OneFinger - screenshots
Here is how KDE looks when OneFinger is installed (Nuvola icons,
Plastik style):
Here's an explanation: below the Kicker (i.e. the KDE panel), you
can see the "OneFinger main window". The main window looks very
different from traditional apps: it has a "text area" above, and below
it are three "panels":
Also notice the KDE taskbar and pager have been removed, in favour
of the "OneFinger Kicker applet", which spans the whole Kicker's
width. The applet is so big because you must be able to click it
without looking at it.
In the following screenshot you can see a new component: the
"OneFinger window-list". This appears when you left-click (or drag
onto) the kicker applet, and allows you to activate windows, drag
something onto windows, close terminated output windows, etc.
The killer features of the window list are:
- it sorts the windows by recent usage (like ALT+TAB). This fact:
- minimizes (asymptotically) the amount of searching you have to
do;
- allows you to keep many window open, and still to quickly find
(on average) the window you need. This makes the KDE pager superfluous
in many cases;
- is especially suited for continuously switching between two or
three windows - a task that is frequent but terribly difficult with
the kicker taskbar;
- automatically brings "utility windows" on top when you click their
"parent" window; this is a feature the KDE taskbar does not yet have,
and which is very useful with multiwindow programs like The Gimp:
imagine clicking a picture window and having the other Gimp tool
windows go on top as well.
- it allows you to select a window by reading the whole window
title; no more truncated names;
- and no, the fact that the window-list is popup does
not slow you down: the kicker applet is so big that, after a
while, you begin to click it without looking at it, and completely
unconsciously, while thinking of other things. Furthermore, after it's
open, the actual click is quicker because the clickable areas are
larger.
In the following screenshot, you can see OneFinger's "suggest program"
capability in action:
I have clicked the "+" button of a picture in the file panel, and
as a consequence the program panel has been narrowed to show only the
programs that can open the picture.
Now, if I wanted, I could also drag the selected picture to another
window, by clicking the "Drag to..." button; then the window-list
would appear, asking for the target window. Dragging is particularly
easy with OneFinger, because you never have to resize windows or keep
the mouse button pressed.