SteveMcQwark

Steven B , Canada

Hi, I am SteveMcQwark and I create Plasma 4 Extensions.

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Last time active : Jul 28 2011

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Plasma 4 Extensions

Stasks for KDE 4.3 RC1 with peek

Plasma 4 Extensions Nov 11 2009

Score 50.0%

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Stasks for KDE 4.3 RC1 with peek

Plasma 4 Extensions 31 comments

by SteveMcQwark

Score 50.0%

Nov 11 2009

Sorry about that, the link is broken. It's missing a '6' at the end. You can try the link at the top of the page. - Nov 11 2009

Yes, they are twofold. You apparently don't have a compiler installed, which I find kind of odd. Try installing gcc and g++.

Aside from that, don't use this :) It is unmaintained, and was only intended as a quick fix. Try http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Smooth+Tasks?content=10158
Its a fork of the same plasmoid, but its currently being maintained, whereas this is just a quick fix. The original seems to have been abandoned, despite the claims of its creator that he will work on it more. - Nov 11 2009

You can also try checking here:
http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/STasks?content=99739

Because 4.3 is now officially released, the original creator might make an update. - Aug 05 2009

Another place to check is here:
http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/STasks?content=99739

Now that 4.3 is officially released, the original creator might make an updated version. - Aug 05 2009

Try asking here:
http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/Stasks+patched+for+KDE+4.3+RC1?content=107811
This is where it was updated for KDE 4.3 RC1. I just patched for peek. The patch probably won't be affected. Just in case I miss it, you can post here again when I have something to patch ;) Or you can try yourself using the patch :P - Aug 05 2009

If you download it from this page, it should already be patched. Just install it as instructed. If you are having trouble with it, make sure the peek works in the default taskbar. You need KDE 4.3, Highlight Window desktop effect enabled (should be by default) and compositing enabled. - Aug 04 2009

I know. Its just that it would never make it into KDE 4.3 at this point, and so it would only be available to those who compile from source.

I'm checking out the source files for the box switch effect and the highlight effect to see how to do it, but I don't see being able to distribute the fix effectively. - Jul 08 2009

Thanks for packaging :)

Yeah, that's something that should be in the effect. I might try to find a way to restore windows during peek, but it would have to bypass the restore effect... - Jul 08 2009

You're welcome. Glad its working. If you have any problems with it, let me know. And yes, the design is aimed after the one for Windows 7, as is the rest of this plasmoid. The idea is that you get the peek hovering over the thumbnail. That makes it useful for having grouped tasks. And it means that you only get peek when you want it, and right away when you want it. - Jul 08 2009

I could try to apply the hackish way of having the always-on-top on hover for those without compositing... - Jul 08 2009

Done. :) - Jul 08 2009

This is a compositing effect and only works when you mouse over the thumbnails in the taskbar. It also only works with KDE4.3 RC1 - Jul 08 2009

Yeah, that's just me forgetting to say Q_UNUSED(event). It doesn't have any effect, just prevents that warning :) - Jul 08 2009

Smooth Tasks

Plasma 4 Extensions 842 comments

by panzi

Score 86.9%

Nov 05 2010

lol That would be awesome! If only you could give software those kinds of instructions :) - Oct 11 2009

I thought there might be some reason for it :) But it does close the tooltip whenever I close a window. Removing the hide() statement in ToolTipBase::itemDelete() stops this from happening, though causes an ugly flash, and doesn't change the case that you are referring to. (still closes tooltip when second last window closed). However, until you get your wishlist fulfilled, it seems its more consistent to go with the way it is.

I was more stating a wish rather than a practical complaint here :) - Oct 11 2009

I see you've made the design choice to hide the tooltip whenever a window is closed. To me this cripples the window management features of the plasmoid. If you are trying to clear up clutter, then you have to open the tooltip each time in order to remove several tasks of the same group, which is frustrating. Normally, it would seem that when the user closes a window in the taskbar, they intend to continue working with that program, and are just clearing up unwanted windows first. - Oct 11 2009

Okay, I must have fixed it myself without realizing.

