Thread: [aKregator-devel] Make akregator an KUniqueApplication
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From: Frank O. <fra...@gm...> - 2004-07-06 10:26:04
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Hi all, When I was trying to fix #84528, I thought about akregator design a little bit, here's the result :-). I hope either everybody agrees (that would be optimal ;) ) or we have useful discussion about the issue. In my opinion, akregator should be an KUniqueApplication and document orientation should be dropped. Allowing multiple instances seems to me like an "akregator speciality" which doesn't make so much sense and has some disadvantages. The one single advantage I see is the ability to have more than one feed list silmutanously. But is that very useful at all? One central feed list, which is always loaded and saved automatically should be enough actually. Since we have a tree and not a plain list or something which gets a mess when growing, even a big amount og feeds should be manageable in one feed list. It's confusing that one has to manage opml documents to manage his feed list(s). Is there any other feed reader doing this? No similar application I know (for example kmail, kaddressbook etc.) is document-specific. And there are bunch of disadvantages from my point of view: - as said before, I suppose it's confusing for users, one single feed list is what most people know from other feed readers (maybe I'm wrong, I don't know any of the Win and Mac aggregators out there). - The user has to bother about saving feeds on exit etc. - Apps is kontact don't have documents. The Open/Save stuff in kontact plugin is quite inconsistent with the normal behaviour of kontact plugins - To me, the combination of allowing multiple instances and using systray icons is a mess. Multiple akr instances clutter the systray with their icons, nobody knows which icon belongs to which instance etc. As mentioned in http://wiki.kdenews.org/tiki-index.php?page=KDE+Pseudo-HIG#id702252 , systray icons are to be used by non document-specific apps normally. - and a technical one: archive management would get easier: feed archives could get deleted if a feed is deleted from the list. Atm you can't, since you never know if the user has other opml files in use with the same feed in it. IMHO, making akregator an KUniqueApp and storing the feed list in a central file (e.g. ~/.kde/share/apps/akregator/std.opml) would make akregator easier to use, make it more "standard compliant" fixing some design flaws. What do you think? Regards, Frank |
From: Pierre H. <pie...@m4...> - 2004-07-06 11:01:16
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As said on freenode, I fully agree --=20 Pierre Habouzit =20 http://www.madism.org/ |
From: Sashmit B. <sa...@gm...> - 2004-07-06 13:04:51
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I also agree.. it was one of the flaws I saw in akregator initially. |
From: Teemu R. <tee...@d5...> - 2004-07-06 13:13:14
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Sashmit Bhaduri kirjoitti viestiss=E4=E4n (l=E4hetysaika tiistai, 6. hein= =E4kuuta 2004=20 15:58): > I also agree.. it was one of the flaws I saw in akregator initially. Same here. I see no use for multiple instances and I suggested using=20 KUniqueApplication lately on #akregator. But please make it KUniqueApp if=20 berkus agrees, or has he already done it? =2D-=20 Best regards,=20 Teemu Rytilahti |
From: Stanislav K. <be...@up...> - 2004-07-06 15:17:35
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On 6 July 2004 19:19, Teemu Rytilahti wrote: > Sashmit Bhaduri kirjoitti viestiss=E4=E4n (l=E4hetysaika tiistai, 6. hein= =E4kuuta > 2004 > > 15:58): > > I also agree.. it was one of the flaws I saw in akregator initially. > > Same here. I see no use for multiple instances and I suggested using > KUniqueApplication lately on #akregator. But please make it KUniqueApp if > berkus agrees, or has he already done it? Yes, I also totally agree. Not doing so much earlier was a serious overlook= on=20 my side. My apologies. =2D-=20 keep in touch. berkus. Roey on #kde-devel: when I hear best of breed I tune out--it's too much a=20 buzzword. What I carry between my legs is best of breed. And like KDE, just= =20 because it's less visible doesn't mean it gets less usage. |
From: Sashmit B. <sa...@gm...> - 2004-07-06 14:48:09
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On Tue, 6 Jul 2004 12:24:58 +0200, Frank Osterfeld <fra...@gm...> wrote: > In my opinion, akregator should be an KUniqueApplication totally agreed.. > and document orientation should be dropped I don't really see a problem with document orientation that we used to have. For most users, this document orientation is minimal at best, since they have one feed list, and it is automatically opened when the open up akregator (or session). Sharing of feed lists, both with a user and themselves (different computers), and an user and other people. This is what the document orientation is trying to achieve. This practice is growing rapidly with online feed readers like bloglines. There are other ways to do it. 1. Document orientation- akregator 2. Import/Export Feed List - most other feed readers 3. Being four paned - like shrook ( http://www.fondantfancies.com/shrook/ ) Of these, I don't think #3 is really do-able with our current interface. I think #1 is the most cumbersome but the most powerful. However, I think it's a decent implementation in akregator as we've made it less cumbersome to use by opening the last feed automatically. So, my proposal is to make it even less cumbersome to use, but keeping the functionality. This would entail: - removing the save action - autosaving feed lists - renaming "save as" to "export feed list" - keeping multiple windows and feed list opening capability I think that would be the best of both worlds. > To me, the combination of allowing multiple instances and using systray icons is a mess. I agree. I think we should have one systray icon, and only one systray icon. |
From: Frank O. <fra...@gm...> - 2004-07-06 20:24:43
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On Tuesday 06 July 2004 16:41, Sashmit Bhaduri wrote: > > and document orientation should be dropped > > I don't really see a problem with document orientation that we used to > have. For most users, this document orientation is minimal at best, > since they have one feed list, and it is automatically opened when the > open up akregator (or session). Ok, we could "hide" document orientation, but atm the user still has to save changes. We could autosave feed lists. But having different documents in a SDI-like GUI without save option etc. is confusing for users (and how should a new file be created and saved?). It's somewhere in the middle of the approaches the user is used to and neither fish nor fowl. > Sharing of feed lists, both with a user and themselves (different > computers), and an user and other people. This is what the document > orientation is trying to achieve. This practice is growing rapidly > with online feed readers like bloglines. Okay, that's a point, having the feed list hidden somewhere in $HOME/.kde makes exchange of the list a little bit more inconvenient. Export/Import could help, but that is still a step more to do. > - removing the save action > - autosaving feed lists > - renaming "save as" to "export feed list" > - keeping multiple windows and feed list opening capability > > I think that would be the best of both worlds. Hmm, I am not convinced yet if multiple windows are really needed. If one wants to simply watch the contents of an opml file, this could be done in konqueror using akregatorPart as a opml viewer. If he is interested to really use the feed list, he can import it as a new subfolder to his single feed list. Maybe an "add to akregator" action could be added to the context menu of opml files like we already do with feeds. > > To me, the combination of allowing multiple instances and using systray > > icons is a mess. > > I agree. I think we should have one systray icon, and only one systray > icon. How should the icon behave if we have multiple windows with different opml files? There is no central main window which could be shown and hidden clicking the icon. Frank |