SUMMARY The latest Neon Developer has removed the ability to launch KRunner without taking the hand off the mouse, by no longer offering to place it in the core menu on the right mouse button. It used to be in that core place for decades. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. place cursor on empty spot of the desktop background. 2. click the right mouse button. 3. try to find the KRunner launch entry which use to be there since 1990. OBSERVED RESULT Usability and ergonomics suffer, as users are forced to move the right hand to and fro from mouse to keyboard without any good reason. It was much better before the item removal. EXPECTED RESULT People expect to operate KDE to a very large part with the mouse ONLY. They move the hand to the keyboard only if necessary. People expect to do this workflow: 1. right click, launch KRunner 2. click downArrow for history 3. launch the app from the history list this is the most convenient way to achieve it. All keyboard use is significantly more tedious. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Linux/KDE Plasma: Neon Developer live image as of today KDE Plasma Version: current today ADDITIONAL INFORMATION The reason given in Developer webchat was: The removal makes the choice list "less intimidating". Yet some bloat still still remains, such as the multiple wallpaper items, only 1 of which would be sufficient.
3. launch the app from the history list without using the keyboard. Mouse-only usage as many users prefer it!
It looks like I implemented this change in the wrong way. I removed it from the set of available actions, rather than removing it from the currently-visible set of context menu items (I forgot that the desktop context menu is customizable). It should be removed only from the default context menu so that people's existing customized setups will be preserved, and people who want it in the desktop context menu after all can self-satisfy to put it back. I still think that activating KRunner from the desktop context menu to be able to trigger its history action with the mouse as well (instead of typing to search) is an unusual niche use case, but hey, we're KDE, we should support it anyway. Changing it so that the KRunner item is out of the menu by default, but able to be put back, should satisfy this desire. --- Separately, the reason provided in chat for wanting to activate KRunner with the mouse is to be able to use the history feature with the mouse. If we added a dropdown history feature to Kickoff just like KRunner, then Kickoff's own KRunner-powered search could be used for this purpose and mouse-and-history users would not have to use KRunner itself at all because Kickoff's own search would have all the same features and be mouse-accessible.
steps 1. 2. 3. above are not "searching". these steps are just launching instead. Those are 2 separate usages. Obviously, searching something with the mouse ONLY is a trickier job.
Putting a history list into Kickoff seems viable as long as it does not drive up the number of clicks required to launch an app, as compared to do it the KRunner way.
sidenote: "GRun" is a gnome app similar to KRunner with good ergonomics, but there was package bitrot. Users must compile it themselves. GRun is a "minimum-number-of-clicks launcher", like KRunner and much UNLIKE Lancelot.
Git commit 932df89df56b424c6a59108e97ead4587556f059 by Nate Graham. Committed on 28/05/2021 at 18:15. Pushed by ngraham into branch 'master'. Revert "Remove "Show KRunner" item from desktop context menu" This reverts commit 1cb254416ca7c65b31ba321fc7b34f6c06f844e6. This change was not implemented in the correct way. The context menu is configurable, so instead of removing the possibility of the menu item ever being in the menu, we should have simply removed it from the default set of menu items. FIXED-IN: 5.22 M +11 -1 containmentactions/contextmenu/menu.cpp M +1 -0 containmentactions/contextmenu/menu.h https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/commit/932df89df56b424c6a59108e97ead4587556f059
Git commit 9dc6c780389b9a3ba511bbf967a501f7ce04b259 by Nate Graham. Committed on 28/05/2021 at 18:16. Pushed by ngraham into branch 'Plasma/5.22'. Revert "Remove "Show KRunner" item from desktop context menu" This reverts commit 1cb254416ca7c65b31ba321fc7b34f6c06f844e6. This change was not implemented in the correct way. The context menu is configurable, so instead of removing the possibility of the menu item ever being in the menu, we should have simply removed it from the default set of menu items. FIXED-IN: 5.22 (cherry picked from commit 740dab284a14edddd74bf14902e57e23734c71d5) M +11 -1 containmentactions/contextmenu/menu.cpp M +1 -0 containmentactions/contextmenu/menu.h https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/commit/9dc6c780389b9a3ba511bbf967a501f7ce04b259
Git commit 9adc3c7267550ff36fe3eb21a4a2ab1a72904269 by Nate Graham. Committed on 28/05/2021 at 18:35. Pushed by ngraham into branch 'master'. [containmentactions/contextmenu] Remove KRunner action from default menu This commit implements what was agreed upon in https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/690, but does it correctly by simply disabling the menu item by default, not removing it entirely. This ensures that the change is only made for new installs. Existing users' configs will not be touched (because all values are serialized to the config file already), and any new users will be able to re-enable this item if they like it. M +1 -0 containmentactions/contextmenu/menu.cpp https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/commit/9adc3c7267550ff36fe3eb21a4a2ab1a72904269