Communicating freely
Thoughts on how we can all talk a little easier, and how that can make life better.
Who stole my focus?
OK, one thing has been cropping up and annoying me a little. I don’t think it’s a KDE 4 issue so much as a problem with making GTK+ and QT stuff play nicely together.
When applications like the SVN GUI I use throw up an error like "Shane, you just tried to break the SVN again", this error dialogue is appearing on the bottom of the stack of windows open. However, it’s also preventing the application in question responding to mouse clicks.
What this translates into in real terms is that I was clicking unresponsive application like an idiot before I thought to minimise all the open windows and eventually locate the error dialogue to click "OK" (the dialogue did not have a little entry on the taskbar).
I believe Freedesktop.org stuff will eventually help correct annoying niggles like this. It’s certainly one of the things I would list as a key usability concern.
Onward to happy thoughts. One thing I am falling in love with is the new taskbar menu in KDE 4. It’s great for quickly locating my applications. Click, begin typing, get application. It’s fast once you get the hang of it. It’s very impressive.
I also have something very positive to say about Dolphin. I’ve not even bothered to notice it. It just works. I click, drag and occasionally hit "preview" and stuff happens. For me, that means it’s close to a perfect file manager. I’m looking forward to putting it through its paces over the rest of the day.