KDE Commit-Digest for 18th June 2006

In this week's KDE Commit-Digest: work begins on 3D molecule visualisation features for Kalzium. More progress in the Kopete "OSCAR (AIM) File Transfer" and "KDevelop C# Parser" Summer Of Code projects. An enhanced version of the custom iconset developed during the 1.4 phase is re-enabled as the default option in Amarok. Following the brand clarifications of last week, oKular is now known as okular. Kitten is renamed Strigi. Two security issues are addressed.

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Comments

by AC (not verified)

>>He did say that the rant is about Kubuntu's KDE

He does now :)
But still, his points on kdesu and adept are not kde related, they are solely kubuntu related.
So he should have concentrated his rant to kubuntu, in stead of kde..

by ale (not verified)

KDE is a very flexible environment. Kubuntu has the possibility to make the desktop coherent, just with a little tweaking here and there.

Examples: Why install Amarok per default? Why not use JuK and call it "Jukebox". Why not call Kaffeine "Mediaplayer".

Many of these small things that makes the desktop coherrent to the user, have been ignored.

I think the key is to make the default settings simple and coherrent. And make it easy to restore those settings.

by Jakob Petsovits (not verified)

> Examples: Why install Amarok per default? Why not use JuK and
> call it "Jukebox". Why not call Kaffeine "Mediaplayer".

Ok, do the same with Windows apps. Why not call Winamp "Mediaplayer"? Why not call Nero "CD & DVD Burner"? Why not call Excel "Spreadsheet Calculation"?

This has been done for GNOME, and I hate it. Aren't there many media players and burning applications? How is the other one called if I choose to install an alternative one? Is it necessary to rob an application of its name? How can you ever promote a cool app if it hasn't even got a name?
Like, you know, it sounds like
"Hey, media player has awesome new features, right?" - "Media player? Which one?"

Really, it's totally sufficient to have the description besides the application name in the start menu, like it is now in KDE, with entries like "Amarok (Audio Player" or "K3b (CD & DVD Burning)".

by anonymous (not verified)

Thanks for making smaller text an option!

by max (not verified)

CTRL + "-"

by joi (not verified)

there is one additional space in all links

by Danny Allen (not verified)

Fixed, thanks!

Danny

by joi (not verified)

look at 9. an 10. digest - the same happened before and nobody noticed it :)

by pascal (not verified)

In the last digest you stated that amaroK had changed name to Amarok, but it still says amaroK in the "program buzz" part of the digest

cheers

by Danny Allen (not verified)

heh - thanks for the heads up, it would probably have been months before I noticed ;)

Thanks,
Danny

by Anonymous (not verified)

>oKular is now known as okular.

and I wonder if that shouldn't be Okular.
(Else somebody probably just wanted to please the shift-key-challenged).

by Anonymous Coward (not verified)

"An enhanced version of the custom iconset developed during the 1.4 phase is re-enabled as the default option in Amarok."

Everyone and his dog recognized that this is bad in terms of consistency. Someone has to reopen the bug http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=125295

not the same discussion again - very boring. what is your problem with amarok/KDE consistency? Amarok's icons are consistent with my cd-player, tape-deck, walkman, mp3-player; the symbols speak the very same "language". and all other media apps use the same symbol language. what's your problem that amarok uses it's own icons and not the stock ones? the icons in amarok's custom iconset are easy to recognize; nothing compared to some very special function with an hard-to-remember icon in an office application - that's the place where consistency is important and reduces training. Amarok isn't even a core KDE app and you think that you can force them to provide an appearance which you prefer instead of the one the amarok developers like their application to look. and the custom icon theme looks good - that could not be the problem, or is it? perhaps the amarok developers think that their app should look consistent within itself - and that would be a very good reason to provide an own icon theme. stock icon themes don't provide all of the special icons needed for amarok, so they have to be provided by amarok. and now tell me by which magic the other icons from your favorite icon theme can be 100% consistent with these? You are not even forced to use the new custom icon theme. don't waste everybody's time with such a stupid discussion.

by anon (not verified)

Any good icon set uses symbols that a user can understand instantly. The problem people have is that it should use the default icons of the user. Not everyone has a blue/white theme on their desktop. If they want to fill in the gaps of the icon set I'm using that's fine. But my play, rewind buttons, etc. are adequate. Just because it isn't a core KDE app doesn't mean it's immune to criticism. And judging by the number of people voting for the bug it's not a "stupid discussion" to many people.

