphin=Double joy!
Go team KDE! :D
Looks good !
However, is there an option to automount connected devices ?
Ooh!
I'm glad we can finally mount devices without opening Dolphin. That was always an annoying thing.
My one complaint is that the eject and mount icons don't look right together; they're of very different styles. I think you either want the eject button to have the same rectangular emblem shape or the mount button a circle (or change both).
Nice!
Does it auto hide after a few seconds like system notifications? Sometimes I just want to deal with the newly pluged in device later, but the popup wouldn't go away without my intervention.
It comes pretty close to the "Device Manager" featured on kde-look.org:
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Device+Manager?content=106051
Sports the same look and functionality, except that the device manager has an option to automount devices. I would appreciate this functionality very much!
Use case: I attach my backup drive, I would have to open it in dolphin or via the plasmoid in order to make it writable for my backup program. Automount would solve this issue.
I have now used the Device Manager what is available from kde-look.org (you can find the link to it on upper posts).
And I must say I like a lot the automount feature and that user has possibility to choose how the options are shown.
I believe we need to have the column and row possibilities.
And what thing what I always want to get changed is that Dolphin and Device Manager would show all the times the device available space when they are mounted.
I have about 7 partitions on my multiple harddrives and I do not keep them showed, but I hide them always.
But when I need to check how much space I have on my USB-stick (4-8Gb's). I need to do it on multiple steps.
1a Open the Dolphin
2a Open the Stick or move cursor over the stick icon.
1b Open the (default) Device Manager
2b Click the stick and mount it by opening it on Dolphin
3b do step 2a
1c Open konsole
2c type a df -h command
1d Use the upgraded Device Manager from kde-look and set it automount.
2d move mouse cursor top of the stick icon.
What if we would set the Dolphin and Device Manager show the used/avalailable space when mounted, without need to move cursor over the device?
Then on Dolphin you could just watch the space or click device manager open to check it. Without need to move mouse over the icons.
This would even make the "only keybord, no mouse" -users easier position because you do not need so complex usage to check the space (from commandlind and so on).
I really like the animation and feel what you have got there.
And it is sad that we do not have yet others than just Dolphin and digiKam on those. It would be nice to get a K3b and other functions easily there. Like backup programs as well by having a "backup here" or "backup this" button there.
And when there comes new choises, the row and column setting comes important. Otherwise Device Manager need always be almost much bigger.
Looks like my idea was finaly implemented. That's cool. Thanks :)
Auto-mounting shouldn't be done by a plasmoid. I think there'll be a module for this in System Settings.
This looks very nice - very close to the device notifier I wanted years ago ( http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Extender%3A+Mounted+Devices?content=53086 )
Two requests:
1. Make the action icons smaller.
2. When a device is auto-mounted and the notifier is shown, auto-expand actions for that device (don't know if this is possible already).
I also want auto hiding (the notifier), did you decide what to do with that option?
@David: "My one complaint is that the eject and mount icons don't look right together"
i met with Pinheiro to discuss this issue a couple days ago. we're already on it.
@Simon: "Does it auto hide after a few seconds like system notifications?"
yes.
@Andreas Demmer: automount is being handled by something else in KDE; it really shouldn't depend on the device notifier and it needs to be centralized in any case for the best user experience. so this is something that's being developed outside of plasma. don't look for automount features directly in the notifier.
@Fri13: "I believe we need to have the column and row possibilities."
we examined the possibility, and i don't believe it to be worth the configuration UI or code complexity.
"And what thing what I always want to get changed is that Dolphin and Device Manager would show all the times the device available space when they are mounted."
we'd have to poll the device to get this information. i doubt you'd want us doing that constantly just because dolphin or the device notifier are open.
when someone improves the state of kernels in this regard, we can improve the UI accordingly.
"1d Use the upgraded Device Manager from kde-look and set it automount.
2d move mouse cursor top of the stick icon."
this is how it will work in 4.4.
