KDE developer Pinheiro revealed his ideas on the next KDE menu, dubbed 'Raptor'. "What is Raptor? Raptor is a an amazing project I have been working on in the last few days. It tries to be a fresh new way of finding your desktop applications, and interacting with its users." A design document (containing more screenshots) is also available [.pdf].
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:2007-06-22
Kickoff already works like this. Just press the default Alt-F1, type in the application name or part of it (auto-completion) and it should pop up at the top of the search results. From there you just have to hit Enter.
I'm curious whether Raptor will be included in 4.0 as the default KMenu replacment. So far it looks like it will miss every scheduled Beta release so I can't imagine that the KDE developers will use an untested (both technically and usability-wise) piece of software.
Edited 2007-10-07 15:51
Member since:2006-01-12
Well, if this thing works anything like launching applications using Spotlight on the Mac (apple+space, type app's name, enter) then I'm all for it.
Alt+F2, type app name (with dropdown and automatic completion), enter. It's been there all along.
It would help if you could search by function or description (I assume spotlight does that and it's what you meant), so you don't have to remember names like tutbKbtasuaatpotimfoantatywtadawwtcuwssnanl"t"btctosawwaai(This Used To Be KIllustrator But Then Adobe Sued Us And All The People On The Internet Made Fun Of App Names That Actually Tell You What The App Does And We Wanted To Come Up With Some Stupid New Age Name Like "Tranquility" But Then Came To Our Senses And Went With An Acronym Instead.)
EDIT: Yes, that was overdone, I admit it. But let's face it the problem is real. We've gone from programs called "xchat" and "kwrite" (both still alive but around for a long time) to stuff like marble and pidgin (both clever names in their own way but you'd never come up with it when sitting in front of a run dialog)
Edited 2007-10-07 22:00
Member since:2005-07-02
Member since:2005-07-06
I don't need an uber fancy looking panel that entertains me while I dig around trying to find applications. Let's keep it clean and simple guys! And, lets not lose sight of what the thing is supposed to do.
You're not going to like OS X then.........
Seriously though, both Gnome and KDE have ambled around with application menus over the years. KDE has had a bit of trouble organising some of their stuff, Novell went off and moved away from the top menu entry to creating the SLAB menu, which then got recreated for KDE, and nothing much definitive has happened to be honest. At least Raptor looks like a departure.
We'll have to see how this thing behaves once code is written and people can try it out. Arguing over screenshots is lame.
Member since:2005-11-21
Member since:
2006-07-16
It looks bizzare. I want to be able to goto the application category and find the launcher with a minimum of clicks or fuss. Linux Mint has the right idea with its Mintmenu. I don't need an uber fancy looking panel that entertains me while I dig around trying to find applications. Let's keep it clean and simple guys! And, lets not lose sight of what the thing is supposed to do.