so .. you dragged something onto your desktop first before dragging it into the folderview. that creates an *object* on the desktop representing that file. when you dragged it under the folderview, you simply moved that object.

try dragging something from dolphin into the folderview.

It doesn't matter that I was dragging an object.

If I drop object A *on top of* object B, I expect it to stay there. I don't expect it to fall underneath and become unclickable.

And the distinction between "file" and "object" is a very bad idea too, especially since they look identical. When I drag a file on my Mac and drop it on the desktop, it keeps being a file. When I drag a file on Windows and drop it on the desktop, it keeps being a file.

.. and so when you drag an file onto the clock, it keeps being a file?

On a Mac, when you drag a file onto something like a clock, the drag is not accepted; the file "bounces off" and can't be dropped there.

That would also be an acceptable solution, if the KDE folder view can't accept files.

(And if this is the kind of horrendous UI issue KDE won't fix, perhaps I should go back to GNOME.)

"if the KDE folder view can't accept files. "

it can, and does. the icons that exist as individual items on an Activity are widgets like any other, however. it's like dragging an rss feed into a picture frame, no different.

the canvas is full of objects that are arrangeable like cut outs on a piece of paper.

"when you drag a file onto something like a clock"

on KDE it's the same way.

"perhaps I should go back to GNOME."

wtf does that help with, exactly? if you want to use something else, do so. don't sit here and "threaten" with leaving.

being constructive: what you're looking for is a way to allow two objects dragged into each other to interact in some way, potentially "combining" or "sending information" into each other.

and to make it clear: using the desktop wallpaper as a place to manage files isn't a goal here.

honestly, i think you should use the FolderView as your containment, go back to having a traditional desktop experience, and worry about other things in life.

now .. what was the original resolution of this report before you decided to re-open it? right...

I repeat my previous comments. On Windows and OS X, a file dropped on the desktop remains a file. There aren't two different kinds of icons, visually identical, one of which is a file and one of which isn't. This new KDE behavior is a major HCI mistake.

It may be your opinion that people shouldn't use the desktop to organize files, but the fact of the matter is that everyone I know does. Most people have hundreds of files scattered over their desktops. Being an old-school Mac user, I use the desktop to keep things I'm currently working on, and then return them to their long term filing location when I'm done. That is, after all, why it was called the desktop to start with.

The point I'm making with "Maybe I should go back to GNOME" is that KDE 4 has made a lot of people very unhappy with this kind of horrible UI change. There are Kubuntu users screaming for their KDE 3 back. You can either ignore the problem and carry on with your bizarre UI designs, or you can make the system behave as people actually expect based on their experience with every other computer on the planet.

Someone linked to this bug in a slashdot comment regarding "horrendous ui issues," in KDE 4.  http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1091547&cid=26451575

I wasn't unaware of anything horrendous in KDE 4, so here I am.  However, I do think Matthew has pointed out something.

My interpretation of the original bug report is that KDE doesn't do a good job of informing the user that the file icon dragged out of Dolphin is different from the new icon on the desktop representing a "shortcut" to the file.

Windows 9x solved this problem by modifying the icon by putting a little arrow in the right corner.

yes, i saw that link on /. today. "different" obviously means "flawed". ;)

the issue is that an icon directly on the desktop is an object like any other widget. the objects currently do not "combine" when you drag them around, and for pretty obvious reasons if one thinks about the various scenarios for a bit.

same kind of cognitive dissonance with the folderview ("i increasingly don't know what it is for").

the user is simply operating from expectation based on a non-object-based desktop (which is why i suggested he just use a folder view activity instead; it'll be more in line with his preconceived notions of what "should be").

better documentation would certainly help. people either using the "classic" desktop style plasma allows for or allowing some variance in their life would also help.

It's not just that the KDE icons are behaving unlike every other desktop GUI; it's that they're not behaving like physical objects either. They are following a weird logic of their own, which may be obvious if you understand the underlying APIs or code structure, but makes no sense if you don't.

I just checked to see if there was any improvement in KDE 4.2.

I noticed that if you click the spanner icon for an object, you get exactly the same properties dialog that you get if you right click a file and choose properties. So how is the user supposed to deduce that the two things are different, if the icon is the same and the properties box is exactly the same with the same information in it?