SUMMARY When I train people to use a new KDE-based installation, there is waaaaay less jargon-y terms than before, which makes my job much easier. But I found a place where it could be a bit better. In System Settings' Keyboard Shortcuts, we see items like "KDE Power Manager." That is super clear for the user. We don't say "Powerdevil", the underlying component name. Yet on the other hand, we see "KWin" instead of "KDE Window Manager". Can we make this more clear too? Same for "plasmashell." Instead that could be, say,"KDE Desktop Manager". My rationale is that "KWin" is an internal component name that users do not directly install or deal with. I would have to tell a newbie about this label, "So 'KWin' is an internal developer name that means 'the thing that deals with all the windows in a KDE-based setup'. Just ignore it and pretend it says 'Window part'". It makes KDE less friendly when the user has to learn internal component names. I know that power users like to say KWin because it's short and unique. But on the other hand, power users will know what "KDE Window Manager" alludes to. And it's also congruent with "KDE Power Manager" in the list. Same for "plasmashell" being replaced by "KDE Desktop Manager". STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Go to System Settings -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts OBSERVED RESULT Notice that there's "KWin" and "plasmashell" service names in the "System Services" section EXPECTED RESULT Make "KWin" and "plasmashell" be more end-user descriptive and less developer-oriented the way that "KDE Power Manager" replaces the internal name of "Powerdevil". SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Operating System: KDE neon 6.0 KDE Plasma Version: 6.1.4 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.5.0 Qt Version: 6.7.2
Makes sense
A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/6299
Not sure what plasmashell should be called. @nate do you have any comments here? Here are some ideas: Plasma Desktop Plasma Desktop Manager KDE Desktop Manager KDE Desktop Maybe KDE is better than plasma -- should we expect our users to know what plasma is and how it is different from kde?
"plasmashell" could stand to be replaced with "Plasma Desktop", but the word "Plasma" is a user-facing brand name we use in a zillion places; I wouldn't replace this with something more generic. "KWin" is also brand name, though admittedly a more obscure one, so I'm slightly more in support or changing that to something descriptive.
"Plasma Desktop" is fine, it's consistent and is promoted heavily. "KWin" is fine to be replaced with simply "Window manager" for end-user facing labels. If we were to prefix everything with "KDE" then we could easily go overboard because *everythin*g in System Settings is KDE technology. I would like to see the HIG talk about user-facing proper nouns. It goes over what our acronyms should be [https://develop.kde.org/hig/text_and_labels/#acronyms], but we don't have a common and congruent way of relating what "KWin" is. I'm thinking of opening a bug report for the HIG for user-facing KDE proper nouns so that we're all on the same page: Akonadi = ?? Baloo = ?? Powerdevil = KDE Power Management (maybe drop the KDE part?) KWin = ? Do we need this?
It's a good point. We're currently not super consistent about how we present internal technologies to users; sometimes we use brand names, sometimes we use descriptive text, and often even if we surface descriptive text in the UI, we and other users use the brand name/internal name in social media. Feel free to open an Issue about it in https://invent.kde.org/documentation/develop-kde-org/-/issues/.
Thanks for the encouragement. Done. https://invent.kde.org/documentation/develop-kde-org/-/issues/175
A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/6304
Git commit af8de6be74009a2a16f7013d52a54bf96bc8a943 by Yifan Zhu. Committed on 23/08/2024 at 14:54. Pushed by fanzhuyifan into branch 'master'. KeyboardLayout: always set componentDisplayName for shortcut Otherwise the last call uses the default, which overrides the previous calls. Test plan: - Go to system settings - shortcuts - Verify the category for layout switching is now correctly called "Keyboard Layout Switcher" M +2 -0 src/keyboard_layout.cpp https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/commit/af8de6be74009a2a16f7013d52a54bf96bc8a943