Lancelot - answer to DanaKil

Functional Programming in C++

Published by Ivan Čukić in the KDE development: Plasma section, on 19 September 2007

WARNING: Contains NO spoilers! :)

DanaKil: "Great great :)

and I’m curious about your “Lancelot”… nice name btw, and smart pun for a french speaker (”lance” can be translated by “launch”) ^^"

Well, the name occurred to me when I made a superkaramba applet for myself (never have published it) for faster launching of my favorite apps. Lancelot - as launching-lot (lot as in parking-lot). And I have used the name Sir Lancelot sometimes as my alias (and yes, I’m a Monty Python fan).

Since then, Lancelot have changed. Mainly because of one of the commit-digests, due to which people thought Lancelot to be a kmenu replacement like Kickoff and Raptor. It was not intended to be anything of the sort.

The main idea that was guiding me was to create a simple application launcher (and nothing more than that) that would have a no-click (Absolutely No Click Needed At AllTM) interface.

Commit digest just gave me the wings. Things have changed - instead of making a simple Plasmoid, I started a separate application that uses libplasma for implementation (similar to what Amarok team is doing) that is going to have all needed features for an ALI.

The thing is that majority of users adore kickoff, while I hate it. I like the general idea behind it, but IMHO the layout is a bit wrong, categories too, and the non-favorite application browsing is painful. I wanted to address these issues in my own particular … (idiom sir?) … yes idiom.

Lancelot is, at the moment, only my experiment with which I want to achieve a couple of things:

Testing area for more complex no-click user interfaces
Development incubator for Plasma (FileBrowser, KioBrowser, BorderLayout were backported from Lancelot to Plasma)
Possibility of having Plasmoids in an ALI - customizable ALI
KRunner in the ALI
Having an alternative if I don’t like the default ALI for KDE 4.0 (yes I’m being a bit selfish :) )

Well, that’s all clarification that I’ll give at the moment - no mockups nor screenshots yet - as I’ve said “no spoilers”.

p.s. If there are people who like when KDE applications have K in their name, you can call it Knight Lancelot :) *[ALI]: Application Launching Interface

Askrates
And when you have built this Lancelot, you must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest... WITH... A HERRING!
Thomas Walther
Any screenshots yet? For the curious? :D
admin
<div class="ivan"> @Askrates<br /> Been there, done that :) <br /><br /> @Thomas Walther<br /> Move along, nothing to see here :)<br /> There are no fancy screenshots ATM. Most of the things that are done are widgets... the main layout will be formed soon. </div>
Level 1
How exactly does a no click interface work? does it respond to mouse over events, or use keyboard shortcuts, or what?
admin
<div class="ivan"> @Level 1<br /> I forgot about that :) It is no-keyboard also (except for the search/execute field). <br /><br /> It is mainly based on hovering, but not just simple hovering because that way there would be too much mistakes and accidental button activation. <br /><br /> The main principle (for most items) is when you hover it, it expands in one direction showing a 'play' icon. When you hover the icon, the button is activated ('clicked'). <br /><br /> The main problem with the layout is to make the extenders positioned the 'smart' way so that you can't activate one item by trying to move to the another one. <br /><br /> Incidentally, you will be able to turn off the no-click activation (just for specific items, or for the whole interface), and to activate clicking if you do not like the idea. </div>
martin
Try TastyMenu. It's Kickoff done right (tm).
admin
<div class="ivan"> Yes, I know of TastyMenu, I'm using it. I lacks a few things compared to KickOff - it is only an application launcher - no media management, contacts etc. I like it's UI although it's a bit sluggish. <br /><br /> I have considered many existing implementations - TastyMenu, Kickoff, Gimmie are just a few more notable examples. </div>
Ivan Čukić » On the road again
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