"This would even make the "only keybord, no mouse" -users easier position because you do not need so complex usage to check the space (from commandlind and so on)."
a) we are making a gui, not a command line
b) keyboard nav is a wonderful thing
"I really like the animation and feel what you have got there."
thanks :)
"And it is sad that we do not have yet others than just Dolphin and digiKam on those. It would be nice to get a K3b and other functions easily there. Like backup programs as well by having a "backup here" or "backup this" button there."
these are easily added by writing appropriate .desktop files. there is no additional support required in either kdelibs or the device notifier to make this happen and no code (C++ or otherwise) need be written.
Must second Simon's query. I loved the original notifier with the "Display for x seconds" feature. It allowed for quiet, useful notifications that didn't interrupt workflow. Now I find that it won't go away without some kind of intervention. That's no better that the typical pop up that takes away from your task (except it's less convenient because it's in the corner). It would be great to see the "Display for" come back. Otherwise- looking great, the polish is appreciated.
few issues:
1. if the device is not mounted, do not show "Open with File manager" if thats the only option, because it will just show empty dolphin dir.
2. if there is only 1 option eg: "open with dolphin" then double click on the device should open dolphin or other app.
Hi there, this may be fixed since 4.2 but I hope when you choose to play a DVD or CD it doesn't mount the disc. This is unnecessary and stops the physical eject button working, which has confused friends and family no end!
3. also, could the options shown have a smaller icon? consider the case when the usb stick has 4 or 5 other application handlers - with a big application icon the device manager gets a long list of options. Then again I am not sure how small you want to go, as going too small would be bad for touch enabled devices
Woops: as for issue 1 that i highlighted in my earlier post. it would be better not to show any options "open with..." if the device is not mounted.
@Andreas Demmer: "It comes pretty close to the "Device Manager" featured on kde-look.org"
shares most of the code with it, in fact you can see the author is the same.
however no, automount altough is a desired feature doesn't belong there rather than a lower level in KDE and there is work being done in that sense,
Even if automount should not be the task of the device widget, it should offer a way for the user to configure automount by opening the respective systemssettings dialogue. I think this would make it easier on users. Or just set the default to automount (like all other OS) and let powerusers switch to manual mounting, if they feel they need that
@ Aaron Seigo
"i doubt you'd want us doing that constantly just because dolphin or the device notifier are open."
You are right that it would not be a wise. Because if the drive is put to spindown (powersaving on laptop) it should not wake it up.
But do we need the OS (example the Linux kernel) to deliver us functions so the disk space state is easier accessible?
I think that if PowerDevil is controlling disk spindown, it could just before it take the used space and store it somewhere. Because the used space is not changing when disk is sleeping.
My point is that knowing the device storage state only by clicking or hovering over it, makes things harder.
"a) we are making a gui, not a command line"
I was not suggesting that the device manager would have the commandline there. Just that people who use lots of keyboard using Dolphin, could easily see the diskspace as well. Now they need to use Tab to move to places and then move to device. Like first they need to do check and then action (copy/move to) to it.
b) keyboard nav is a wonderful thing"
I love placing shortcuts to plasma widgets. It is so nice to get dashboard or THE device manager up with F11 and F12 buttons. Currently it is just sad that the device manager (what is now available on kde-look.org) does not allow arrow keys to move between entries. Only show/hide functionality is there. But it is enough right now.
I use a lot of USB mass storage devices an KDE4 really brought something very nice to computer usage. The small features even on the Dolphin like hide device and automatically hiding the "Eject" icon on them is very wonderfull. Thats why I can not stand the Gnomes Nautilus function what forces to see all partitions and does not allow hiding the Eject button.
@SlashdevDsp
"Woops: as for issue 1 that i highlighted in my earlier post. it would be better not to show any options "open with..." if the device is not mounted."
You are suggesting that Device manager would only show devices, and then force user to first click the "mount" icon right of it to get it mounted. And after that it would list options to open withit?
I believe the best function would be that was the device mounted or not, the "open with" options are shown. And when user select example "Download images with digiKam", the device gets mounted and digiKam gets started.
If user is forced to first mount the device, then it comes even more difficult to use.
The automounting is such good for normal users.
But the tool to mount manually device is still needed. Like after umounting device, you do not need to replug the device again to get it mounted.
And user can even get the device mounted trough the device manager without a need to open it on one position.
Great work!
