Make global view properties the default setting
ClosedPublic

Authored by elvisangelaccio on Mar 10 2019, 9:53 PM.

Details

Summary

Automatic creation of .directory files is one of the most
complained about things in dolphin.

These days applications are supposed to store application-specific data
within $XDG_DATA_HOME. Long-term that's the proper solution for this
issue, but for now we can at least flip the default so that we no longer
create .directory files out of the box.

A tooltip is also added as a kind of warning for the users who want to
change the setting. Ideally a proper warning should be shown using a
KMessageWidget or KMessageBox, but neither play too well with the
setting dialog workflow used by dolphin.

CCBUG: 322922

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R318 Dolphin
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Unit
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elvisangelaccio requested review of this revision.Mar 10 2019, 9:53 PM
ngraham accepted this revision.Mar 11 2019, 12:59 AM
ngraham added a subscriber: ngraham.

I'm very much in favor of this. In addition to working around the issue with the yucky .directory files,I've long believed that this would make a better default setting in general.

This revision is now accepted and ready to land.Mar 11 2019, 12:59 AM
This revision was automatically updated to reflect the committed changes.

BTW, I'm not sure how it could possibly be related, but the placesitemmodel test has started consistently failing after this commit went in: https://build.kde.org/job/Applications/job/dolphin/job/stable-kf5-qt5%20SUSEQt5.10/30/testReport/junit/projectroot.src/tests/placesitemmodeltest/

BTW, I'm not sure how it could possibly be related, but the placesitemmodel test has started consistently failing after this commit went in: https://build.kde.org/job/Applications/job/dolphin/job/stable-kf5-qt5%20SUSEQt5.10/30/testReport/junit/projectroot.src/tests/placesitemmodeltest/

Sorry about that. Fixed with bff373d598c031cb19bac222f90527d4c4c3d567

Just as user feedback: I don't want to say this new default is wrong, but it was annoying for me to find out that the default changed. I always sort my folder with downloads date-wise.

I ignored the issue/change/inconvenience for weeks until I decided today to look up why this is not working. In the settings I then of course found the relevant option, but it was nevertheless annoying and exhausting. And via Google and a Reddit post I found this revision.

So just imagine how a regular user must feel about this sudden behavior change, who relied on it like I did and who is not proficient in using his PC and all the hidden settings that there are. Again I don't say the new default is wrong, but neither can you tell me otherwise. Having different sort-settings for different folders can be a feature we want to have per default.

If, like described in the commit message, you changed the default to work around the issue with dot-files until you find a solution for that I think you should have not done it but wait for this solution to materialize.

If you changed it because you think it's a better default, as in what regular users expect, I might agree to that notion, but would have tried to gather some more data points before committing to a change of the default.

Anyway this was meant just as food for thought when there is another default value in the future you want to change (I'm not saying you shouldn't at all).

Hi Roman, just a question: did the setting change in an already existing installation?
If yes, that was definitely not my intention, and we should find a fix or revert this patch. This was a change only aimed at new installations.

I don't have opinions about which default is better, and yes I changed it only to workaround another issue.
I don't like it either, but I considered the dot-files creation bad enough to justify such workaround.

Hi Roman, just a question: did the setting change in an already existing installation?
If yes, that was definitely not my intention, and we should find a fix or revert this patch. This was a change only aimed at new installations.

I don't have opinions about which default is better, and yes I changed it only to workaround another issue.
I don't like it either, but I considered the dot-files creation bad enough to justify such workaround.

It was an existing installation for me. It's gonna be difficult I assume to revert or fix it up, since it was already released in 19.04. Changing it back once again might lead to more confusion.

I think global view properties is actually a better default. Also, yeah, reverting it at this point would only worsen the confusion.

The problem here is that throughout KDE software, changing defaults has the effect of changing it for existing users' who have not previously changed that setting (even if they changed it, then changed it back to the default setting). This isn't a Dolphin-specific problem but I think it would definitely be worth the effort to improve KConfig so that developers could specify whether a defaults change should affect un-changed settings or not.