Version: (using KDE KDE 3.1.1) Installed from: Gentoo Packages A left handed user with a poiinting devices such as a touchscreen will cover the 'intersting' part of the screen with there hand while using scroll bars of drop downs that have that are on the right hand side of the element. To allow Left handed users to use KDE properly there needs to be an option for scroll bars, buttons etc.. to be on the left hand side. An option for menus at the bottom would also be nice, since you have to cover most of the screen with your hand to reach a menu bar at the top. see also 46578
As KDE has got more and more usable (a good thing...) I find myself reverting to type and getting things wrong because of my left-handedness. As I mentioned on usabilty - I find myself closing tabs on Konqi rather than opening them (using the little symbols) when my concentration lapses slightly. Over on usability I have been told of --reverse option (used for Farsi, Hebrew etc). It does work but it could be implemented differently. At the moment, as with my numeric keypad lying unused because across qwerty is easier, I tend to use the menu options rather than widgets because the menu is unambiguous (in a usability sense) Having started using a computer before left-handed mice I still only use one finger. What would be nice would be a "left-handed" option in "configure KDE". While it might not be a lot of use for left-handers who have adapted, as a new generation of new users come through it would make them less clumsy and the interface more intuitive. In the real world I often experience the opinion that left-handedness is just a quirk or a physical thing - rather than part of an intrinsic "being" thing. For example when I started playing the guitar I picked it up the same way as did Jimi Hendrix (without the talent...) and had to resist being told to play it in a right handed way. Manual technical drawing is a PITA because the rule cannot be used by left handers, and power tools, and multiple entry ticket barriers, and so on. It might not be a lot of work (I of course, have no idea). It might be that there is some preliminary work for a bunch of left-handers. I would be happy to coordinate that work if that is a requirement, or write a report on the challenges and requirements of left-handedness, or whatever, (I do not have the necessary coding experience, alas).
BTW - left-handers are about 18% of the population
I have intended to write this myself, but I haven't got around to it yet (and I can't make any guarantees that I will). There are similar bugs against other programs and toolkits. I've got a summary at http://jon.dowland.name/code/lhs/ . It would appear that what needs to happen is for an XSETTING to be specified for handed-ness (or scrollbar orientation specifically) which would be picked up by both KDE and GTK applications. I requested comments on this proposal on the xdg list but have had non so far: http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xdg/2005-June/007018.html
Thank you. I've looked at your URL refs. I'm not sure if this discussion should continue here. I'm not sure if you are thinking only of scroll bars. In my world I'd like everything to be mirrored, e.g., "K" to be in the bottom right hand corner. It would be more a more comfortable wrist action. If handedness were in "X" I suppose it would then be universally applicable. I would be prepared to join any project on this and do grunt work (documentation, testing, stuff) Unfortunately no-one would want my coding skills. http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/product_info.html The link goes into some depth of left-handedness - I have no connection with the site.
While I'm banging on - it occurs to me that it would be nice (though as I know how tables are created, probably impossible) if KHTML (or something) had a left handed option it could paint tables from right to left, so the columns in a website would have left and right reversed. It might be a CSS option?
*** This bug has been confirmed by popular vote. ***
It would be nice to be able to drag the scrollbars using a wheelclick from one side to the opposite one (both, horizontal and vertical) as we are used to drag things around like buttons in Kicker, Tabs in Konqueror ...
You can use plasmashell --reverse to emulate a right-to-left layout and make this happen now.
I'm not sure what version of Plasma shell one needs, but I'm looking forward to trying it out. Thank you for keeping it all in mind.
Having updated to Plasma 5.20 I ran the command on a Ryzen based desktop and an Intel based laptop. It was unclear to me what behaviour I was to get (I was hoping for a right to left desktop) On the Ryzen it caused a segfault On the Intel it has the effect of reducing the size of the icons on the task manager to about 25% or their original size and rearranging the layout into two rows.
The issue you're mentioning doesn't appear to be related to left handed people using touchscreens. Can you please file a new bug report on that? Thanks.