Just wondering...since you mentioned that automounting will be handled elsewhere, I guess you mean something like a kcm-module to configure solid/hal/kded/whatever else may be involved how and which drives will be automounted?
I seem to recall there's a module like that in playground. So, what I'm wondering if it has a chance of getting into KDE 4.4 or if it will take longer. Let's just say it would be a great companion to this improved notifier!
Great job guys!! Only 1 question, will the applet support devices with multiple partitions?? Its very annoying to have to eject both partitions of my external drive separately when I want to remove the drive, is there some kind of grouping mechanism whereby you can not only remove specific partitions, but partitions of the same drive to be grouped and an icon for the drive to remove all partitions? Correct me if am wrong but all demos I see deal with only one partition per drive
The device manager is one of the KDE 4 pieces I love most, too!! Finally simple accessing a USB stick is no longer system administration. Not easy to convince people of KDE/Linux when you can't even "just copy this file onto the stick".
With the new improvements you seem to cover the few little issues I have with current device notifier (feedback on hovering the eject button, mount without starting an app, integrating the action dialog). Cool!
Great work!! It's these little things which make working with computers a pleasure or an annoyance. :)
Nice to see you change your mind since my comments on device notifier on the dot when 4.3 was released.
And btw., you are forcing icons everywhere in plasma (like here for (u)mount) and no descriptions in tooltips or so. That means I have to guess what some icons stand for and users don't like to guess as they often guess wrong. Also, sometimes I don't even know that some icon is clickable and has a function. In new device notifier nothing tells me that clicking on icon to the right will do different action (mount) compared to clicking on the center (show actions). And you want plasma to be intuitive?
~vedranf
@Patrick: as i noted in my earlier reply to Simon, yes, this autohides. it only shows for 5 seconds and then the popup retracts.
@SlashDevDsp: "1. if the device is not mounted, do not show "Open with File manager" if thats the only option, because it will just show empty dolphin dir."
no, it actually mounts the device first. that's actually one of the major features of this whole system (device notifier + Solid + HAL): the mounting happens for you. mounting should be mostly a detail for most people and should happen when they go to use the device (which is why automount is not the default either).
"2. if there is only 1 option eg: "open with dolphin" then double click on the device should open dolphin or other app."
it already does.
"also, could the options shown have a smaller icon? "
we won't be making this an option. as usual, people are asking for every pixel here or there to be an option and as usual i get to default to saying "no". we'll provide sensible defaults for these kinds of things; if we have to fall back to options here we're probably failing in some way.
@Tom: "Hi there, this may be fixed since 4.2 but I hope when you choose to play a DVD or CD it doesn't mount the disc."
i haven't tested this; i'll look into it and see because it would make sense to have an eject-without-mounting for non-data optical discs.
@MoritzMH: "Even if automount should not be the task of the device widget, it should offer a way for the user to configure automount by opening the respective systemssettings dialogue."
likely it will (and hopefully it will show up in the regular widget config dialog), but we're not there yet as automount is still in playground.
"Or just set the default to automount (like all other OS) and let powerusers switch to manual mounting, if they feel they need that"
the whole point of the current system is that you don't need automount nor do you need to know to mount something. you go to use the device and at that point the appropriate measure, e.g. mounting, is done for you.
this is, for most people and most situations, actually superior to straight automounting and obviously better than manual mounting.
@Jonah: "since you mentioned that automounting will be handled elsewhere, I guess you mean something like a kcm-module to configure solid/hal/kded/whatever else may be involved how and which drives will be automounted?"
yes
"I seem to recall there's a module like that in playground."
that's the one that's being worked on, yes.
"So, what I'm wondering if it has a chance of getting into KDE 4.4"
there's a good chance, though it hasn't been made a sure thing yet. it depends on the developer working on it to get it into such shape that it can go into kdereview and then kdebase.
@zeze: "will the applet support devices with multiple partitions?? Its very annoying to have to eject both partitions of my external drive separately when I want to remove the drive"
this is an edge case that we don't yet service; you need to "eject" each partition. perhaps in future we'll offer some sort of grouping features, but that's a feature that would take some careful usability engineering to get right i think.
