Bug 461715

Summary:	Scrolling with touchpad in sidebar window switcher is difficult
Product:	[Unmaintained] kdeplasma-addons	Reporter:	Andrea Ippolito <andrea.ippo>
Component:	Task Switchers	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	minor	CC:	isma.af, nate
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	usability
Version First Reported In:	5.26.3
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Other
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Andrea Ippolito 2022-11-12 07:25:31 UTC

When using the default Breeze task switcher, as soon as vertical screen space is entirely taken up by window previews, a scroll bar appears. Scrolling vertically through this list becomes a nightmare, and basically you're better off just keeping pressing alt+tab to move between windows.

I would propose to either make this more scroll (mouse/touchpad) friendly, or to reconsider the decision to use this switcher as the KDE's default, replacing it instead, for example, with "Thumbnail grid" which acts very similar but is much harder to cause content overflow.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RzCa6wVNfuoXfoVV9

I see 433034, but I don't understand from the MR if the change has been implemented or not.
All I know is that on opensuse Tumbleweed, Breeze is still the one with the left sidebar.

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2022-11-14 21:01:01 UTC

All of them are, really.

> basically you're better off just keeping pressing alt+tab to move between windows
Pretty much.

I'm not a bug fan of this being the default Task Switcher myself, and would be in favor of doing Bug 433034. But that won't fix this issue per se since all of the task switchers have the same scrolling issue when using a touchpad.

Comment 2 Andrea Ippolito 2022-11-15 10:37:41 UTC

(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #1)
> All of them are, really.
> 
> > basically you're better off just keeping pressing alt+tab to move between windows
> Pretty much.
> 
> I'm not a bug fan of this being the default Task Switcher myself, and would
> be in favor of doing Bug 433034. But that won't fix this issue per se since
> all of the task switchers have the same scrolling issue when using a
> touchpad.

True, but with other switchers the issue appears only under more extreme conditions (for example, with the Thumbnail grid one you really need to have tens of windows open).

I honestly opened this bug rather to see if something could be done in terms of severely reducing scroll sensitivity while the cursor is over the task switcher, for example. Dunno if that could be a good approach and if it could be feasible at all.

Comment 3 Andrea Ippolito 2024-06-03 21:47:10 UTC

I'm closing this now that `Thumbnail Grid` has become the default task switcher.

It's still pretty much impossible to move to the right preview inside the grid by using the touchpad, but I will close this nevertheless.

I got used meanwhile to just repeatedly Alt+Tab-ing or opening the Task Switcher and then clicking/tapping the preview of the window I want to switch to.