In KRunner 6.30, the ability to type on desktop is forced. Before it was optional, though opt-out: typing on desktop used to either launch KRunner or do nothing.
The setting was removed from KRunner and moved into a right-click desktop icons option, there typing on desktop either launches KRunner or starts searching for an item on the desktop. There isn’t a way to fully disable it.
A need for typing on desktop be disabled is that it isn’t always intentional. Like cleaning the surface of keyboard keys.
I had specifically disabled the setting prior to the update in KRunner and the configuration wasn’t preserved to not launch it.
I’m ok with only arrow keys, tab/shif-tab and enter being used to navigate items on the desktop.
If I wanted to I intentionally launch KRunner, I would have used the regular global shortcut that came with it.
I also dislike that the option to turn it off was removed, especially since KRunner is slower than both dmenu and wmenu for apps. And it’s not faster than using the traditional “Start menu” for finding files either.
There’s neither real nor perceived productivity improvement. Just like baloo, allow users to turn off features that are either unneeded or insufficient.
Let’s not start forcing things on users like you know who.
I don’t really understand the issue. If the old behavior was for nothing to happen when you type, then the solution to the change would be to just not type anything.
It would be a different thing if you wanted something else to happen when typing, but maybe just unplug the keyboard if you’re going to clean it? Or please give a few more examples of when you would want to type on the desktop without anything happening.
I do think there’s a difference between cleaning up options because they don’t make much sense to most users and forcing a real new behavior.
If a user has “Focus Follows Mouse” turned on, and their mouse happens to be over the desktop by a smidge instead of over the app they want to type in, all of a sudden they are typing and nothing is happening because KRunner is a little slow, and then they finally see what’s happening when KRunner pops up.
In any case, “just do this” or “just don’t do that” isn’t helpful. This is a feature that was removed, not one that was never available.
I’m sorry, but that just sounds like another very carefully constructed edge case for arguments sake to me. Also, I never found krunner to be “a little slow”, it pops up instantly when I type on the desktop.
Every change in a software ever is a “removed feature” to somebody (you know which xkcd to insert here). Developers constantly need to weigh up which changes to make, and “there’s too many settings!” is a frequent complaint with kde software. I don’t know the particular reason for removing this option, but if someone had asked me if it was needed I’d have answered “probably not” because I still don’t see the point
Hold on. You think the option to disable an unwanted/unneeded feature on a DE that some people say has too many settings - in other words, too many features - is part of the issue of having too many settings (again, features)?
No, I said I don’t know the reason for the change, I was just trying to come up with one that seemed reasonable to me. Also, a setting is not the same as a feature? And now this conversation derails in a completely unrelated direction somehow.
