Bug 64268

Summary:	Dynamic number of desktops
Product:	[Plasma] kwin	Reporter:	plax
Component:	general	Assignee:	KWin default assignee <kwin-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	g4mba5, mark.vanrossum, nicolas.girard, opensource, rdm
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Compiled Sources
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	How to set up mouse move-to-screen-edge desktop switching System Settings dialog: determining new window placement behaviour

Description plax 2003-09-14 17:29:44 UTC

Version:           Unbekannt (using KDE 3.1.2)
Installed from:    compiled sources
Compiler:          gcc version 3.2.2
OS:          Linux (i686) release 2.4.18

Allow the number of desktops to be changed dynamically
without a need to call "kcmshell Desktop/desktop".

Problem: I often have a lot of "unused" desktops lying around,
wasting for example screen-space in kicker, the window-list menu in kdesktop and the right-mouse-menu in a titlebar.
On the other hand, sometimes I like to work with a lot of available desktops. Calling "kcmshell Desktop/desktop" everytime is too stupid for KDE, I think.

Solution: Those "unused" desktops should be deleted from these menus and replaced by a single item: "Move to free desktop". The same should be done by the special-button in kicker "Access to desktop" which just minimizes all windows.
Additionally, a desktop which doesnt display any window could be eliminated silently.

Thus, the user can always switch (or move a window) to a new desktop easily without any useless desktops hanging around.

Comment 1 Stephan Kulow 2003-09-14 20:20:21 UTC

sounds like featuritis to me

Comment 2 Lubos Lunak 2005-03-23 13:41:07 UTC

*** Bug 102258 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 3 Lubos Lunak 2005-03-23 13:41:32 UTC

NOTE TO SELF: Check also all duplicates.

Comment 4 Lubos Lunak 2006-01-04 22:51:00 UTC

*** Bug 118859 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 5 Lubos Lunak 2006-05-25 14:51:57 UTC

*** Bug 127028 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6 Robert Moore 2006-05-25 15:15:53 UTC

Featuritis is, in cases such as this one, a non-fatal condition. Who or what does a feature like this threaten, actually? Maybe it would be a good thing. Anyway, would it involve more than a few extra lines of code?

Comment 7 Robert Moore 2006-05-28 00:04:27 UTC

A benefit of the proposed approach would be to save screen area so that the bit of extra space can be used, showing more text information about the running applications.

Comment 8 Robert Moore 2006-07-09 18:27:28 UTC

Created attachment 16932 [details]
How to set up mouse move-to-screen-edge desktop switching

The first of two dialog images: the dialog for Kubuntu/KDE's System Settings.
Note that this is a KDE bug, not a Kubuntu one.

Comment 9 Robert Moore 2006-07-09 18:34:29 UTC

Created attachment 16933 [details]
System Settings dialog: determining new window placement behaviour

Smart placement of new window is not featuritis, and nor is new dynamically
created extra desktops for new GUI apps executed (maximised). It just makes
working with the desktop system less work, and thus more usable.

Comment 10 Robert Moore 2006-07-09 18:39:12 UTC

Please put this bug to bed before it's three years old.

Comment 11 Mathieu Jobin 2006-08-21 06:16:04 UTC

The way I see this would be to make virtual desktop entirely dynamic and not having a certain number. it would work by 'Tagging' windows. Tags would dynamically refer to a virtual desktop which contains all windows for that Tag. thus, any virtual desktop can contain a certain amount of window and any window can be shown on a certain amount of virtual desktops (see bug #16187 which would get fixed by doing it this way).

and as this bug propose, creating new desktops could not be easier and empty one would be deleted automatically.

I think that would rock the virtual desktop world.

Comment 12 Lubos Lunak 2006-08-25 14:07:18 UTC

*** Bug 111345 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 13 Lubos Lunak 2006-08-25 14:07:58 UTC

NOTE: See all duplicates.

Comment 14 Martin Flöser 2012-03-10 16:31:29 UTC

With the current development version of KWin most of this is already possible:
* the pager contains context menu entries to add/remove desktops
* the same is the case for desktop grid
* additionally more is possible with KWin scripting. E.g. removing all "empty" desktops

There are also users who want to have a very specific layout of desktops. For those users the proposed change would be a regression. It is obviously not possible to support both behaviors in the default.