E17 is maturing, and the TODO that needs to be completed for its release is shrinking. Desktop icons are now working in E17 cvs, and you can use drag and drop between the file manager and the desktop. "Icons on the desktop. A work in progress. you will need ~/Desktop to exist with stuff in it. i suggest copying some of the favorites files over (home.desktop etc.)." There's even a screenshot.
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Member since:2005-11-23
Member since:2005-07-11
Member since:2007-02-11
Actually, with icons on the desktop being so inefficient to work with, it's no surprise that it was somewhere at the bottom of the priority list.
Besides, there are already several other programs which offer these icons, independent of the window manager one uses. With these already around, the only reasons why somebody might want to implement such a feature in a window manager would be:
* in order to have them more closely integrated with the environment (see the case of Gnome -- okay, Gnome is not a window manager -- but you can already get the point, i.e. you can have emblems, modify permissions, write notes and/or comments regarding that program, in order to be used for accessibility reasons etc.)
* in order to implement features which are so non-standard that there would be no reason to implement them outside the window manager in question. Things like this include stuff like animated icons, icons that wobble when you move your mouse over them and so on -- things nobody but the e17 developers would want to write and nobody but e17 users would want to have.
Either way, it's not a question of e17 being developed slowly which can be proven by the fact that icons have appeared on the desktop in 2007. They should have been long gone from the desktop for several years now.
Member since:2006-02-08
Even XFCE didn't get icons on the desktop till the newest 4.4 series.
The XFCE developers actually didn't want to have icons on the desktop (it's a usability issue). They did cave in after so many request for this "feature". I suspect that this is happening to the E17 project too.
People only want icons on the desktop b/c they come from the Windows-land. If you really think about it - you have to minimize most of your current windows before you can get to the icons - that's really an interruption of workflow.
Member since:2005-11-12
Yeah it's amazing, you got icons on desktop in 2007...
I would also like to add, welcome to the year 1987. "The Apple Macintosh uses icons and a desktop metaphor to increase ease of use..."
XFCE ran into the same problem. Everyone wanted desktop icons and now they are there. I think desktop icons work for people since it gives them a comfortable feeling of being unrestricted at placing files. It is not really rational since one could easily maximize Thunar or another file manager and get even better efficiency at managing files. A lot of user interface work is like this it is a combination of function and how it feels to a user that makes it appealing. Another example of this principle is the Firefox Search box. People asked for it and love it. The Mozilla developers were against it since in the older Mozilla suite one can just press the down arrow on the location bar and get a mini search menu. Efficient but too abstract for the casual user. People wanted the box and they got the box.
Edited 2007-05-16 18:41
Member since:2006-02-05
Evolution = Gnome Outlook clone, E = Enlightenment.
E basically started because the lead developer (Rasterman) didn't like (and still doesn't like) the way things are going in linux desktop development.
Member since:
2006-02-12
Evolution has never really been my favorite but e17 is great. I would even go so far as to saying that it is one of the more innovative desktop managers in the OSS community. The progress is in total contrast to what's going on with gnome and this is simply amazing considering the relatively small number or developers. I can't wait for the final release of e17 ...