This is a neat feature, but I worry that it would muddy the difference between the regular task manager and the icons-only task manager. It's not inconceivable that a user wanting to get an IOTM-style panel would resort to using this feature to force every single window to be icon-only.

In D12463#252419, @ngraham wrote:

This is a neat feature, but I worry that it would muddy the difference between the regular task manager and the icons-only task manager. It's not inconceivable that a user wanting to get an IOTM-style panel would resort to using this feature to force every single window to be icon-only.

Well, personally I am not going to use it as I use icon tasks, but the people who wished for it seem to not want icon tasks,

Initial discussion in the VDG group was (anonymized, for now):

anon1, [08.03.18 16:06]
[In reply to KDE IRC Relay Service]
if you "pin" an app you get an starter icon, if the app is not running, but a full task bar entry, if the app is running.

But there is no way to "pin" like in a browser, icon only even when running.

KDE IRC Relay Service, [08.03.18 16:06]
<anon2> ah that
<anon2> yeah I wish we had that
<anon2> (and no, I dont want to change to icon tasks)

anon1, [08.03.18 16:07]
then there would be far less need to minimize to systray

KDE IRC Relay Service, [08.03.18 16:08]
<anon2> KMail shows unread mail count in task bar, has "check for mail" option in the menu, so I dont see a reason for kmail tray icon for instance

anon1, [08.03.18 16:09]
I only show windows from the current screen in the task bar

anon1, [08.03.18 16:09]
current virtual desktop *

and https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=136113 was thrown at me, which has some discussion as well.

I can see definitely some valid points, e.g. having it for applications you only have one instance (which makes the window title irrelevant in most cases) and basically only care about the notification, kmail/kontact was named as an example, but I could see the same apply to chat / instant messaging systems.

As said, personally I am not going to use it, but I definitely see good use cases which separates this from icon only (icon only is a massive pain if you often have multiple windows of the same application you need to be able to quickly distinguish)

I do like this as a vastly superior replacement for "minimize to tray", yeah.

+1
As soon as there are enough tasks in the task bar, that you can not any longer read the title at a glimpse or the tasks start to group the task bar, it looses so much of its usefulness.
In groups you have to hover , wait, move the mouse and click to activate a task and if the labels are too small you either have to wait for the hover or guess.

With this possibility to make applications with only one instance open like an IDE, a music player, chat, mail, ... to show as icon only in the task bar, the point where the tab bar looses it usefulness comes much later.

To mee, this is very similar to pinning tabs in browsers. And in my opinion that is one of the best UI improvements in browsers in the recent years. It makes tab organization so much clearer, since one can have a lot more tabs open before you need to scroll to see all.

It occurs to me that this is basically the exact use case for adding a launcher widget to the panel, and using it would be an almost identical final user experience. In both cases, you wind up with an immovable launcher that doesn't change its location in response to launching the app. Since we can't really get rid of the concept of the launcher widget, I worry that if we add this, we'll have two ways to accomplish the exact same goal.

Thoughts?

If I remember correctly, the main argument against the launcher was that pinned apps should be pinned and thus not change their location / order, but exactly that would happen with a launcher once you open the app (that, or a duplicate entry in the window list)

I'm talking about an actual launcher widget in the panel, nothing to do with the Task Manager's own pinning support. Launcher widgets in the panel are used for launching apps and will never move around, which is exactly what this patch is implementing within the Task Manager, if I'm understanding it.

Then as soon as you actually run the app there will be a duplicate, the launcher and the entry in the task manager. If I understood correctly, pinned tabs in browsers avoid that. You have a small, icon only variant when not open and a full variant (at the same position) when open.

Oh, I see.