Re: Food for thought: Why (and how) should KDE and Gnome unite?

[Adam Rotaru <arotaru cs sfu ca>]

    Hi,

  Here's the list of the "users' wishlist" so far, compiled from
responses:

Common:
- mime type bindings
- application bindings, start menu
- menu handling
- cut-and-paste handling
- drag-and-drop handling
- panel-docked application handling
- interchangable helps (in html)
- common icons
- common configurable keysettings
- object manipulations  (embedding; Corba)
- common file formats (word processor)


Yours are pretty much along these lines. so I trust you :)


On Wed, 23 Dec 1998, Kevin Forge wrote:

> The areas of interaction that actually matter are as follows.  With my
> take on what can be done.  Take these comments from an end user 
> perspective and see what could be done to make the feel of these goals
> appear on screen.
> 
> 1 : Cut and past:- I have herd that this works.  Anybody running a 
> combo desktop can confirm ?

  That would be great. Right now, I can't even cut'n'paste from an xterm
to KEdit, or between two xterms, running KDE! (might be Sun-specific
problem),

> 2 : Drag and Drop:-  Done deal.
  What do you mean?

> 3 : Corba:- I have herd that Corba is Corba so it doesn't matter what 
> orb each project uses.  Except that loading 2 must be heavier than
> loading one.
  I'd like to find out more about this. Hopefully, the mico and ORBit
talk the same language.

> 4 : GUI configuration/Themes:-  Simply having the same thumbing ability
> supported is irrelevant.  What really matters is that the config tool
> for each desktop can manipulate the setting s for the other in a user
> transparent manner.  This means that if you set KDE to blue the Gnome 
> apps will also be blue.  
   Desktop themeing is quite widget-dependent, and not crucial.

> This can probably be achieved since both environments manipulate text 
> files to save these settings.
   Good point. But they should find each other one's! (and undserstand).

> 5 : ShortCut keys:- If ctrl+X is cut then it should be cut on both 
> desktops.  Confusion isn't having odd key assignments.  It's having
> multiple key assignments.
> 
> 6 : Menu item placements:- If both use the same mechanism for managing
> menu items fine ( KDE uses directory tree with *.kdelnk files ). 
> If that's not happening then simply having each transparently grab 
> the structure of the other is good enough.  the way KDE grows a 
> "RedHat apps" tree on a RedHat system.
> 
> 7 : Document formats:- KOffice is using XML for most stuff ( All ? ).
> If Gnome dose the same I'll be happy.

  Nothing really new, but thanks for the enforcement & new views on
cut'n'paste and drag'n'drop.

  cheers,
    Adam