@red: "It's these little things which make working with computers a pleasure or an annoyance."
agreed.
@vedranf: "Nice to see you change your mind since my comments on device notifier on the dot when 4.3 was released."
no, actually, i haven't. though you are still as abrasive as ever, i see. at least i know what i can expect whenever i see your nickname on a comment? hm.
we still won't be showing the device file name, right clicking still is not how you interact with the devices and you still need a file manager configured to get the "open in file manager" feature to work correctly.
the one thing that has changed is we now show a capacity bar. in my comment on the dot i never said we wouldn't do so, just that for many drives this is already handled by the label so it wasn't a pressing issue for 4.3.
"Also, sometimes I don't even know that some icon is clickable and has a function."
there are very few cases where this is so, thankfully. and we've been cleaning the ones that do exist as we go.
"In new device notifier nothing tells me that clicking on icon to the right will do different action (mount) compared to clicking on the center (show actions)."
there is no such thing as perfectly "intuitive", which is what you are getting at. and i agree with that. the mount/unmount buttons do change when you mouse over them, but tooltips for them are already on my TODO.
@Fri13: "But do we need the OS (example the Linux kernel) to deliver us functions so the disk space state is easier accessible?"
yes; it's the only thing that knows exactly when a fs changes in this way. being able to get signals of this would be quite handy.
"I think that if PowerDevil is controlling disk spindown, it could just before it take the used space and store it somewhere. Because the used space is not changing when disk is sleeping."
unfortunately PowerDevil doesn't control disk spindown. devices themselves can even choose to do this; for example, i have an external drive the spins itself down after a couple minutes of inactivity.
but even then, we really don't want to be waking up plasma or dolphin every N seconds to ask if the file system size has changed. that would prevent the cpu and other components from going into extended sleep periods and wear your battery down.
we really need an event driven system for this. patches welcome. :)
"Currently it is just sad that the device manager (what is now available on kde-look.org) does not allow arrow keys to move between entries. Only show/hide functionality is there. But it is enough right now."
full keyboard will be there in 4.4 :)
"no, actually, i haven't. though you are still as abrasive as ever, i see. at least i know what i can expect whenever i see your nickname on a comment? hm."
I'm just adding good suggestions that will, if implemented, improve KDE and attract more users. If you want to call that "abrasive" that's your choice. (btw, It's not my nickname, it's my first name + first letter of my last name (e.g. aarons)).
"we still won't be showing the device file name"
You don't have to. Having a capacity is a step in a good direction. At least I now have a way to differentiate devices. Another step in a good direction would be to read /sys/block/sd?/device/model and show that to the user (if label is not set).
"right clicking still is not how you interact with the devices"
Yes, we want KDE to be usable for people that have left-button-only mice (often found in poor sub saharan Africa).
"and you still need a file manager configured to get the "open in file manager" feature to work correctly."
But now I can do a mount only without a file manager. Whooaaa, finally, v4.4 ;). Hundreds of wishes more to go.
Btw, does "open in fmanager" work with krusader?
Cool, that's really a big improvement over what we had in KDE < 4.
Just one thing which I do not really like is that the plasmoids opened from the panel don't have a close button (not sure I'm using the right terms here).
A small X in some corner would make it more obvious how to close them again (e.g. the KDE 2/3 kicker clock first didn't have a close button, later on it was added because it was hard for users to figure out how to close it).
Alex
@ASeigo
""
"Or just set the default to automount (like all other OS) and let powerusers switch to manual mounting, if they feel they need that"
the whole point of the current system is that you don't need automount nor do you need to know to mount something. you go to use the device and at that point the appropriate measure, e.g. mounting, is done for you.
this is, for most people and most situations, actually superior to straight automounting and obviously better than manual mounting.""
Anyone who has to click through a lot of error messages whenever the KDE session is restored, because applications cannot find the files on the USB drive that was not auto-mounted would disagree. I have to deal with this everytime I restart KDE. Why would a user even care about a device that is plugged in when KDE is started? Why should he have to click on a notifier, even though the user just plugged in a device?
Sorry, but I think automounting (as default) is superior (but no replacement) to any device notifier that requires two additional clicks every time.
