Creating new activites seems unintuitive

Without searching for how to and locating KDE Plasma and Virtual Desktops – Natural Born Coder, I had no idea how to create one, because

20231214T214527GMT

looks like the place to do it, yet a “Create” or “Configure” (to invoke systemsettings) button is absent. Does anyone agree?

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Isn’t it’s usually impossible to open that panel unless you set up at least one activity?

there should be a + Create Activity button at the bottom of that panel.
Screenshot_20231214_145404

no, you can activate the panel even if you only have one activity… i have it set up for one corner of my screen.

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@skyfishgoo, I have neither that option nor whatever is present to the left of the panel which that image depicts:

…is the entire panel as I can see it.

Operating System: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20231214
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.10
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.112.0
Qt Version: 5.15.11
Kernel Version: 6.6.6-1-default (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 6-Core Processor
Memory: 30.5 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 5700
Manufacturer: ASRock
Product Name: X670E Taichi

I’m gonna convert this into a Help topic.

if you click on the background and type “activities”, then open the setting page that appears in the search result, there should also be a + Create New… button at the bottom of that window.

If THAT is missing then there is something missing from your install, otherwise it could be a screen resolution things or are you sure that is the entire screen, there are no scroll bars on the right of the screen to access a larger virtual desktop?

@skyfishgoo,

  1. Do you mean

    ?


  2. I don’t quite visualize what you might be referring to.

yes, you can create a new activity from that settings window, but there is supposed to be one at the bottom edge of that panel.

are you using screen edges to bring up the panel or hot keys… try screen edges.

don’t remember how i got into that mode, exactly, but i remember seeing it…
in cases when you have a desktop larger than your physical screen size there will be scroll bars along the edges of the screen to allow you to see the rest of the desktop that is cut off from view.

@skyfishgoo,

  1. Like

    ? I don’t see an activity sidebar there.

  2. I’ve been using the standard key bind - Meta+Tab.

type “screen edges” onto the desktop and go to the settings page.

pick one of the unused edges/corners and assign it to Activity Manager… that’s how i do it and i have access to the create as well configure and search at the top.

when i use meta-tab i see what you see… so don’t use meta-tab to for anything besides switching activities, it’s just a barebones switcher.

Default shortcut for entering activities panel is Win-Q.
Mine looks the following:


At the bottom, just above the task bar, there is the + Create activity... button.

(Screenshot shows F39, but my openSUSE Leap has the same behavior, so should also have tumbleweed with its default configuration).

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Now I can access it!

Any idea why Meta+Tab opens a different menu, @Kwizzz and @skyfishgoo?

meta + tab is the hotkey for switching only and will walk you thru each one (forward and backward)

the other hotkey (or the screen edge thing) is for bringing up the interaction panel that includes creation as well as configuration options and you can also search and stop activities from there.

this leaves two means of accessing the same display of activities which seems redundant, but imagine if the options and configuration of activities becomes more than just creating, starting or stopping them… that would all go on the 2nd interface while the switcher could remain clean.

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They’re both actually implemented by the same QML page. Only when using Meta+Tab (or in Plasma 6: Meta+A), the control elements are hidden. I figure that choice was made so users aren’t expected to click while holding keys. Certainly debatable and there are probably ways to improve discoverability.

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Agree to all explanations above.

Plus meta+tab only switches between active activities, while meta-q lists all, active, as well as stopped, activities.

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i’m no coder, but what i’m hearing is the switcher (meta+tab) and composer (meta+q) are showing you the same thing only the switcher has to go about hiding parts of it… currently, that is only a handful of elements.

wouldn’t it make more sense to have the switcher be stand alone and then used as a component of the composer?

wouldn’t that make the switcher faster and the composer more expandable for future feature additions without putting a burden upon the switcher of having to hide more and more elements as features are added?

i guess what i’m really pushing for is more features to the activities function because i think it’s a good tool, but currently is very bare bones.

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Speaking as a coder, you separate components when you run into problems with the current architecture, not beforehand for some vaguely defined set of more features to come later. It’s easy to fall into the trap of making things more modular and expansible only to end up with something that’s more complex but not making use of it.

Don’t worry about the technical state of the switcher, it’s fine for what it’s currently trying to do. If it needs to be split to make some feature easier to implement, it can and will happen then.

Edit: What’s really holding activities back is merely a lack of developers actively working on it.

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thanks for that insight.

good stuff.

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