Bug 373698 - Change non-alphabetic sorting modes from "By X, alphabetic" to "By X, insert order" (non-alpha users don't seem to want alpha sort within a category)
Summary: Change non-alphabetic sorting modes from "By X, alphabetic" to "By X, insert ...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Task Manager and Icons-Only Task Manager (show other bugs)
Version: 5.8.4
Platform: Other Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Eike Hein
URL:
Keywords:
: 374162 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2016-12-15 18:51 UTC by therelic
Modified: 2017-02-16 12:57 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Description therelic 2016-12-15 18:51:19 UTC
I have task manager set too...

Sorting : By Desktop
Grouping : Do Not Group

This seems to work ok until I open multiple Firefox windows.  Once you open multiple windows (not tabs) with Firefox (or multiple images in gimp), the Firefox windows start getting sorted alphabetically by the window title (top center).  This of course has the bonus negative effect of the task manager buttons? for each window to bounce around to different positions when you move from web site to web site (or opening more/different images in gimp).  They are still sorted by desktop.

The old method of always putting the next same app window open to the right of the last seems preferable, especially when if you have a lot of windows open and the text disappears on the taskbar.
Comment 1 Eike Hein 2017-01-09 07:16:19 UTC
*** Bug 374162 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 2 Eike Hein 2017-02-16 12:57:45 UTC
Git commit 410086d06bf0b6195030fec5e9ac848cc50f50a7 by Eike Hein.
Committed on 16/02/2017 at 12:57.
Pushed by hein into branch 'Plasma/5.8'.

Tweak alphabetic (default) sort behavior.

Summary:
Alphabetical sorting currently compares a concatenation of
"AppName" (determined by heuristic) and Qt::DisplayRole (usually
the window title) using QString::localeAwareSort. This reflects
that the motivation behind alphabetical sorting is generally to
keep windows belonging to the same app grouped together and then
order those groups alphabetically.

The current code achieves this, but the particulars turn out to
negatively impact users of multi-windowed apps that frequently
change window titles in ways that impact sorting, particularly
tabbed web browsers. Switching between tabs may change the order
of browser windows on the Task Manager. Multiple instances of
feedback suggest this is jarring and unexpected, despite
technically being alphabetical.

This patch changes behavior as follows:
1. Instead of comparing "<App Name><DisplayRole>" it will try to only
   compare "<App Name>", falling back to "<DisplayRole>" if the app
   name can't be determined.
2. If two tasks compare to equal in the above, it will fall back to
   source model row order, i.e. creation/append sorting.

This still achieves the primary goal laid out above while
keeping the sort order within an app "group" stable when using
alphabetical sorting.

An alternative means to achive this behavior would be via existing
Task Manager settings. To wit:
1. Enable grouping
2. Disable group popups, so groups are instead maintained inline
   on the widget

I'm actually considering suggesting the above (plus changing
sorting to Manual) as new default settings for 5.10 - but in
the meantime it still makes sense to tune the alphabetical
sorting mode in this way, and put the improved behavior into
5.8 and 5.9 to address user feedback earlier.

Reviewers: #plasma, davidedmundson

Subscribers: plasma-devel

Tags: #plasma

Differential Revision: https://phabricator.kde.org/D4469

M  +18   -5    libtaskmanager/tasksmodel.cpp

https://commits.kde.org/plasma-workspace/410086d06bf0b6195030fec5e9ac848cc50f50a7