SUMMARY We use non modal dialog boxes for the filter menu this solves the issue where dialog parent desktop effect in plasma dims the parent window thus darkening the canvas. But this is not done consistently. All the dialog boxes accessed through the layer dockers right click context menu except the layer properties are modal. In addition to this the popups used for Image , Layer and selection menu are also modal. For example Feather selection, Change size of layer, Image properties etc. I Request to keep all dialog boxes non modal so that user can interact with the canvas and also not see the dim overlay on the canvas under plasma. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Enable dialog parent effect in plasma system settings. This is enabled by default. 2. Open Krita and a new document 3. Open a filter mask or filter layer dialog through layer docker menu or Open Selection > Feather selection
Some notes from IRC chat- - The problem is that with non-modal dialogs the user can open this dialog twice or three times, which may crash Krita - There is a special framework for stopping actions for non-modal dialogs, but I guess these modal dialogs are not connected to it yuet
The filter dialog is non-modal so people can zoom and pan the canvas; it's not non-modal as a workaround for plasma's dimming of the parent window.
Yes the vdg people said to me that dialog where user interaction is expected should have non modal dialog. They dim windows only modal windows. I think other dialogs like filter mask, filter layer, feathering selection can be non-modal too
I still think their reasoning is wrong. Modal is when you need to finish a task before you return to the document, but it doesn't mean the document should be obscured... And in some cases, it's not possible to make it safe to access the main window while a dialog is open.
Maybe if it cannot be done (because it cannot be done safely, it cannot be done), we should close this report? (Unless it waits until someone checks all dialogs and changes those that can be made non-modal to be non-modal).
Yes, I'm afraid that there isn't any other option than closing this report. We cannot do anything here: modal dialogs are modal for a reason, and users can disable the dimming feature in kwin.
If a user doesn't like the Plasma effect of dimming the parent window of a modal dialog, they can go into the Plasma System Settings app, go to Workspace Behavior, and in Desktop Effects - disable the effect "Dialog Parent" that is enabled by default on most Plasma installations. I think it is great that its a configuration option - applications can describe to the system that some dialogs are modal (need to be dismissed before the main application can resume) and some are utility dialogs, and the system can then show useful hints to the user as to what to expect. But if the user doesn't like those hints - they can turn them off.