Version: (using KDE 4.0.82) Installed from: Ubuntu Packages label every plasmoid on the desktop -- shy plamoids ...so the user does not have to guess (or find in context menu) what is the name of plasmoid. Something similar to window title would be handy (in unlocked mode, with the toolbox frame visible).
why, precisely, does it matter so much that every plasmoid should show it's name? answer: it doesn't.
Aaron, not matter what you decide, the same applies for windows titles. ( btw. the answer is -- yes, it matters, I don't have to guess am I seeing hex-clock-super or octal-clock-extra just by looking at the digits; besides, what is the point of hiding that information and running anonymous plasmoids? )
Thats not an answer to Aaron's question. Why does it matter which clock you use, as long as it shows you the time in a format you want, i.e. hexadecimal, octal, binary, analog, train-like - you name it. I don't think anybody puts 20 plasmoids on its desktop that do the same thing, they'll add one that does what they want to. And it doesn't matter at all how its named, it matters that it does the job right.
Andreas, http://wiki.openusability.org/guidelines/index.php/Introduction:KDE4_Vision Berna1, Berna2. B1: I use this really nice clock, you know B2: really? what clock? B1: hmm, I don't know, but it looks like (10 minutes of description) B2: I don't have such clock B1: oh, well, I don't know how to explain this better So both girls spent 10 minutes total exchanging information about clock Berna1 uses, but she was unable to tell which clock. This is not useful. I use Konqueror, KMail, KDevelop, Konsole and... ?clock? . Why is that? Note: currently KDE4 provides ~20 plasmoids, but prepare for the success, with 10000 plamoids ready to add to the desktop it won't be so easy to pick one from 5 possible. We, humans, came up with names for objects for purpose -- to avoid the mess and confusion. If you still do not agree, please explain Brenda how can she tell her friend what clock she is using, so her friend could use it too :-).
Brenda could click the cashew -> Add widget and scroll down to see the name of the clock. If it exists on the desktop it will have a little red minus sign. Unless Brenda managed to convice the plasma developers to remove the cashew that is.
Jared, scroll down through 1000 plasmoids? On one hand we have "this is Konqueror" on the second we have "reverse engineering": do manual find through all the possibilities to find out what is used, when the find is complete, this will be the name. Not mentioning even Brenda, but Matt also likes this: "He is looking for an effective routine, so he can concentrate on the contents rather than on finding information." What you propose does not scale up, KDE success will be also its failure (lack of means to manage the successful desktop env.).
1000 plasmoids is a vast exaggeration here, IMHO - people that care about their desktop will remove plasmoids (i.e. uninstall) they don't need. People that don't care about their system being somewhat clean will have much more severe problems than trying to tell other people what a nice plasmoid they found. Apart from that, so far it looks like there's about 1 to 2 plasmoids that do a certain thing, albeit the clock one. And for that one I think the existing plasmoids are distinct enough to recognize them. And developers usually don't code something that already exists, unless it doesn't fit their needs.
Andreas, I see what Maciej is pointing out here. First, about 1000 plasmoids, he's answering Jared when he proposes to Brenda to look at the Add Widget window and find the name of the plasmoid though a minus simbol among the total amount of plasmoids listed there. He's not saying someone has 1000 plasmoid placed on the desktop. And I agree that the amount of plasmoids will increase big for the next years (something like proportional to KDE4's adoption). Second, exactly because that increasing is very possible is that today we don't have plasmoids that look like each other but, tomorrow, who knows if we'll not have forks of a plasmoid here or there? However, exactly because of the use cases of plasmoids' names to be easy to find, I don't see the need of having them on screen the whole time (it's not needed all the time so it shoudln't be there all the time). Then, I propose that it could be placed somewhere (maybe on top, when possible) on that border around the plasmoids (I don't know the name of that), where we see the plasmoid actions (close, configure, rotate and scale). It's not space taking from anything that's not there already and it's not extra uneeded information seen all the time and also it's easy to find (actually, as easy as the plasmoid's actions and found right by the same way: only on demand).
Just a spelling correction (I saw a few others but this one may to make people not understand what I mean): "find the name of the plasmoid *through* a minus simbol".
it's in the context menu. we'll be adding an info button to allow for security checks in 4.2. putting yet more labeling is, to be quite frank, rediculous. this is a purely invented "but what if!" problem that is not a real world issue. fixing this "problem" would, however, have real world impact on both the visual and usability (related to information density) of plasma. ergo, the wontfix. EOT.