[Bug 207902] launcher support in libtaskmanager

[Markus]

Hi.

Just asking:
Is anyone even looking at vote counts in Bugzilla?

Bye, Markus

[Sebastian Kügler]

Post by Markus
Is anyone even looking at vote counts in Bugzilla?

Hardly, I think some developers check what the top voted features are and then
work on them, but probably most don't. But hey, maybe some cool soul comes
along, sees 1800 votes and goes to implement it.

Just parroting a comment from BKO doesn't increase the likelihood of someone
working on it -- often the opposite is true.

[Anton Kreuzkamp]

I think I can have a look at it at the weekend.
But I'm a really unexperienced programmer so don't have too much hope (I will
report if I'm able to do it)

cheers, Anton

[Emdek]

Post by Anton Kreuzkamp
I think I can have a look at it at the weekend.
But I'm a really unexperienced programmer so don't have too much hope (I will
report if I'm able to do it)

Well, I was working on launchers support for my applet Fancy Tasks that
currently uses this library and I can say that I'm not sure if it's good
idea to extend current library.
Launchers support is rather not small feature that could be added without
preparation during one weekend, especially if you need to stuff it to
library that wasn't designed to support this concept.
And there is also need to add support from applet side.
I was working on new library (concept described somewhere on this ML some
months ago) that will replace libtaskmanager in my applet (it's easier to
write new that fits than adding workarounds to make it work correctly with
launchers etc.) but it's suspended currently (lack of time - studies and
work).

[Hayri Bakici]

Still, that would be a really really cool feature !
keep it up ;)

Post by Emdek

Post by Anton Kreuzkamp
I think I can have a look at it at the weekend.
But I'm a really unexperienced programmer so don't have too much hope (I will
report if I'm able to do it)

Well, I was working on launchers support for my applet Fancy Tasks that
currently uses this library and I can say that I'm not sure if it's good
idea to extend current library.
Launchers support is rather not small feature that could be added without
preparation during one weekend, especially if you need to stuff it to
library that wasn't designed to support this concept.
And there is also need to add support from applet side.
I was working on new library (concept described somewhere on this ML some
months ago) that will replace libtaskmanager in my applet (it's easier to
write new that fits than adding workarounds to make it work correctly with
launchers etc.) but it's suspended currently (lack of time - studies and
work).
--
Best regards,
Michal
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[Markus]

Post by Emdek
I was working on new library (concept described somewhere on this ML some
months ago) that will replace libtaskmanager in my applet (it's easier to
write new that fits than adding workarounds to make it work correctly with
launchers etc.) but it's suspended currently (lack of time - studies and
work).

I think it would be a good idea to put your current library code into KDE
Playground. That way others could work on it if they are interested...

[Emdek]

Post by Markus

Post by Emdek
I was working on new library (concept described somewhere on this ML some
months ago) that will replace libtaskmanager in my applet (it's easier to
write new that fits than adding workarounds to make it work correctly with
launchers etc.) but it's suspended currently (lack of time - studies and
work).

I think it would be a good idea to put your current library code into KDE
Playground. That way others could work on it if they are interested...

Sure, I'll put it there when it will be in at least partially usable state
and after checking how some of it's concepts behave in practice.

[Aaron J. Seigo]

Post by Emdek

Post by Anton Kreuzkamp
I think I can have a look at it at the weekend.
But I'm a really unexperienced programmer so don't have too much hope (I will
report if I'm able to do it)

Well, I was working on launchers support for my applet Fancy Tasks that
currently uses this library and I can say that I'm not sure if it's good
idea to extend current library.

as someone who has worked on libtaskmanager for a number of years now
(inhereted it from other kind and talented souls), all i can say is that in my
humble opinion you are completely wrong.

adding launchers to libtaskmanager would not be complex at all: they would
simply be static entries read from a KConfigGroup passed in to GroupManager.
this new class would probably be a subclass of AbstractGroupableItem and would
group with windows of the app's type.

the menus are provided by libtaskmanager, all window interaction is provided
by libtaskmanager, all grouping is done by libtaskmanager ... which means very
little would need to be done to the tasks widget to support these changes
(mostly just configuration stuff).

it's not only doable, it shouldn't overly difficult.