In both cases, it should be
m_widget->winId()

This will fix the flickering. - Oct 11 2009

Okay, maybe you already fixed this, as when I reversed the change, it did nothing except make it work with plasmoidviewer again. For some reason when I installed the new version the first time, it didn't fix the flicker, so I really don't know what's going on.

Though now I feel like I've spammed your page, a simple bug I caught while running through these hoops: when you changed the second arg of XChangeProperty for the highlight window effect, you forgot to change it in XDeleteProperty (SmoothToolTip::stopEffect) as well, resulting in the effect not working properly. - Oct 11 2009

I did, however, find a fix for your flicker problem:
remove "appletWinId" from WId data[] in SmoothToolTip::highlightTask - Oct 11 2009

Oops, I see you've changed this in the newest version, but didn't not it on your changelog, heheheh, ignore what I just said :) - Oct 11 2009

When I modded STasks to have the highlight window effect, I found that setting the tooltip window as the root window (the second arg to XChangeProperty()), which in your version appears to be m_widget->winId() - Oct 11 2009

Actually, the effect is already there, its been there since before win 7 was unveiled. Its currently only accessible through clicking on the alt-tab box with compositing on. (not the flip 3D thing). - Mar 25 2009

Though it does work, most of the time... what if windows that were always on top were noted then had the setting turned temporarily off when another window is being raised? This way, the raised window would always end up on top.

Though, again, there should be a way of achieving this effect directly rather than this round-about way. - Mar 24 2009

Peeking should probably be accomplished through the KWin (or compiz. or any other window manager with the feature, but KWin first) effect. If it isn't possible now, it should be soon, (as in sometime in the next year, hopefully) as one of the current major goals for the workspace is better (but non dependent) integration between Plasma and KWin. - Mar 24 2009

Fancy Tasks

Plasma 4 Extensions 570 comments

by Emdek

Score 84.4%

Jun 10 2012

Also, you can remove the flash this creates by setting the tooltip WId ( parentWidget()->winId() ) as the second argument for calls to XChangeProperty() and XDeleteProperty()

Why are you using a QVarLengthArray for data when you know the length of the array? - Jul 18 2009

Its a nice upgrade :)

One thing about the peek, you can prevent the tooltip from disappearing by grabbing its WId with parentWidget()->winId() and add that to the data[] in FancyTasksPreview::highlightWindow(). You could also grab it directly from the *parent parameter in the constructor.

And a bug - The following causes the icons to become irreparably large:

1) Create a horizontal panel
2) Add FancyTasks to it
3) Move the panel to the side of the screen

This does not happen if FancyTasks is added in a vertical panel initially, even after moving the panel several times. - Jul 18 2009

Good plan around implementation. (from what I can grasp ;)

As for action to show tooltip? 2 seconds is a long time if you know exactly where you're going and just want to quickly switch windows with the mouse. - Apr 07 2009

And would this only bring to foreground (like OSX), or also restore minimized? I think the first one makes more sense... but the second might make sense because, in a multiple desktop system, minimizing doesn't quite serve the same purpose...
And what about, rather than just double clicking, clicking while active brings up the window selector, because there is no other possible intention...
Anyways, it does seem like something that should be in libtaskmanager, so waiting for that makes sense. - Apr 06 2009

Perhaps by double clicking? And the Show Desktop plasmoid minimizes all windows at once. Would it be more complicated to minimize all those in a group? - Apr 06 2009

I think you're worrying about a usage case that doesn't exist. If the taskbar isn't grouping by application, then it just doesn't make sense to have launcher/task duality. So from a configuration perspective, you just remove that option. The same applies to any other feature combination that just doesn't make sense from a use case perspective. - Apr 05 2009

I knew when I suggested it that it was probably overkill. I just wasn't sure what had to do specifically with the early stage of your plasmoid, and what was a limitation of the default panel.

