Bug 429278

Summary:	can't have classic-style (sometimes faster-to-read) system tray
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	David Chmelik <dchmelik>
Component:	System Tray widget	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	normal	CC:	materka, nate
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	5.20.2
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Slackware
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description David Chmelik 2020-11-18 02:51:24 UTC

SUMMARY

Lately the system tray was updated to make icons larger, and that's probably a good thing for many users.  I preferred the classic-style drop-down list because it's faster to read a small list than a large out-of-order box mostly of icons.  Will there be am option for classic-style system tray?  Maybe they're in some order, like the order recently used, but even so, it was faster to read as a list (the icons don't do much for me personally, though I know would help a lot of users... some I talked to had a similar problem though, because some icons they thought were harder to identify or the users weren't used to icons yet for newer things they're using.)

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open system tray
2. Look for quickly-readable list
3. Find the text spread out over two or three times as much space, taking maybe 10 times longer to read.

OBSERVED RESULT

Much larger, non-orderly, slower-to-read, system tray but no option to switch back.

EXPECTED RESULT

Allow the new and old style system tray style (option or classic/list-style widget as opposed to icon-style)

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: Slackware 14-current/5.20.2
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.20.2
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.75.0
Qt Version: 5.15.1

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Comment 1 Konrad Materka 2020-11-18 16:22:32 UTC

CC Nate

Big icons are more touch friendly, so there are always pros and cons.

Manual ordering should help, it is on my TODO list, but it is not small task so it will take some time to materialize...

Comment 2 Nate Graham 2020-11-18 19:09:43 UTC

Lists are indeed generally faster to read.

However they also result in more whitespace particularly on the right side and with short lists, leading to complaints of "wasted space". We got bug reports about this.

And their long skinny items are not touch friendly, or fankly, even very mouse friendly either for people without precision mousing skills (or laptops touchpads or trackpoints, which are less precise). We got bug reports about this.

And they become scrollable with fewer items compared to a grid. And with these particular items, some of them respond to scroll events, which makes scrolling frustrating since the list item took up the full width of the frame so you would change things by scrolling. We got bug reports about this.

For these reasons, the list was replaced with a grid.

I understand that it may not be your favorite thing in the world. But we did it to solve bugs, and if we went back to the old style or made it configurable, we would be re-exposing users to those bugs. So I don't think we can. Sorry. :)