I agree that it looks quite strange or at least unusual to me.
Find myself always sliding to the left do regonize which topic is selected currently it seems not self explaining and I would miss the header.

In D22884#505651, @cfeck wrote:

The header title is usually more descriptive (longer) than the icon name, so no.

Perhaps it is technically a bug, but it seems to me that most of the time (at least in all of the KDE programs I have installed), the title is just the section name, "Configure (the) [section name]" or "[secion name] Options". In Krita, the page titles are sometimes even shorter than the section names. However, if the bug is so widespread and the intended way of using a page title is so rare, perhaps we should disable page titles by default? It also seems to me that if a page needs an additional description that the user can't see until they get to the page, perhaps the section name isn't accurate or descriptive enough?

In D22884#505656, @ndavis wrote:

In D22884#505651, @cfeck wrote:

The header title is usually more descriptive (longer) than the icon name, so no.

Perhaps it is technically a bug, but it seems to me that most of the time (at least in all of the KDE programs I have installed), the title is just the section name, "Configure (the) [section name]" or "[secion name] Options". In Krita, the page titles are sometimes even shorter than the section names. However, if the bug is so widespread and the intended way of using a page title is so rare, perhaps we should disable page titles by default? It also seems to me that if a page needs an additional description that the user can't see until they get to the page, perhaps the section name isn't accurate or descriptive enough?

I agree.

In D22884#505656, @ndavis wrote:

Perhaps it is technically a bug, but it seems to me that most of the time (at least in all of the KDE programs I have installed), the title is just the section name, "Configure (the) [section name]" or "[secion name] Options". In Krita, the page titles are sometimes even shorter than the section names. However, if the bug is so widespread and the intended way of using a page title is so rare, perhaps we should disable page titles by default? It also seems to me that if a page needs an additional description that the user can't see until they get to the page, perhaps the section name isn't accurate or descriptive enough?

It's not always "Configure [section name]". You can't have a long section name or it would be truncated. When the section name can't describe all the aspects of a KCM, its title can be used to elaborate.

Examples:

• section name "KDE Connect", title "Connect and sync your devices"
• section name "Screen Edges", title "Active Screen Corners and Edges"

Even if we manage to make section names and titles short and descriptive at some point in time, we shouldn't block way for new KCMs that might be too complicated to be named with just a couple of words.

On the other hand, when the title differs between what's displayed on the page and what's displayed in the sidebar/category switcher, this is not really a good thing. So when the title is displayed on the page, we always have one of two issues:

• If the two titles are the same, then one of them is redundant
• If the two titles differ, then this is weird and confusing and inconsistent

In D22884#505718, @aspotashev wrote:

In D22884#505656, @ndavis wrote:

Perhaps it is technically a bug, but it seems to me that most of the time (at least in all of the KDE programs I have installed), the title is just the section name, "Configure (the) [section name]" or "[secion name] Options". In Krita, the page titles are sometimes even shorter than the section names. However, if the bug is so widespread and the intended way of using a page title is so rare, perhaps we should disable page titles by default? It also seems to me that if a page needs an additional description that the user can't see until they get to the page, perhaps the section name isn't accurate or descriptive enough?

It's not always "Configure [section name]". You can't have a long section name or it would be truncated. When the section name can't describe all the aspects of a KCM, its title can be used to elaborate.

Examples:

• section name "KDE Connect", title "Connect and sync your devices"
• section name "Screen Edges", title "Active Screen Corners and Edges"

Those would be decent page titles if we actually used them. "Active Screen Corners and Edges" is used for a GroupBox title.

Even if we manage to make section names and titles short and descriptive at some point in time, we shouldn't block way for new KCMs that might be too complicated to be named with just a couple of words.

Yes, but we have more room than you think. In the System Settings, KCM titles barely use half of the width (it scales with font size as well). In application configuration windows, we just created a lot more vertical space ( D22083 ). I would also argue that complex KCMs should not attempt to explain their purpose all at once in the title.

This is not a KCM, but it looks like one. It puts a few long words in the title that it couldn't put in its section name (Language Support). However, the title is still unnecessary because the Code Completion and Semantic Code Highlighting have their own GroupBox titles.

Note that KTitleWidget originally used normal font size for a descriptive text. At some point that was then changed to large heading font which prompted developers to just (ab)use it as a headline rather than a full description.

In D22884#505856, @broulik wrote:

Note that KTitleWidget originally used normal font size for a descriptive text. At some point that was then changed to large heading font which prompted developers to just (ab)use it as a headline rather than a full description.

Probably because using regular-sized text at the top of the window where you would expect a heading to be is weird-looking and offends your sense of typographic hierarchy. The only way to make it not weird to have a descriptive text/subtitle at the top of the window is if directly above it is a real large header (which would mirror the header text in the category chooser). Then you'd have a standard presentation of "header + subtitle."

But I don't think it makes much sense to show only a subtitle (because it would look lost without its header) or only a header (because it's redundant). This probably explains why the header region's text has been in a state of flux forever. In my experience when some UI thing is just fundamentally wrong, designers can't resist poking and prodding it. Once it's finally right, nobody wants to touch it anymore again.

"KPageWidgetItems live in a multi-page KPageDialog"
Is that really true ? Does it not live also standalone when running e.g. kcmshell5 kwindecoration (or any other kcm ?)
If yes, and at least in this case, the title has to stay, because there is no side bar.

In D22884#506943, @hpereiradacosta wrote:

"KPageWidgetItems live in a multi-page KPageDialog"
Is that really true ? Does it not live also standalone when running e.g. kcmshell5 kwindecoration (or any other kcm ?)
If yes, and at least in this case, the title has to stay, because there is no side bar.

This patch simply adjusts the defaults. If we decide to do this, KCMShell can be adjusted to show the title on the page when showing a single KCM. But even then it's not really necessary IMO because the KCMShell window's titlebar already shows the KCM title.

kmymoney to pick one example uses KPageWidgetModel without a KPageDialog. No idea if the title is shown or not elsewhere, but it shows it's a risky business changing it.

Personally I don't understand what problem we're trying to solve.
I also think this would really suck if you were in a situation where the list view on the left has the active item out of view.