I would love a dialogue the first time I plug a device in - [ ] Do this automatically every time this device is plugged in.
perhaps a compromise can be found? devices present at login are automounted, the others not (would probably make sense) by default.
Very nice work by the way. Only obvious thing i see is that the labels have to become shorter (like the open in digikam one).
Wow, popular topic. @aseigo- I saw the reply to simon just after I posted- I think we posted just about simultaneously.
One last idea/recommendation- the newly plugged device do the "appear green then fade" effect. It's very communicative, used very well elsewhere in KDE, and it would save searching the list for the volume you just plugged in. When using a few partitions/usb drives at the same time, it can actually become a bit of a hunt that the green cue will elimniate.
@aneundorf: for many of them it doesn't matter because they close when the lose focus. for the rest of them a close button could indeed and yes for the same reasons as the one in the kicker clock calender. (i even remember when that was added :)
finding a way to do that which is generic and looks good is the tric.
@MoritzMH: "Anyone who has to click through a lot of error messages whenever the KDE session is restored"
so there's the problem you're facing. a solution could be to re-mount devices on log in that the user had mounted when they logged out if they still exist.
btw, it's really great when you describe the problem being faced. when we start discussing from the solution end rather than the problem end of a challenge, we may miss out on other answers that may fit in better or even address the issue more clearly.
"Why would a user even care about a device that is plugged in when KDE is started?"
i'm sure we'd find out ;) remember as well that this is not just for thumbdrives and other "easy" cases but also for things like cameras, DVDs, etc.
"Sorry, but I think automounting (as default) is superior (but no replacement) to any device notifier that requires two additional clicks every time."
so how do you get to that drive? file dialog? dolphin? you don't need any extra clicks there.
the device notifier is not your only entry point. it is one entry point in a larger system. it's primary duty is to notify (hey, look, there's that thing i just plugged in!) and then to offer ideas about what you can do with that thing.
but if you don't care and just want to throw files on it, then move on to your file opening and saving. it's all one click away there, which is at worst as efficient as navigating there manually due to the places model that appears in the file managers/dialogs.
"I would love a dialogue the first time I plug a device in "
that would be the automount kcm that has been talked about above quite a bit already. the device notifier will not show any dialogs, though. we are working in the opposite direction from that actually.
@Patrick: "the newly plugged device do the "appear green then fade" effect."
nitpick: it wouldn't be a hard coded colour (e.g. "green"), but something from the colour scheme.
in any case the plug and unplug events are indeed both fairly unimpressive at the moment. in fact, the device item in the notifier just appears and disappears.
we simply haven't gotten to plug/remove effects yet. that'll be at some point after keyboard nav, which wilder was working on today and ironing out the last of the interaction glitches with what's already there which giucam was working on today. :)
Thanks for this automounting feature, it was a real pain every time manually mounting drives (I really don't want to think about it:).
I would like to mention another problem with mounting devices. I don't know if this is linux-specific or kde-specific. I have two hdd partitions mounted as disk and disk-1 by default.
I have a shortcut in dolphin's places to a folder on one of my drives . Everything works good until I insert a usb stick before startup. Then my hdd drives are mounted as disk-1 and disk-2, and usb stick as disk. And here start problems: shortcut in dolphin doesn't work, amarok can't find collection, amule can't find incoming and temp folders, wallpaper can't be set during start etc. Why? Because disk names have changed. Is there a solution?
please see the image for my comments
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/7073/snapshot1y.jpg
The new device manager is looking really spiffy, and I can hardly wait for 4.4 to roll around (and, thanks to the openSUSE Build Service, I probably won't!). However, there is one issue that really bothers me about the device manager (actually external devices in any OS):
There is no way to tell which device is which. If I have two USB sticks plugged in, there is no way to tell them apart from the desktop. More often than not I copy files to the wrong device and then don't have them when I need them.
I honestly am not sure myself how to correct this issue, or if it is even possible to do so, but I thought maybe one of the KDE geniuses could give it some thought. It appears to be a "cross-platform" usability issue, and it would be nice to see KDE lay it to rest.