O.K., my comment was a little bit too harsh. But my points remain: If someone prefers the KDE theme, it's very easy to reenable this in the settings menu. AFAIK, the new theme is just the new default, but you are not forced to use it and it can be changed in an easy way. that should please everyone.

by superstoned (not verified)

Point is, with this default, amarok neglects users who took the time to install and choose their own icon theme. Make amarok ONLY use its custom icons when a user uses the default KDE icon theme, or change the default, but don't ignore users who choose another icon theme for KDE...

Well, you had the chance to convince them otherwise while you were hosting them in Achtmaal :o)

by superstoned (not verified)

of course i tried ;-)

by Leo S (not verified)

Although I like the new icons, I agree that they shouldn't be the default. Just like the crazy colours that Amarok used to have. First time I tried Amarok I saw those crazy colours and immediately quit the app. I don't have the patience to figure out apps that try to do their own "cool" thing by default.

Make it an option or something. The icons look really nice, and I'll probably turn them on, but I think a lot of people will be annoyed by the non-standardness. Especially disabled people.

by Selene (not verified)

Just think about accessibility. If users have a high contrast icon set by default because they have low visual capabilities, then imagine that user seeing Amarok with lots of icons he can't distinguish.

Sure, he could go through the config settings and disable it. But what if he doesn't know about the option to turn the Amarok icon theme off at all? He would just say: I can't use this, and never look back at Amarok.

These users already have a hard time configuring everything to suit their needs, so I think it's inappropriate to have them go through more config options, when that user already did the appropriate thing to have icons that suit him: in the KDE control center, where he chose the high contrast icon set.

Have you really looked at the new icon theme? and can you imagine what people with low visual capabilities see? the essential icons in fact have a quite high contrast (dark blue or red vs. light gray); the contrast for a b/w version would not be that much higher. the colours chosen are easy to distinguish with red/green and even blue colour vision deficiencies; all colors are used against a bright background and not in direct combination with other colours. if you don't believe this, install imagej (requires java) with the vischeck plugin http://www.vischeck.com/downloads/ and try this yourself. I don't see any problem there. people with common visual disabilities should be able to recognize the icons; a much bigger problem is the fact that icons could not be resized.

by anon (not verified)

The link you gave was to test colorblindness, not near legal blindness. It's silly to say a person with strong visual defects "should recognize" the icons. If they could, I doubt they'd be visually impaired and need the high-contrast icon set. Even if they could, why should we make it their burden to change the icon set? We change icons system-wide to make their lives easier.

[ ] You are an Amarok developer
[ ] It is impossible to switch back to the KDE standard icon set
[x] Everybody knows your whining about those icons
[x] Either conribute or stop complaining!

He doesn't have to be an Amarok developer to critisize a very stupid decision made by people who created a wonderfull player. There really are a lot of people annoyed by the fact that they have to alter Amarok to fit in, instead of altering Amarok to have its special look. Really why does the music player have to have other icons than the movie player or the tv-player? I don't like my stereo set to have a different play button on the cd-player than the one on the tape player.

People aren't complaining about the new iconset, they are complaining about the decision to make it the default icons. If they want to include the icons, fine, but don't make me do some extra work to make Amarok fit with the rest of my desktop again.

by Anonymous (not verified)

Naah, quite PS2 like and too black.
http://commit-digest.org/issues/2006-06-18/moreinfo/551216/#visual

Except it is intended to do every gamecontroller in existence - Gamecube, XBox, Dreamcast, N64, well everything back to the NES... and don't forget the Wii remote ;)
I like the current SNES like controller, it's really good and general, and it has the classical grey plus the red-yellow-green-blue button combo everyone digs ;)

by Iuri Fiedoruk (not verified)

Have to agree with you.
Plus the old snes-style controller works better as 16*16 icon.