[Emdek]

Post by Aaron J. Seigo

Post by Emdek

Post by Anton Kreuzkamp
I think I can have a look at it at the weekend.
But I'm a really unexperienced programmer so don't have too much hope

(I

Post by Anton Kreuzkamp
will
report if I'm able to do it)

Well, I was working on launchers support for my applet Fancy Tasks that
currently uses this library and I can say that I'm not sure if it's good
idea to extend current library.

as someone who has worked on libtaskmanager for a number of years now
(inhereted it from other kind and talented souls), all i can say is that in my
humble opinion you are completely wrong.
adding launchers to libtaskmanager would not be complex at all: they would
simply be static entries read from a KConfigGroup passed in to
GroupManager.
this new class would probably be a subclass of AbstractGroupableItem and would
group with windows of the app's type.
the menus are provided by libtaskmanager, all window interaction is provided
by libtaskmanager, all grouping is done by libtaskmanager ... which means very
little would need to be done to the tasks widget to support these changes
(mostly just configuration stuff).
it's not only doable, it shouldn't overly difficult.

Well, this was discussed already at least one time.
In case of my project it's simply easier and better to write own library
(but it will look more like data engine, or few engines combined) also
because of other things that need to be done (like jobs progress
visualization and other strange stuff) and for sure are not needed for
default task manager applet.
I hope to finish most important part before August and then everyone will
have possibility to see if it's useful or only experiment to gain more
experience.

[Anton Kreuzkamp]

I think I can do it.
As Aaron said it's not really difficult and doesn't require workarounds.

But I have a design-question:
Where to put the config?
there are two possibilities:
-put the config into libtaskmanager
-put the config into the applet and provide addLauncher/removeLauncher methods

I would prefer the latter but I would like to hear your oppinion to that.

Cheers, Anton

[Emdek]

Post by Anton Kreuzkamp
As Aaron said it's not really difficult and doesn't require workarounds.

Real workarounds and hacks are needed when you need to decide which tasks
should be grouped with specified launcher. ;-)

Post by Anton Kreuzkamp
Where to put the config?
-put the config into libtaskmanager
-put the config into the applet and provide addLauncher/removeLauncher methods

I would add kind of method which takes QStringList. Each entry would
include path to launcher .desktop file.
That list should be in applet configuration, to have bigger flexibility.

The next problem is where to display tasks without launchers (should be
always added on right side - but what with users who want to have some
launchers on left, other tasks in the middle and some special launchers on
right side?), where should be shown entry resulting from connecting task
with launcher (should replace launcher place or be added like new entries
- and what to do if grouping by application is disabled and we have two
instances of that application?).
It can all be hard coded and not configurable, but there will be always
people who want to customize it to fit their needs.

If you have questions about methods of determining which task should be
connected to which launcher etc. you can ask me (Fancy Tasks developer) or
check sources of my applet or Daisy (both have some similarities in this
regard).

[Anton Kreuzkamp]

Post by Emdek
I would add kind of method which takes QStringList. Each entry would
include path to launcher .desktop file.

so I'll let the applet do the config-stuff. (btw. I've done this with KUrls)

Post by Emdek
The next problem is where to display tasks without launchers (should be
always added on right side - but what with users who want to have some
launchers on left, other tasks in the middle and some special launchers on
right side?)

I may be wrong but as far as I know the applet does the sorting so I'll let
this do the applet (I will provide a method containsLauncher for GroupItem so
the applet can check whether there is a launcher in the group or not)

Post by Emdek
where should be shown entry resulting from connecting task with launcher
(should replace launcher place or be added like new entries

the same like above (by default it would replace launcher place as it's just a
new entry in an existing group)

If you have any better ideas for how to make the API just tell me.

--
Cheers, Anton

[Aaron J. Seigo]

Post by Anton Kreuzkamp
I may be wrong but as far as I know the applet does the sorting so I'll let

libtaskmanager does the sorting. and as long as libtaskmanager is managing the
launcher item, this should be easy enough to make it work with the existing
sorting strategies.

[Aaron J. Seigo]

Post by Anton Kreuzkamp
Where to put the config?

it belongs in the applet ...