The Case for better Dock support in KDE Plasma

[Teunis]

This thread made me think.

On my private KDE computer I don't want or need many launchers, I use the Quick Launch widget to go to a particular file or directory and the application is opened by clicking on the data file it's associated with.

But then on the company computer that runs a Scada system (what was many years ago ported from Unix OS9 and still retains most Unix properties like many small applications) I do use the old Quick Launch bar with a double row of some 20 little icons that allow single-click access to the applications.

When Win7 came around I was initially very upset it did no longer have a Quick Launch bar but luckily I soon found out how to restore it

And now I'm facing a similar problem with Plasma 5, no Quick Launch widget...

[SteveRiley]

the company computer that runs a Scada system (what was many years ago ported from Unix OS9 and still retains most Unix properties like many small applications)

*shudder* I'll bet it has a 15 year old kernel and a bunch of libs that haven't seen patches in forever. Those SCADA systems scare the crap out of me.

[KDEaster]

maby I will try it ......................

VINNY

Thanks Vinny. Ubuntu Gnome has a nice dock too... even though they submerge it from the desktop. I flipped a switch to make it stay on the desktop.

[KDEaster]

It was doing this thing where it wasn't showing me more than one open window per app. This is because as you or someone pointed out: I wasn't allowing the task manager to show open tasks in the panel or anywhere. But you see docks don't do that anyway.

In OS X, if you have 3 Firefox windows open, the Firefox icon shows a little dot to the left. In Docky, it shows three dots to indicate three Firefox windows open. Both are acceptable. What KDE panel was doing --

1. Not showing the app was even open.
2. If I had three Firefox windows open, it only knew about the most recent one. I know this because I had Fox set to restore previous windows, and it showed me all three but only restored the last one. Or REALLY it restored all three but the panel would only show me one.

None of this really matters if the plank can be easily ported as a native dock. Then KDE would become the everything distro for all sorts of Linux users, Windows, and Mac. But that KDE app launcher MUST sit in the dock. Make that happen and you even trump Ubuntu Gnome and eOS.

[SteveRiley]

It was doing this thing where it wasn't showing me more than one open window per app. This is because as you or someone pointed out: I wasn't allowing the task manager to show open tasks in the panel or anywhere. But you see docks don't do that anyway.

In OS X, if you have 3 Firefox windows open, the Firefox icon shows a little dot to the left. In Docky, it shows three dots to indicate three Firefox windows open. Both are acceptable. What KDE panel was doing --

Here, in 15.04 using a vertical panel with the default Task Manager.

Two instances of Firefox running; note the triangle to indicate more than one:



With the cursor hovered over the icon, the Task Manager reveals thumbnails of both instances:

[GerardV]

But that KDE app launcher MUST sit in the dock. Make that happen and you even trump Ubuntu Gnome and eOS.

Totally agree. I am a long time user/fan of the Cairo Dock and have tried Docky and Plank but none of them are as configurable as Cairo.
At one stage you could drop Lancelot into the dock and that is not a bad app launcher but i don,t think is has been ported across yet
As Oshunluvr said:

I generally don't like Apple (not since the Apple ][e) or any of it's products but the dock they have runs smooth and is very visually appealing and functional at the same time.

and i couldn't agree more.
And Cairo comes very close to that. It is not as buggy as it used to be, I have been using it with 15.04 and Plasma 5.3 without a single hiccup.
Some screen shots:

And another with the dock vertical:

[vinnywright]

ya ,,,,I said my peace once ,,,,,,but if you look at my screen shots in post#7 the bottom 4 icons ARE running apps ,,,,,,they are greyed out because they are minimized ....1 instance of dolphin,1 instance of firefox and 2 instances of konsole ,,,,,

VINNY

[KDEaster]

Forgive me, Steve Riley. I had all this stuff turned off because it was a panel and I had a dock. I'll try again with this stuff turned back on.

:-)

[KDEaster]

Here, in 15.04 using a vertical panel with the default Task Manager.

Two instances of Firefox running; note the triangle to indicate more than one:



With the cursor hovered over the icon, the Task Manager reveals thumbnails of both instances:

Okay. Forgive this noob. I'm not a developer, just a grey haired enthusiast.

