This week in Usability & Productivity, part 13

Another week in Usability & Productivity, another wish that I could make more announcements about all the cool stuff we have in progress! The wheels of software sometimes turn more slowly than we might wish, but in the end, the better result will be worth it. KDE’s patch review process is there to ensure that code quality is high as possible before making it in!

Nevertheless, we landed some great improvements this week, including a few long-standing requests. Come and see:

New Features

  • The volume of the program that’s playing media can now be adjusted by positioning the cursor over the Media Player widgets icon and scrolling (KDE bug 386588, implemented in KDE Plasma 5.13.0, authored by Radek Hušek)
  • Dolphin’s Information panel is now able to show Group membership information for files and folders (KDE bug 308002, implemented in KDE Applications 18.08.0, authored by me, Nate Graham):
  • New splash screens can now be easily downloaded and installed right from within System Settings (KDE bug 358839, implemented in KDE Plasma 5.13, authored by Marco Martin)

Bugfixes

  • Fixed a bug causing Kate to open multiple empty windows after session restoration (KDE bug 360066, fixed in KDE Applications 18.04.0, authored by Алексей Шилин (Aleksei Shilin))
  • Fixed a bug in Gwenview that made the left and right arrow keys not work for navigating between images after using the crop tool (KDE bug 321091, fixed in KDE Applications 18.04.0, authored by Peter Mühlenpfordt)
  • Fixed a bug in Gwenview causing the window title to not update when a different images becomes selected in Comparison mode (KDE bug 314724, fixed in KDE Applications 18.04.0, authored by Silas Lenz)
  • Fixed a bug causing the desktop Trash icon’s “Empty Trash” menu item to not update properly (KDE bug 392738, fixed in KDE Plasma 5.12.5, authored by Kai Uwe Broulik)
  • Fixed a bug that could cause Konsole to execute hidden code when copy-and-pasting from a maliciously-crafted piece of text in a web browser (KDE Phabricator revision D11859, fixed in KDE Applications 18.08.0, authored by Martin T. H. Sandsmark)

UI Polish & Improvement

  • Dolphin’s “Image Size” column has been split into separate “Height” and “WIdth” columns, to enable proper sorting (KDE bug 374559, improved in Dolphin 18.08.0, authored by Julian Schraner)
  • Gwenview now displays the selection rectangle using a correct size for SVG images (KDE Phabricator revision D11796, improved in KDE Applications 18.08.0, authored by Huon Imberger)
  • Dolphin’s Information Panel now displays folder previews for folders that have been added to the Places panel (KDE bug 392621, improved in KDE Applications 18.08.0, authored by me, Nate Graham)
  • Context menus for Desktop items and the Wallpaper now show the appropriate keyboard shortcuts that can be used to invoke them (KDE bug 392730, improved in KDE Plasma 5.12.5, authored by Kai Uwe Broulik)
  • Dolphin’s close-multiple-tabs confirmation dialog is now more explicit about what will happen when you click any of the buttons (KDE Phabricator revision FFFF, improved in Dolphin 18.08.0, authored by Elvis Angelaccio):

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11 thoughts on “This week in Usability & Productivity, part 13

  1. “Dolphin’s Places panel is now able to show Group membership information for files and folders (KDE bug 308002, implemented in KDE Applications 18.08.0, authored by me, Nate Graham):”
    I’m pretty sure you mean Information Panel 😉
    Besides that, great work!

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  2. Off topic: Why is your patreon button so much bigger than paypal and liberapay? Maybe they also should be sorted alphabetical?

    Love reading these posts!

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  3. Nate, as always it’s an amazing job you’re doing!!!

    i was about to submit two bugs, but i think i’ve read about one of them somewhere already… i just can’t seem to find it! So, instead of submitting a duplicate do you know of any bug about
    Adding a button for GHNS to download Plasma’s Krunner Search Plugins ( in System Settings > Search > Plasma Search > plugins)?

    Also, i tried to find a bug for
    Adding a button for GHNS to download Widget Styles (in System Settings > Application Style > Applications)

    Do you have any entries for such bugs in your DB or should i open bugs for them?

    Thank You

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    1. Duplicate bugs are actually valuable, since they help developers gauge the desire for a feature of the urgency of fixing a bug. Go ahead and file those bugs!

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    2. From Christoph reply i think the limitation still applies…but then again, since english is not my native language, i might be understanding it wrongly…please Nate, take a look at it if you can…

      Thanks

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