Bug 492605

Summary: Set flexible size is inconstant
Product: [Plasma] plasmashell Reporter: pqwoerituytrueiwoq
Component: Panel Spacer widgetAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED NOT A BUG    
Severity: normal CC: nate
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 5.27.11   
Target Milestone: 1.0   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments: Screenshot

Description pqwoerituytrueiwoq 2024-09-03 16:06:13 UTC 
Created attachment 173279 [details]
Screenshot

The size of the flexible space is inconstant and feels random, note that my panel has resource monitor fork and do-it-yourself-bar

* https://github.com/orblazer/plasma-applet-resources-monitor (version 2.11.4, cause this distro uses plasma 5)
* https://github.com/wsdfhjxc/do-it-yourself-bar (the fork i made in 2021, as the original seems to be abandoned)
  * Note that there are 2 instances of DIY bar on the right monitor in the screenshot and 5 on the left monitor

SUMMARY

Look at the attached screenshot, all of these spacers are flexible enabled

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Upgraded from kubuntu 22.04 to 24.04 (after updating backup copy)
2. Deal with a few silly things like gimp getting removed, birdtray not being a thing anymore, get rid of snapd...
3. Now why does my panel look wacky maybe some of my DIY bar widgets are broken and not showing up?
4. Oh the flex spacing is behaving wacky

OBSERVED RESULT
flex spacing seems to be random

EXPECTED RESULT
All flex spaces are the same size on the same panel

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Kubuntu 24.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.11
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.0
Qt Version: 5.15.13
Kernel Version: 6.8.0-41-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor
Memory: 31.3 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 580 Series
Manufacturer: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
Product Name: MS-7B79
System Version: 2.0
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2024-09-04 03:08:19 UTC 
Flexible spacers have a variable length by design, hence "flexible." If you'd like to set the spacers to be, shall we say, non-flexible, you can do that too: just right-click them and you'll be able to access a way to give them a hardcoded width.
Comment 2 pqwoerituytrueiwoq 2024-09-04 04:20:25 UTC 
I would expect them to expand to fill the panel, so if i put 2 of them they will fill 1/2 the empty space evenly, thus all flexible spaces on the panel will have the same calculated size
this is what i expect:

[total empty space in panel] / [number of flexible spaces in panel] = flex size

if you look at my screenshot i have no idea how it is deciding the size of the spaces
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2024-09-04 15:37:19 UTC 
Well that's not the way it actually works, sorry. :) If it did, it would be impossible to center items on the panel using Flexible Spacers, which is their primary use case.
Comment 4 pqwoerituytrueiwoq 2024-09-05 04:11:41 UTC 
Wait is actually able to center stuff... seems the issue is it does not deal well with also trying to 'center' stuff in the free space around the centered widget

i did find another issue, but i will make a separate report for that