Created attachment 118883 [details] breeze-themed-indicators The current indicators are really hard to understand, no matter what plasma theme you use. See attached examples for breeze and a generic theme, respectively. For breeze it's especially bad. The indicators make no sense at all and you can barely tell which windows are open. For the generic, the bringt triangles make it look like a window is active, whereas they actually represent groups. But then why is there only one triage when an group has more than window? I propose replacing the current behavior with something vastly superior: use the indicators from dash to dock/panel https://github.com/home-sweet-gnome/dash-to-panel These have several big advantages: - The indicator for the active window is always clear - it is the ONLY window that has a highlight box drawn around it. - The indicators representing the open apps are also clear and moreover they are colored from the icon (I think the pictures don't show this adequately), which helps with identification and makes the whole thing look more elegant. - The indicators give great feedback regarding the exact number of windows open in each group, and this information is combined with the indicator for open windows in a way that is clean and elegant. - It is much closer to the Windows dock style, which is the standard for most users. KDE's indicators are not only inferior but also really unconventional, making them difficult for new users. I am not sure whether it a matter of revising the applet or doing another theme, but the indicator style could use a revision.
Created attachment 118884 [details] generic-themed-indicators
You're talking about the indicators on the Task Manager that show the current status of the task (running, minimized, etc), right? Are you specifically complaining about the fact that running apps are indicated only with a thin blue line?
Running apps are actually indicated, confusingly and totally against convention, using grey highlight boxes. The grey highlight box should identify the active group only in my opinion. The underline should be used to identify running apps and keep track of window counts. I don't think minimization should be reflected in the indicator at all - it just adds confusion and complexity. Does anyone really need to know that a window has been minimized before clicking to restore it? Finally the group indicators are both visually incongruous and uninformative (they can't tell you that you have more than two windows open). Basically, I just want KDE to adopt Dash-to-Panel style, which is the best I've seen. It's basically takes the already excellent Windows dock style and improves on it. So I'd just copy their Metro and/or Ciliora/Dashes styles.
Created attachment 118898 [details] gnome-indicators-useless-option
Are you using an Icons-Only Task Manager or Latte Dock? Or something else? And are you using the Breeze Plasma theme (not color scheme), or another theme?
Note that Dash to Panel offers tons of options - we don't need most of them. For example the option to have the running indicator lines on the outer edge of the dock isn't needed. (see attachment in preceding comment). This is also what Breeze uses right now. Displaying these indicators along the edge of the screen is better in every way.
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #5) > Are you using an Icons-Only Task Manager or Latte Dock? Or something else? > And are you using the Breeze Plasma theme (not color scheme), or another > theme? This is icons only task manager. No existing theme offers good indicators. i've listed two themes variants in the attachments (breeze and generic). Both are very bad imho.
I'd appreciate it if you'd tone down the language a bit. You're using a lot of negatives ("bad", "make no sense at all", "confusingly and totally against convention", "very bad"). As someone who started his own KDE contributions in a similar way, let me tell you that development discussions go more smoothly when we use more neutral language, and you're more likely to get what you want in the end. :) Anyway, I get where you're coming from, and I agree that the Task Manager's status indication could stand to be improved. I've had this task on my own back burner for a while; maybe I'll bump up its priority soon.
Oh yeah, no problem. I was just trying to say what I think about a peripheral aspect of KDE, which I think is pretty bad. I would never use that language to describe anything that lies at the core of the desktop.
The task manager is a core part of the desktop from the perspective of its maintainer. :) There are real people behind everything, no matter how peripheral it is. Anyway, seems we're largely in agreement. I'll see what I can do.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 370465 ***