[KDE Dot News]
 faq
 flatforty
 contribute
 subscribe
 configure
 search
 rdf
 main


  Taskbar Grouping In CVS
Desktop Environment Posted by Dre on Monday 14/May/2001, @08:41
from the it's-about-time dept.
Sure to put an end to countless discussions on the ever-lively kde-look mailing list, and to cut off a stream of "wishlist" bug requests, KDE CVS (look for it in the upcoming KDE 2.2-beta1 release) now features task-grouping in Kicker, the KDE panel. As is shown in this screenshot, task grouping optionally groups all windows opened by the same application in the same task-bar button. Here, 17 Gimp windows can be seen grouped in the same taskbar button, and the same can be seen for Konqueror and Konsole windows. With no more overflowing task bars, I am a happy camper :-).


<  |  >

 
  Related Links
 ·   Articles on Desktop Environment
 ·   Also by Dre
 ·   Contact author

Thread Threshold:

The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )

Over 40 comments listed. Printing out index only.
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by Rob Kaper on Monday 14/May/2001, @09:09
> Here, 17 Gimp windows can be seen grouped in
> the same taskbar button

Yet the main Gimp window is not grouped together with those.

Makes me curious.. *enables code*

Hm, looks as if only the picture windows get grouped together, "New image" and the layers window are all still seperate. Odd.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by Richard Sheldon on Monday 14/May/2001, @09:13
This sounds pretty cool, but I hope there's a way to turn this on application/by application. I'd hate all my terminals to show up on 1 task bar button!
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by Antialias on Monday 14/May/2001, @09:29
Hm, I think, kasbar is better, and it comes with preview windows and icons, so I can easily find what I am looking for. Too much text, especially with full path with all directories is confusing and not easy for fast navigating. When I work in Gimp I put Gimp main window, layers window, tool window and brushes window on one virtual desktop and a picture (or group of pictures if they are smaller) on another virtual desktop, and keep them opened all the time. And kasbar appears on all virtual desktops, so I use it as desktop pager.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by AC on Monday 14/May/2001, @09:32
This is a useful feature. Good work KDE team. :-)
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by Ben Meyer on Monday 14/May/2001, @10:23
I know I am beating a dead horse here, but when will the taskbar not have to bo the full length of the screen?
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by yg on Monday 14/May/2001, @12:50
Another step in the right direction!
[ Reply To This | View ]
Special behaviour for Konqueror ? [Taskbar Group]
by Alain on Monday 14/May/2001, @14:48
What about programs with multi configurations and icons ?

I think about Konqueror.

In the screenshot, I see that icons are in the beginning of each line, and I guess they may be different as now in the task bar (favicons). Well.

But for Konqueror it needs more, I think. It needs to have several buttons in the taskbar, one per profile (navigator, file manager, help...), a task-grouping for each-one...
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by Solhell on Monday 14/May/2001, @15:50
First of all, we need to see the big piture.
Don't implement something just because it is in winXP or it is in Gnome. And if you really need to implement it make sure to implement it correctly and in a smart way. I am not sure about the details of KDE implementation, but here are my obvious observations:
- Don't need taskbar grouping if there are only two konqueror windows are open. It just slows you down. You need two clicks instead of one click to activate windows. So put a limit (4-5) on open windows before grouping them.

- Only group windows that really can show some differentiating text to identify which is which. An example is the url of the konqueror window. A bad example is gnome xterm windows. I have three xterms open. Gnome groups them and I am really frustrated since there is no text identifying which one is which. If all of them were on the taskbar, at least mentally I know their locations on the taskbar which makes it easy to switch.

- Use the taskbar fully before switching to grouping. There is no point of grouping windows when the rest of the taskbar is empty. It just slows down the productivity.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by J. Pongilioni on Monday 14/May/2001, @15:55
Interesting... This will unclutter the task bar a lot :-)

And I'd like another wish: add a new command to tile the open windows (in the same location that "Cascade Windows" command).

Superb KDE team :-)
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by Timothy R. Butler on Monday 14/May/2001, @16:29
Good Job KDE Team! It looks like you implemented yet another one of Microsoft's good ideas (one of the few I've heard about in XP) into KDE!

-Tim
[ Reply To This | View ]
Taskbar Grouping In CVS: Other interesting option
by stephane PETITHOMME on Monday 14/May/2001, @23:32
What about this other way of configuring:

- There is no default grouping limits. By default, the option is not activated.
- By grading a "group" icon from the taskbar to the application I need to group, I activate the option. Other way can be :Adding the group option on the application popup menu.
- The same can apply to a "ungroup" notion.

The whole Idea is that I can dynamically control it based on my actual requirement.

Even better, Can it remimber my last setting for my next session?

Whatever, that already a nice feature.
Regards,
Stephane
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by KDEuser on Tuesday 15/May/2001, @03:21
You are missing the point here.

