[Clug-tech] kde3 and kde4

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Tuesday 26 February 2008, Gustin Johnson wrote:
> things like the size of the task bar (the kicker replacement) is too big
> (and not resizable)

in 4.0.2, which is tagged in the next couple days.

> and and no F2 shortcut. 

you mean ALt+F2? it's certainly there. or Alt+F1? what shortcut are you 
refering to exactly?

> Widget resizing is also annoying.  

what does "annoying" mean, exactly?

> Also, the interaction with the proprietary nvidia drivers seems buggy,
> but this is likely not a kde problem.

no, it's not.

> I do have one question.  Why are modern GUIs driven to produce larger
> and more wasteful interfaces?  The title bars, task bars, application
> menu bars, all seem to be getting larger, wasting more and more screen
> real estate.  Shouldn't we be getting more efficient with our space?

ever wonder why phones aren't getting any smaller? or why the handles on even 
really, really tiny tools (e.g. eyeglass screwdrivers) are still relatively 
large? or why we have microscopes?

think about it.

that said, most of the desktop shell interface is completely scalable in kde4 
as are many of the apps.

> Coupled with the fact that the increase in size is met with a decrease
> in interactive features (ie. buttons and displays). 

not sure what you mean here either without concrete examples.

> In other words, why are we taking up more space to do and convey less? 

information density, human capabilities to work with tiny things ... 

and we aren't conveying less. if you think we are, you're being fooled by the 
improvements in presentation.

> I am mainly thinking 
> of Office 2007, Vista, and KDE4 here.  This massive task bar conveys
> less info than the one I had in KDE 3, and yet the latter was ~ 1/3 the
> size.   How big does the task bar and the title bar really need to be?

i'm looking at my kde4 panel and it shows exactly the same amount of 
information as my kde3 one. it was stated from the start that things in kde 
4.0 were still being fleshed out. it was communicated quite clearly who the 
audience for 4.0 is, at the limitations of 4.0 are, what the roadmap forward 
is and why 4.0 was released.

you may have missed all that, but your judgement is premature regardless.

i'd also humbly suggest that it's a tremendous grace that you weren't making 
decisions in Cupertino based companies crica 1984. i'm sure you'd have said 
something about pictures on screens being useless because text is all we'd 
ever need. ;) we're in the same kind of transition period, though it's a lot 
harder and slower to do now because of the combination of complexity demanded 
from modern software (not just raw features, but also things like power 
requirements, multi-core systems, expectations on graphics capabilities ... ) 
and the insane drag cooefficient of the modern user base who by and large 
seem to think that modern computer interfaces have peaked when really they 
are, by and large, a load of crap.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Trolltech
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