Thanks for the fast reply :) - Mar 23 2009

I'm talking about a non-maximized panel, anywhere on the screen. If you set the minimum size to smaller than the dock, and the maximum size to larger than the dock,adding and removing tasks does not resize the panel. This might be because I'm using Qt 4.4? (with Kubuntu and KDE 4.2 experimental packages). I know this isn't the desired behaviour in a maximized panel but its almost a necessity in a non-maximized panel.

The reason I suggest a new panel is because that would allow for the zoom effect not to require a visually larger panel. I'm not sure the feasibility of this, but the panel could allow windows to maximize until the point where it draws itself, but actually overlap the window so the zoom effect is drawn as though its jumping off the dock. The issue I can see is that, if there were another plasmoid in the panel, it would be drawn larger than the visible portion of the panel, obscuring a maximized window. - Mar 22 2009

This is really great! Really high up there in comparison to other docks.
Suggestions:
1. Clicking on the icons brings up a different menu than the clickable preview. Since I LIKE the clickable preview, and don't want to have to wait for it, I'd prefer to be able to bring it up by clicking the icon (rather than the other menu)
2. As already mentioned, linking tasks with launchers would work nice. Only (usability) issue is figuring out how to not be removing the launcher when doing this.
3.Better highlighting in the preview.
4. Better resize. I don't know if this is the panels fault, but the panels don't resize with the dock. Also, when zoom is disabled, and reflections turned off, the applet still keeps the extra drawing space. Maybe a custom panel would work better.

I know this is nitpicky, especially this early on, and I don't mean to criticize. I really think this is a very promising plasmoid and I'm excited to see how it evolves. - Mar 19 2009

STasks

Plasma 4 Extensions 445 comments

by mbaszczewski

Score 64.5%

Mar 21 2009

...that's starting to bug me: when I am mousing through multiple groups, the preview disappears and I have to wait for another hover timeout to activate the next one. Is there any possibility of implementing the Taskbar widget's (and, in fact, the entire rest of the panel's) method of having the tooltip slide, or at least have the new one opened immediately, so that there is no wait after the initial hover timeout? - Mar 27 2009

This is really fantastic, a lot of different, but interesting, ways of using it. I agree that there's really only a few configurations that make much sense, so the options dialogue could be simplified. Also, is it a theming problem that the highlighting isn't very visible, or is it something controlled in the plasmoid? I've also seen FancyTasks which uses the same ineffective highlighting scheme.But other than that, and a few crashes, this is really awesome. - Mar 22 2009

google talk

Plasma 4 Extensions 8 comments

by dridk

Score 50.0%

Mar 08 2009

hitting the sign in button on the webpage does nothing... pretty sure this isn't how the one on the IPhone works. - Mar 27 2009

UrlCompressor

Plasma 4 Extensions 7 comments

by nferenc

Score 70.0%

Mar 29 2009

Thank you! very handy :) - Mar 26 2009

No, I was trying, unsuccessfully, to install the source from the plasmagik package. Installing from GHNS worked, though it did still give me an error. - Mar 26 2009

I can't seem to install it. I keep getting "Installing the package /home/*****/Downloads/101695-urlcompressor.plasmoid failed." I have KDE 4.2 running on Qt 4.4 in Kubuntu 8.10 - Mar 26 2009

gtk-kde4

Various KDE 1.-4. Improvements 305 comments

by Apoclypse

Score 72.5%

Oct 22 2010

Any way of fixing the gray text boxes? And the bottom scroll bar is out of alignment and has a hole in it (everywhere except the ends). Other than that, its great, except: is there any way for the menu corners not to look chewed? That last one is just being picky, but the gray text boxes is a real problem. Sure looks better than the gtk default (win95 like) look. - Dec 29 2008

Nimbus-Vistalooks

GTK2 Themes 25 comments

by perenoel

Score 50.0%

Jan 18 2009

I like it, except for the white panel separators (a more "etched" look would be better) and there's a white border around the window selector applet. - Sep 13 2008