On Saturday 14 January 2012 10:41:58 Darrell Anderson wrote:
> I mentioned in my original post that the question has nothing to do with the
> merits of either choice. I also mentioned that my focus is not on what
> current Trinity users prefer but on what the default placement option
> should be for new users.
and I only answered to that.
>
> So far several people have voiced their preference but nobody is sharing
> usability reasons for their choice. My question is focused toward new
> users, not experienced users. I suspect most of the responders thus far are
> experienced users and missed that point.
ok. I cannot give you usability studies, because they don't exist. But you can
try it yourself. Just use it! Just try this setting for a day or two. Give it
to a non-experienced user.
>
> The question is not "clearly a case" of what you described. The question has
> nothing to do with the technical aspects of window management. The question
> is focused narrowly on what should be the default placement option when
> Trinity is initially installed. The question is focused on usability for
> new Trinity users and has nothing to do with the technical challenges of
> window placement design.
Of course it has to do with technical aspects of the window manager. You can
only choose a default if you understand it. If you understand every detail of
it. If you know and understand the underlying code and the history behind it.
If you just had looked into the code, if you had tracked down why it is the
default, you would not even have come up with the proposal.
Just to give you an idea. The placement policy centered was not always called
centered. It was committed as "StupidlyCentered". It did not even had a GUI
option, because it is so stupid. It is from 2002 and has not changed at all,
the code is still the same (except an internal adjustment).
Seriously? Do you want to use that as the default?
>
> I would be grateful if you can point us to some usability studies regarding
> this issue.
The usability study for placement policy smart might be that it was used in
KWM and based on code from an even older window manager. Maybe 15 years of
experience in good window placement are an argument, maybe not.
You can spend your time on discussing each config option of KDE which have not
changed in the last 12 years. All is fine with that. But I can only recommend
you to concentrate on what is important. The KDE devs are not all stupid and
for most of the defaults there are good reasons.
And even if you come up with a new default I can only suggest that you go
afterwards to the maintainers of the specific KDE application and ask why they
had the default and not the one you use. There might be very good reasons to
not use your default. Remember: you did not develop the applications, you
don't know the limitations!
In this case here the maintainer of the specific application tells you even
before that it is a bad idea to change the default.
Kind Regards
Martin Gr��lin
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