I would like to suggest functionalities, well, more like customizations to the Menu App.
I recently started using KDE, came from Gnome, it’s much better all around once you get to how you want it to be.
But there was this one thing, that it didnt provide enough, that is the customizability of the menu app.
KDE even offers Show Alternatives, but it doesn’t make sense why you would do that, when you could provide much better and improved ways to build/customize your own App Menu, with different layouts and how you want it structured, and this is the part where it lacks.
Ideally something like this https://gitlab.com/arcmenu/ArcMenu, which after checking many options out there, this by far offer the best customization in terms of different parts and options. In that extension, you have many layouts and many options to customize each layout. But it’s for gnome.
Ideally I would like to not have categories on the side, have different layouts when showing the apps, have options to not be sorted by A-Z. It would be a simple menu app, but even that, are not possible.
So, it would be nice if you could take inspiration and provide more foundational options to it.
Btw the Menu Editor does not come near what I mean here.
Hi - glad that you’re enjoying your experience with KDE software overall!
A couple thoughts here, not as an expert or highly opinionated design person myself - if you have interest in contributing toward the design of KDE software, you might be interested in checking out the Visual Design Group. More info about that is located here: Get Involved/design - KDE Community Wiki
And, while I know what you mentioned is changing the existing Kickoff Application Launcher in Plasma, there are also quite a few alternative options available in the “Plasma 6 Menus” category of the KDE Store: Plasma 6 Menus - KDE Store
Yes. Just as KDE are very customizable in many areas. Ideally this would be another one, which I found to be the most lacking, to keep using it natively.
I checked the menus in the store, but they are usually very opnionated as well and stricted by the default rules of KDE. Which is another reason why I thought that this should come from KDE itself.
While I don’t use the default menu ( never did), but Cupnoodle’s one, making a one fit all customizable menu is an impossible task. As a developer you could make some menu with numerous custom options but…it’ll never be enough. There will ALWAYS be requests to implement this and that, some to the point that users want a menu that makes them a sandwich. Some will ask for a fulscreen menu, others more default but with customizable colomns, some a windows type tiles menu…the list goes on and on and on. Plasma 5 had like, what, 30-ish alternatives? In every single menu page on the Store there’s this one mantra you’ll always come across, “could you add…”. I know gnome’s arc menu and lets just say it covers 10% of the demands that have been made by users. If you want a menu which fits ALL your requests, I guess you’ll have to make one by using stuff like jgmenu, rofi &co. Like I said, I’ve never used the default menu, at least not in the default Kicker/kickoff setup and I agree the current one could use some extras. But a single uber menu is simply impossible imho.
I disagree. It’s not fits all to the extreme in customization, but having different possibilities to improve your (the user) experience as you want.
ArcMenu have done it. Works very well. They took references from all the options out there. And have not decided things for you.
Some examples shown here https://linuxdicasesuporte.blogspot.com/2020/02/arcmenu-41-e-lancado.html
Why do I have favorites that I do not want to, and why it’s the main option when you open it, unchangeable. Why have categories when I have no use for it, or sorted by separation A-Z, that also have no options to remove / turn off.
Some simple options to enable / disable what you want, would already be very different. Further options would be a plus.
Not so much, I sure asked to take arcmenu as the ideal reference, but what I request was mostly simple things, that, what is there, should be easily togglable, not fixed / decided.
But sure, others may ask other things as well. If you meant as to disconsider the request, unless you are someone from the team, not sure the intent.
You offer a third party addon to use to compare to the stock KDE menu? There are a massive number of different application menu widget alternatives available from the KDE store, via the get new Widgets, as has already been mentioned.
I will wager that having a menu that has all the configuration and layout options would become very heavy and cumbersome, not to mention slower, buggy or less stable. Or no one has decided to make a single application launcher with All The Settings, or felt the need to do so. Even third party ones only have limited options at best.
A good part of the Show Alternatives option is that you can easily add any number of the different launcher widgets available and very quickly switch between them when finding out which one you might like the best.
But doing so is NOT a simple thing to actually create code for. Else it would be there (this IS KDE here, lol!)
I imagine the css/javascript used for Arc/Gnome may be easier to create this sort of option-heavy layout(s), but I also imagine this also may be prone to be affected by differences in desktop theming between distros, as has been the case in the past, perhaps?
I am not saying I would not want such a highly configurable thing, it IS the KDE way, of course , and I am often all in on that.
But seeing what can break when changing layouts on some of the much simpler third party menus reminds me that it is not so simple. The Arc menu dev looks to be fairly busy…
In addition to getting involved in the Visual Design Group as mentioned above, a couple of other options available to help bring constructive perspective and enable you to make your vision happen would be to:
You can create an own Application Launcher (or modify an existing one - the easier method) according to your wishes - for example just like the ArcMenu - if you want to.
Niccolo Venerandi is a major contributor to KDE Plasma. He has created major parts of Plasma 6 desktop environrent.
Problem would be if I used it and compiled a changed version, to maintain it with new updates, it’s not something I would want.
You do not have to maintain or update a widget at all. It is a rare exeption now when switching from Plasma 5 to 6. Happens next time after 10 or 15 years.
You “just” create a widget and save it to your .local/share/Plasma/Plasmoids and it is ready for using.
And if you want to share it with us - the other Plasma users (hopefully you want to) - you create an account to KDE Store/Pling and upload the widget there. (You even get paid some pennies if you give a PayPal account to Pling)
I been trying out the code directlyt at /usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kickoff/contents/ui/ which results in a direct effect on the menu, once you logout and log back in. (not recommended, as it is the default)
Just be aware if anyone tries this, depending on what you do, it might break on different levels, from menu not working, or resulting in black screen after login.
Now, the reason why some things are not easily modifiable in the code, it’s because there are many coupled things there, that should have been decoupled.
e.g., if I change one thing, it breaks other parts that are unrelated, as they were made reliant on each other, even though they shouldn’t be. So not very clean code.
Pretty much the code were built not thinking / considering additions or customizability to it, otherwise it might have been done differently.
There are a massive number of different application menu widget alternatives available from the KDE store, via the get new Widgets, as has already been mentioned.
, and I am often all in on that.