1. I'm not sure what you mean by default task manager. Is it a widget. The one that doesn't say ICONS ONLY?

2. When I add either type of task manager widget, in the case of Firefox, it adds ANOTHER Firefox reference into the 'dock'. Which is confusing. I must have a setting wrong somehow.

3. I remember when my panel would show two open items in such a window. What setting brings that back?

[woodsmoke]

this has been an interesting thread , I woud just offer a small comment.. AND QUESTION...

please NOTE Frham60's OP in another thread

"Other than straight up dedicated "Gnome".... when I have tried to "do docks" in "Kde / stuff / distros/ Kubu"... they seem to work for......quite a while.......but then it all goes to "cr@@".....

And each and every time.........it "ended" with........a "black, as in BLACK...." screen..........the "cursor" was there but not responsive..........

Upon reboot, the original OS was there and......."the dock" was there, but in the state of "being before tweaked"....

So, I "do" "docks' on "Gnome".........and they work fine..

So.........again.....I offer a question.......

Is it possible that....."docks *per se"" are just not "compatible" with Plasma?

Just a question and nothing more.

woodcommentingonaninterestingthreadsmoke

[Guest]

Out of all the Ubuntu distros, Kubuntu shows the most promise. That said, preach it KDEaster! Just search for "better dock for kde" and this thread comes up. Come on, that has to mean something to someone out there.

Plasma 5... The dock needs work. So do the panels. It's not major. Pretty minor fixes would take it a long way, in fact.

1) Make a way to center a Plasmoid in the panel. You should be able to center one Plasmoid per panel. So if I want to center my date and time, I shouldn't have to use spacers that don't truly keep my date and time centered as they change in length (depending on the day and month). And if I want to center my dock, no matter how many icons I decide to pin to it, it should stay centered. I shouldn't have to readjust my "spacers".

2) The auto-hide feature needs works. Lots of work. The show/hide animation is non-existent. The ugly blue glow stinks of Android marshmallow. Stop! Take some notes from Dockey. Where's the smooth hiding animation? Where's the slick "intelli-hide" feature? How about making a Dockey plasmoid that I can drop my favorite Kicker onto? Now that would be the end all.

Much respect to all the developers. I don't know how to do what you do, but fix these two things and I'll switch from Ubuntu Gnome immediately. Until then, Kubuntu will stay in my Virtual Box VM.

PS: The updater could also use some work. Ubuntu is on the right track. Don't make the click to update button buried in a sub-menu. And am I supposed to see code turds during boot? Not slick. We need more slick.

[ianp5a]

What is the benefit of a dock over the current K launcher?

I changed from Unity as it didn't allow a 1 click access to all my favourites and 1 click task switching. With multiple windows of the same application you couldn't see, and directly open one of them.
KDE is not perfect. The max launcher size is too small so I need to scroll it. But what benefits would a dock bring?

[claydoh]

What is the benefit of a dock over the current K launcher?

I changed from Unity as it didn't allow a 1 click access to all my favourites and 1 click task switching. With multiple windows of the same application you couldn't see, and directly open one of them.
KDE is not perfect. The max launcher size is too small so I need to scroll it. But what benefits would a dock bring?

Aesthetics and bling, and personal preference. We are using KDE after all

[NoWorries]

I have decided to add my worth. I notice that KDEaster did not say what Apple screen he was trying to emulate. I have done a search and there are a multiplicity of options which can also be created using KDE. For example you can see a plethora of KDE screen shots here. The apple screen shot that I have tried to emulate is this one.



My impression is that the Launcher is at the top left in this low resolution example. I assumed this layout using KDE and produced the following.



As pointed out in other posts, you can add a launcher to the above lower panel and you can add and remove applications. Also, you can place the default panel, which is at the top of the screen in this example to either side or bottom. Similarly the panel at the bottom can be placed where you want it. The relocation is done by unlocking the widgets, and for a panel that you want to move, click on the widget bar on the right which shows options and then left mouse click+drag the tab "Screen Edge" to locate the panel on the screen edge where you want it located.

You can also add a stack on applications and widgets over the desktop if that is your preference. You can also change a panel to always be visible or not and so on . . .

[ianp5a]

I just tried out an Apple computer and the desktop, as shown above, is as bad as Unity for task switching.

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