by anon (not verified)

So strigi is the new name for kitten which is the replacement for Kat. It apparently can use any backend such as xapian or cluecene. What I'm really curious about is the part where he says he wants to implement Tenor concepts. So has this project absorbed the Tenor one? And what's kfile?

by superstoned (not verified)

well, Scott wheeler was the person behind Tenor, and as long as he doesn't chime in on the Strigi development, vandenoever can't really say Tenor and Strigi are merged. tough he can include ideas from Tenor, and try to let Strigi provide the neccesairy architecture for Tenor.

by WTAC (not verified)

This is great news! Tenor was/is/will be the WinFS/Duke Nukem Forever of KDE, i.o.w. vaporware. Strigi on the other hand is real code that gets the job done. I hope this will be incorporated in KDE4.

Now all say; hail Strigi!

by Mohasr (not verified)

from strigi website:
"I've named the thing Strigi, because I hope it grows into a Kat."

well, as long as strigi means owl , I think with some patience and special care it might be :-)

by jos (not verified)

If you read the sourcecode, you will find the line
#include

by pierre (not verified)

Why apps like Kalzium are included in KDE? It is too specific application and I don't see the need for it to be included in Desktop Environment. Many people use computer only for browsing, mail and music.

by David (not verified)

I think it's good that it's included, because for the user it is verry usefull that all the apps are released on the same date because it's for distributions easier to make KDE stable when all have the same release date.

And that it's in KDE doesn't mean it has to be installed by default, look at kubuntu for instance, it does only have the most basic programs by default.

by Carsten Niehaus (not verified)

I is in kdeedu. Kalzium fits perfectly in kdeedu. It is not in kde_base_ for the reason you stated.

by Arnomane (not verified)

There was a time when email and browsing was way to specific for average users. This time wasn't the stone age - it was just 10 years ago the masses started using email and the web.

So this argumenation leads to nothing exept the hidden reason "it is unlike Windows".

In the gold rush era of the internet (1996 - 2000) all people talked beside dot.com about new buzzwords: "multimedia" and "edutainment". Especially Microsoft promised to bring new digital educational tools to the students in class.

But did they keep their promise? No absolutely not. They miserably failed. The best educational software so far has been written by private persons that often are teachers themselves that simply know what it missing and that are passionate about something. And this is especially true for Kalzium.

So KDE didn't just spread buzzwords. KDE just started the KDE-edu module and out of small beginnings this module evolved into something cool that is even usefull by (semi-) professionals like for example the KStars application.

And as Carsten already told you: If you don't wan't edu-software just don't use/install KDE-edu, KDE-edu is not KDE-base which gets installed automatically if you install any KDE app.

by mimoune (not verified)

Thanks you a lot

I would like to thank all the people who make KDE what it is today, it's a great job men !
I am a fanatic Linux fan and especially KDE, I read all the time, web content related to KDE development, specially planetkde, actually I did not understand all the blog entry( it is a geeky planet) but it's always a fun to hear about ASEIGO neighbor problems ;) and why rich man like to build high wall !!!

Recently I installed kubuntu 6.06, I was so happy to see how much KDE is becoming an enterprise class GUI, even my 12 years brother begin to use it naturally, ( well, I have changed the mouse setup to double click before) of course not all thinks are so perfect, sometimes application crash without obvious reason, and worst I can't figure out how to change the default view of Konqueror ( I like to view folders in detail list) but guess what is my killer feature in KDE 3.5.2 !!
It's the ability to lock the panel, so thanks you aseigo !! I can change the configuration of kde to make it look as I like ( actually is a copy of AQUA) and then lock the panel ( a small feature can have a great impact on newbie like me;)

so please take all your time to made the transition to KDE4, because IMHO KDE3.5 is a great product right now, all we need is more polishing, bug fixes and code optimization. I hope to see some day KDE3.5.9

I think what we really miss in Linux desktop today is more applications, it's all about APPLICATIONS, perhaps Google earth is a good example to show to ISV, I wish it is the beginning !!

GOD bless you men, you are heroes !!!

by ale (not verified)

> more applications

Really? I doubt so.