Bug 160816

Created attachment 24322 [details]
kde3-show-window-list.png

“kcontrol” of KDE3.

You see that there is an “Action” called “Show Window List”
and a keyboard shortcut can be defined for that action.

Created attachment 24323 [details]
kde4-there-is-no-show-window-list.png

similar screen shot of “systemsettings” from KDE4.

I searched among all these actions and there seems to be nothing
comparable to the “Show Window List” known from KDE3.

Sorry for the weird mixture of Japanese, German, and English
in the last screenshot, that is due to another bug.

In KDE3, in the task-bar (kicker), right next to the icons of windows,
there was a small thing with a little arrow which popped up
the window list when clicked.

Also, in KDE3, the default action of the middle mouse button when
clicking on the desktop background was to pop up the window list.

In KDE4 this “window list thing” doesn’t seem to be available at all,
therefore I cannot set any mouse or keyboard actions to
show the window list.

Almost every windowmanager seems to feature a window list.

For me this is a basic feature which I used often and 
I really miss it in KDE4.

Probably it could be done as plasmoid.
I could try to create (when I'll have free time and thi won't be too difficult) something like that if someone could show me API for returning list of windows.

I miss this essential(!) feature badly!
Using several workspaces is very laborious without a window list.
(KDE 4.1.3, openSuSE 11.1)

*** This bug has been confirmed by popular vote. ***

You can try this plasmoid (tested on KDE 4.2 beta 2):
http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/Windows+List?content=96486

(In reply to comment #9)
> You can try this plasmoid (tested on KDE 4.2 beta 2):
> http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/Windows+List?content=96486
> 

Even if there is an opportunity getting a windowslist by using the plasmoid made by Emdek - Thank you for your work, Emdek! - this feature should be embedded into the KDE4-basics.

The window list plasmoid is appreciated, now just need a way to bind the window list to the middle mouse button on the desktop.  I'm one of the haters of the application task bar (sigh).

(In reply to comment #8)
> *** This bug has been confirmed by popular vote. ***

Does this mean someone is actually working on this?

I don't want to be negative, but this makes KDE 4 pretty much unusable when
one has a 40 or so kwrite windows open, scattered among 8 virtual desktops.

(In reply to comment #12)
> (In reply to comment #8)
> > *** This bug has been confirmed by popular vote. ***
> 
> Does this mean someone is actually working on this?

No, this only means that there were many votes and status of the bug automatically changed to NEW.

I've read somewhere that list of windows under middle click is available when using Folder View as containment in 4.3.

By the way, Windows List plasmoid is now available in SVN playground (can't be shown on middle click, but could be shown after using keyboard shortcut).

Maybe I'm missing something... But...

System Settings -> Window Behavior -> Focus -> Show windows list while switching windows

System Settings -> Window Behavior -> Focus -> Traverse windows on all desktops.

[Alt][Tab] - Seems to work just fine.

IIUC, in order to have the window list available, it is necessary to have a Plasma Widget -- a Plasma Widget being the KDE4 equivalent of a KDE3 Kicker applet.

Again we have the "wishlist" issue.  This is not a "wishlist" item but rather a REGRESSION since the feature exists in KDE3 and has gone missing in KDE4.  I am at a loss to understand why the failure to port a feature from KDE3 to KDE4 should not result in a bug but rather a "feature request".

Seems to be part of a broader trend towards quality control shortcomings and, as a side-effect, user relations mismanagement. (Especially in their underestimation of how big a killer feature a non-broken Konqueror is for KDE)

I don't blame Linus Torvalds for switching to GNOME... though I'd probably cobble something together instead.

Window list clicking on desktop has been implemented and will be available in KDE 4.4. There is a plasmoid too. So I think this bug can be closed now :-)

(In reply to comment #17)
> Window list clicking on desktop has been implemented and will be available in
> KDE 4.4. There is a plasmoid too. So I think this bug can be closed now :-)


I this plasmoid available for KDE 4.3 somewhere?

If not, can we please leave this open until KDE 4.4 is actually released?

> I this plasmoid available for KDE 4.3 somewhere?

Yes, it is, you can find it in SVN playground or follow link from previous comments:

http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/Window+List?content=96486

(In reply to comment #19)
> > I this plasmoid available for KDE 4.3 somewhere?
> 
> Yes, it is, you can find it in SVN playground or follow link from previous
> comments:
> 
> http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/Window+List?content=96486

I've used the Window List plasmoid in the past.  The big limitation that I
found was the inability to activate it by middle-clicking on the desktop (a
la KDE 3).

Are you saying that this has changed?

Thanks!

> I've used the Window List plasmoid in the past.  The big limitation that I
> found was the inability to activate it by middle-clicking on the desktop (a
> la KDE 3).
> 
> Are you saying that this has changed?

Unfortunately it is impossible to receive these clicks if applet is not under mouse cursor (and even listening for them doesn't make sense, because then we could have situation when application uses for something that event and we get also menu with windows...).

So before 4.4 the only substitution is to trigger it using keyboard shortcut but this is much less comfortable...
But maybe there is way to map mouse button to keyboard shortcut that was set for applet. Maybe this will be useful (but this will most probably eat all middle clicks...):
http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=HOWTO+Mouse+Buttons