The point is not just so that you are saving on taskbar screen real estate, or just to group them so that you have a single point where you can swap between them. The real usability issue that hasn't been included is to kill all these open windows. Say, you have 10 konq. windows open. To close all 10 would simply be two clicks, one to click on the group listing and two to click on the option "Close all active windows" or something similar.

There is no point in grouping windows if you don't add this functionality.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by Hyperchaotic on Tuesday 15/May/2001, @03:52
This is great, uncluttering achieved. Now I just need to figure out how to remove window decorations for my biff client and asclock. The FAQ only tells how to do this on KDE 1.x.
Thanks to all the great KDE developers.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Kicker vs GNOME Panel
by Sridhar Dhanapalan on Tuesday 15/May/2001, @07:17
I am a fan of both KDE and GNOME, so don't think I'm trying to spark a war here. As an integrated environment, I prefer KDE. Konqueror is my favourite file manager and browser (Nautilus, IMHO, has been dumbed-down for newbies too much), and I find QT to be far faster than GTK.

Nevertheless, I am a GNOME user. Why, you ask? Mainly because of one thing: the GNOME Panel. This has got to be one of the most configurable and useful apps on the planet, sporting a multitude of applets (far more in number and sophistication than KDE's) and features. I love how I can have as many panels as I want, each with as much configurability as the next. I appreciate how I can make the panels any size I want, and place them anywhere on the screen (either along an edge or free-floating). The "swallowed app" feature, where you can embed any normal app in the taskbar (yes, even KDE apps), is incredibly useful. The GNOME panel even has a status dock that is fully compatible with KDE's.

Now my point here is that GNOME's main strength (along with the very flexible Sawfish WM, but that's another story) is its panel. If KDE developed a similar panel, GNOME would have lost it's main advantage. GNOME users (except for the real die-hard ones) would all flock to KDE. KDE has about six months before GNOME 2.0 is due to be released - that gives some time for KDE to develop a top-notch panel application. In the meantime, however, I'll stick with GNOME.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by Risto Treksler on Tuesday 15/May/2001, @07:42
I wonder if this has made it into the the External Taskbar _Extensilon_, which IMHO is better than the Taskbar _Applet_ (shown in the screenshot)

Speaking of the External Taskbar Extension,
wouldn't it be nice if it also had a "windows list button", like the one in the Taskbar Applet.

Its absence almost qualifies as a bug!!
I mean there is an option for "show windows list in taskbar" in the kcontrol module, but the button itself is nonetheless absent from the External Taskbar Extension. :((

It'd also be nice to have an option to set the min/max height of the External Taskbar Extension.
(I think I'd like it at "minimum: 2 rows")
[ Reply To This | View ]
What about enhanced Grouping?
by Sebastian Kuhnert on Tuesday 15/May/2001, @12:17
There have been suggestions on how to group windows efficiently. I'd like to add another scheme for konqueror: Windows could be grouped on a host-by host basis - all pages on dot.kde.org in one group, all on apps.kde.com on another and so on.

It's a great feature, go on guys!
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by Martin on Tuesday 15/May/2001, @12:29
It is very good !
But where is the icon floppy in kicker when a file change ?
And where is the animation when a soft starts ?
Inthe CVS the animation in ON the icon. It is not beautiful !

But news features are very good ideas !


Thanks
@+
JP
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Taskbar Grouping In CVS
by Kay Winkler on Tuesday 15/May/2001, @12:55
I've always known, that a taskbar is a bad thing,
and this effort shows up, that there are only limits extended.
So please investigate more to a tool currently
reachable by ALT-Tab which could show up the
hirachical list / tree of the opend XAplications.

So please consider, that <b>the taskbar desktop metaphor is wrong</b>. Nobody would nowadays would
think of files only in a flat way, today always
as a tree.

Anyhow thanks, <b>many</b> thanks for your efforts.
Kay
[ Reply To This | View ]
Grouping coming soon in Kasbar
by Richard Moore on Tuesday 15/May/2001, @16:25
Now that Matthias has done all the hard work(thanks!), I'll be adding grouping to Kasbar too. You can see a screenshot of the grouping ui for Kasbar at:
http://www.ipso-facto.demon.co.uk/development/kasbar/crop-medium-grouping-ui.png
The items in the popup group bar will be have the same feature set as items in the main bar (eg. they'll still have thumbnails).

There are some other images in this directory which show other features of the program - everything there except the grouping is in the latest CVS versions.

Rich.
Click to download attachment crop-medium-grouping-ui.png
12KB (12638 bytes)
[ Reply To This | View ]
The Fine Print: The previous comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )
  "My keyboard and synthesizers have a nice pile of dust on top of their covers." -- Carsten Pfeiffer
KDE®, "K Desktop Environment", "KDE Dot News", "got the dot?" and the KDE Logo® are trademarks or registered trademarks of KDE e.V. in the European Union, the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the poster. The rest: Copyright © 2000-2008 KDE e.V. for The KDE Project. For further information or comments on this site, please contact the Webmaster.
[ home | post article | flat forty | subscribe | search | rdf ]