@SlashDevDSP: some good points in that diagram, and some that either can't be improved (dividing between "N GB" and "Harddisk"; we'd need to do some natural language parsing as it comes as one string from the volume's label) and some that probably shouldn't be changed for usability reasons. thanks for the input, it's helpful :)
@zak89: personally, i think we need some changes in the hardware itsef. we should have a way to affect displays on devices from software and vice-versa.
we're very much stuck in this concept that we have one screen and that's where the software gets displayed and our input/output devices are hidden slaves to that software.
for pluggable disks, i think it'd be _awesome_ to have little displays on them that the software could display a symbol on. that way we could show an icon in the file dialog or device notifier that matches the icon the software displays on the usb key or removable hard disk.
i have a lot of similar ideas for things like touch sensitive LCD strips on keyboards that could be used to display the tasks widget, etc.
with devices like smart phones becoming more the mainstream target, i think we'll slowly get towards such a point of development where hardware itself evolves to be more emotive.
but we're not there yet. and i don't see any good solutions until we do.
@SlashDEVDSP Yes the word free needs to be there. There is no other way to have any context as to what you are talking about. The rest are good ideas. (Why isn't the Popup relative to the icon? is it centered over the notification area of the Systray?)
@Aseigo Regarding the aspect of unmounting the partition versus the device would it be likely/possible to have a long click as an intermittent solution? Long click the unmount and you get an option to unmount the partition or the device. This is quick enough that you can implement it and test it quickly. You don't have to do any fancy tests to find out if the device has multiple partitions once it has one then this option is available. It doesn't take up any more UI space and it's hidden enough that it won't confuse people who don't know and it would be easily accessible by people who have 8 partitions on a device and need it badly.
@skreech2: such short cut solutions end up often being "ok" enough to not give anyone a reason to make a really good solution. i'd rather us take our time to make things really great than rush to make things that are only ok.
i do doubt people who need it badly would discover such a feature very readily, which means it would only help a small number of people (e.g. those who read our blogs or dig through documentation)
@aseigo: In regards to my comment, after I posted that I began thinking the same way. Without something more on the hardware side, I can't think of any way to coordinate between hardware devices and the visual representation on the desktop. I guess we'll have to see what the future holds.
Though as a holdover, what if custom icons (or even nautilus style "emblems") could be added to devices? Could the device manager "remember" devices and allow for custom markers of some kind? That would be an improvement.
@zak89: Good idea about the per-device emblems. Each device could be given a different default emblem so that it doesn't require work on the users part. Also, filesystems usually have a configurable name. This could also be shown.
A different solution is adding a a pop-up on mouse over that shows the contents in the root's device.
The usage of the dialog looks very nice. Looking forward to 4.4
Aaron,
please add this functionality:
do not show the device notifier icon in the task bar if no device is plugged in.
I don't want to see that bloody annoying icon when I don't need it!
Windows XP and Win 7 only show a device icon if a device is inserted. I would like KDE to not waste space on my task bar with icons that do nothing
@zak89, aseigo: Couldn't the which-disk-is-which problem be solved by using filesystem labels? Or am I misunderstanding the problem?
I name most of my external storage mediums using the fs labels, and have no problem telling them apart since that's what the device notifier puts next to the icon for the disk.
Unless this is different in the new device notifier, or I'm completely off the mark here.
Which is why I suggested it as I did :-) It does not cover the pain point sufficiently to make it a non issue and it's non obvious. Being able to tie together all the partitions in a device needs some UI and code thought (BTW shouldn't Solid provide this information) As Celeste pointed out recently Usability research and testing is not a short process but I would think that some workaround while a proper solution is being worked out is preferred especially if it's unobtrusive. Unless of course you want feedback for the testing and research then you state it in blogs and mailing lists as you mention and let people play with it and give feedback.
I guess in short Would you accept patches? :-)
@vatbier: if you put it in the system tray, it does exactly that.
@skreech2: only if it is done correctly. as i already noted, putting things in that are "sort of ok enough for power users" dramatically diminishes the odds of having it fixed properly in the future.
the attitude of "we'd prefer to not have bodge-jobs" should be the default mindset anyways :)
@aseigo Of course we don't want botchy bodge jobs :) that's why we work with KDE
Post a Comment