dennogumi.org » plasma

Screensavers and the KDE Workspaces – your opinion is needed

Einar — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 11:26:37 +0000

Recently in the Plasma mailing list, KDE developers have discussed a new screen-locking implementation that could be added to the upcoming 4.8 release of the KDE Workspaces. The first reason to do so was to solve some security constraints of the existing implementation. As an added bonus, screen locking should be also more aestetically pleasing.

There is however a trade-off: such implementation would mean that screensavers that rely on X (also called X screensavers) would not be compatible. The current plan is to have a fallback mechanism if a user has a screen saver configured, and remove the support for X scrensavers entirely by 4.9. It is the intention of the developers to ultimately provide a way to make screensavers with QtQuick (QML) and in a way that they could be shared via GHNS (e.g., places like kde-look.org).

That said, this looks like a large change because existing functionality will change or be removed. Hence, to quote KWin maintainer’s Martin Graesslin,

We are not sure how our users would react if we remove the X screen savers and replace them by a new solution. We would like you to contribute and share your opinion. Tell us why you need screen savers and how you would think about if the currently used screen saver could no longer be used.

And how to gather your opinion? Through a poll. A poll has been opened in the KDE Community Forums by Martin himself to gather opinions on this upcoming change. Please jump in and let the developers know what you think!

Interesting plasmoid: Drop2Tag

Einar — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:06:59 +0000

While browsing around kde-look.org, I’ve stumbled upon a nice little Plasma scripted widget, and I’m publishing this to have it get more exposure.

A good part of the KDE community knows at least little about Nepomuk, and its ability to attach semantic tags to your files – basically words that describe the file, be it an image, a text document, or anything you’d like. For example, you could tag all the photos from your vacation with the name of the place you’ve been. After that, you can recall tagged files by accessing the nepomuksearch://hasTag:TAG_NAME url in Dolphin or Konqueror (there are more advanced uses, but I won’t cover them here), where TAG_NAME is your tag.

Up to now, the usual way to tag files was to either select them in batch and add a tag, or do them individually, then click “Add tag”, then select the tag or create a new one. It was kind of laborious, although not too complicated. And that’s where Drop2Tag comes in.

Drop2Tag stays in your desktop, configured for one of your Nepomuk tags. Then, you just need to drag files to it to have them automatically tagged. Also, clicking on the big Nepomuk icon will open your file manager with the nepomuksearch://hasTag URL with the selected tag. Neat.

The plasmoid is written in Python (I’ve taken a look at its source) and despite being very early in development, it already does the job very nicely – I have put one on my “Graphics manipulation” desktop activity to tag photos and images. A nice addition would be to select the tag from the plasmoid itself, rather than using the configuration option – it would make things much more flexible. Perhaps a Plasma.ComboBox would do the job here.

In any case, I’d like to congratulate its author (nik3nt3) for a job well done.

The next iteration of the Plasma FAQ – call for help

Einar — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:18:35 +0000

A few may know that I more or less maintain the Plasma FAQ page on KDE’s UserBase. Given the rapid advance of Plasma between KDE versions, each time a new version is out a new FAQ needs to be made, as the content rapidly becomes obsolete. For 4.3, unfortunately, I’m not sure I’ll be able to put a new version up in time for the 4.3 release.

The reason is mostly practical: it takes a bit of work to collect and add information, and currently my free time is limited due to a rather heavy workload and some other commitments. As UserBase is a wiki, I thought I could ask the KDE community at large if I could get some help in having a new version ready before release.

The big advantage is that you don’t need any special coding skills, just a knowledge of Plasma and being able to run 4.3 (RC2 at this stage). I have already made a skeleton page: people can edit bits of information, removing outdated items and adding new ones. Also, Aaron’s excellent screencast can be used to see which new features are in Plasma.

If you have wondered how to help KDE without being able to code, this is a good opportunity to do so!

New Plasma with Python tutorials

Einar — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:09:36 +0000

I just finished writing a new Python tutorial on KDE’s Techbase. This one deals with writing DataEngines in Python (a complement to Simon Edwards’s own Using DataEngines).

Let me know what you think. As it’s a wiki, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Python Plasma tutorials on KDE Techbase

Einar — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:02:42 +0000

As Simon Edwards already noted, thanks to me and him (mostly him, I have to say) starting to work on Plasma tutorials at the same time, now KDE’s Techbase has a nice set of Python Plasma tutorials. They cover creation of applets and connection to DataEngines (see the Plasma page on Techbase for more information). I plan on starting a tutorial on writing Plasma DataEngines on Thursday, if time permits.

For anyone wanting to try these out: you need KDE 4.2 (currently RC 1), PyKDE4 and kdebase compiled with Python support (not the case of openSUSE at the moment).

Last Plasma screencast

Einar — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:09:17 +0000

It turned out I forgot to add the last screencast produced by the students of Kourse 2, so I’ll fix my mistake right now. Here’s Panel settings, by Kourse student TeaAge:

Click here to view the embedded video.

More Plasma screencasts

Einar — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:03:19 +0000

Students from Kourse 2 fengshaun and Primoz have prepared two nice screencasts, dealing with the Zooming User Interface (ZUI) and desktop settings respectively. Without further ado, here they are:

Zooming User Interface by fengshaun

Click here to view the embedded video.

Desktop settings by Primoz

Click here to view the embedded video.

As usual, both Free and non-Free versions are available. The students are also at work on subtitled versions, without the Notes plasmoid. I’ll be sure to post them once they’re done. Don’t forget to share these!

Kourse 2 – First finished screencast

Einar — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:33:53 +0000

As some people already know, I’m mentoring a group of students on KDE Forum to create Plasma screencasts (from the upcoming KDE 4.2 version). After several adjustments back and forth, the first one (made by kourse student Primoz), showing off the various desktop settings, is complete. This version uses the Notes plasmoid to keep track of annotation, but we’re also evaluating subtitle-based versions. In the mean time, enjoy! (and spread the word). If you prefer a Free format rather than the proprietary Flash, you can download the ogg video version.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Why Plasma is the best thing since sliced bread

Einar — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:22:29 +0000

Today I was adjusting a bit the layouts of the Activities (as defined in Plasma) to better suit my workflows. To do so I was using the brand new Activity Bar which is present in KDE 4.2. It’s very neat, but takes up space on the desktop, and while it’s not a big deal on my main PC (1280×1024 resolution), it is an issue on my recently-resuscitated EeePC (1024×600).

It was then that it occured to me that such applets are, in Plasma-speak, PopupApplets, which means they adjust their behavior depending if they are in a panel or “free”. Also, I knew that Plasma had panel auto-hiding. 5 seconds later, I had a solution that fit my tastes, as this screenshot shows:

I could have used auto-hide also for the lower panel, but I’m not that comfortable, as I’m used to keep an eye to the systray, taskbar, and so on. In the end, I’m very satisfied with Plasma, since with a few adjustments I made it right for my workflow. This is an example of what it can do, and I can’t wait for context (as in semantic context) aware applications…

Plasma – resizing and moving panels

Einar — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:34:01 +0000

Today I’m in a posting spree…This clip shows how to resize and move Plasma panels around.

Click here to view the embedded video.