+1 from me as well. I knew this shortcut from, ahem, other desktops. I thought it was something KDE simply didn't do. Nice fix.

@rkflx : A question about coding style and/or reviewer (you) preferences... do we object to the use of temporary local variables inside Javascript functions? I'm working on keeping the rectangle inside the screen. I've set up var screenWidth = cropDisplayCanvas.width at the top of my function. It's just for ease of use and readability... I can do tests and checks against screenWidth instead of writing long if tests with cropDisplayCanvas.width ... just to keep the lines of code a bit shorter and easier to read through.

Perhaps I can go into the UserManager KCM, let it change the avatar like always, then run a brief timer (250ms?), and then ‘touch’ the face file so the KDirWatch runs a second time.

@hein : Thanks for the time spent investigating. The User Manager KCM appears to write out proper (non-corrupt) files, at least in my testing. I know there's a KDirWatch in one of the included Frameworks (KCoreAddons, I think), but that seems to work properly. It does indeed copy the file to the other places where it belongs. I'm still at a loss as to why it goes blank, but works when plasmashell is restarted. So Kickoff is picking up on the fact that there's been a change, but the operation doesn't complete.

I'll get back to work on this. I've got a current open patch I need to finish up first, then I'll resume work on this. Should be a couple days at most.

In T8569#148166, @ngraham wrote:

Hmm, I think maybe I confused you, @sharvey. I was referring to this project, and I was wondering why you seemed to have abandoned it! ;-)

@abetts - Nate has told me that there's a project in the works to redesign and standardize the entire collection of dialog boxes.

In D13450#280408, @ngraham wrote:

Unmodified arrow keys: move/resize by single pixel
Arrow keys with shift held down: move/resize by large increment

Okay then. ⇧ will slow the movement/resizing down to 1px. Will probably use CTRL for mode switching.

As an FYI... the way Kicker/Kickoff/Dashboard are coded is very clever. The individual icon entries are all created from the same code. Eike is very good at writing reusable code. The different launchers just sort and display them in different layouts. So if we add a "new" badge (an idea to which I give a +1), I believe it will show up in all the launchers. I don't see that as a bad thing, however.

I'll pitch in if I can. I've spent enough time in the Kickoff code trying to make circular avatars... argh.

Okay, so my short-term to-do list for this is:

• move "large" by default (15 or 20 px, whichever feels: more comfortable)
• Use ⇧ + Arrows to move in single-pixel precision style
  • What modifider key do we want for resizing instead of moving? CTRL or ALT?
• Write a boundary-checking function so the rectangle can't go past the screen edges

A couple of random ideas:

Strike everywhere I mentioned the new QML rectangle. The existing rectangle is QML. As I said, I'm a bit foggy at the moment.

In D13450#279387, @rkflx wrote:

• Did Nate mention that currently there is work underway in D12626: Port QML Rectangle cropper to QWidget + QPainter? Not sure what's the best course of action though, i.e. whether to rebase on the port now, or finish the QML-based patch and port later.

Although I haven't tested it, that patch sounds like it operates more quickly. If that's the case, it might make sense for me to hold off on this and refactor it based on the new & improved rectangle.

It seems I have some system rebuilding to do first. I'm not up for tackling it tonight. I'll work on it in the morning and try to get you some more data.

In D13095#277963, @thsurrel wrote:

Hi Scott, thanks for the help!
If you can apply the patch, we could see if you have the same behavior than Nate with his hardware: when setting a very low value (for him, it's in the range 1 to 5) to /sys/class/backlight/<hardware>/brightness his screen does not turn on at all. I would like to know if /sys/class/backlight/<hardware>/actual_brightness is then saying something different than /sys/class/backlight/<your hardware>/brightness.
On my computer the backlight goes on as soon as I put 1 to /sys/class/backlight/<hardware>/brightness, so I cannot reproduce this.
I hope I'm clear enough :)

Hope you don't mind me jumping in - I'm another one of Nate's protegees... here's some data for you. These values are before your patch. Let me know if you'd like me to apply your patch and redo the testing.

• Whitespace cleanup

In D13450#277054, @sharvey wrote:

• Split bottom help text into two columns

• Split bottom help text into two columns

In D13450#276926, @ngraham wrote:

Great! That's taken care of the string and technical issues I spotted. Now that I play around with it, I notice that the explanatory text box on the bottom is getting pretty tall. I wonder if it might make sense to instead add a second column (i.e. a second GridLayout next to the original one) for these new lines. That way, compared to the status quo, it would grow horizontally instead of vertically. This might also impose a pleasing separation, since one column would be exclusively about the move/resize actions, so they wouldn't get lost in the middle.

What do you think?

• Properly format i18n strings

In D13450#276922, @ngraham wrote:

The proper way to do this like so:i18n("Move selection rectangle %1 pixels", largeChange)

largeChange value plugged in for help text. Reformatted strings in normal case, not Title Case.

• More string revisions; use largeChange value in bottom help box

In D13450#276903, @ngraham wrote:

Very cool! Works nicely for me. I've got a few string change suggestions below:

• String revisions

I had plenty of extra time while dog-sitting for friends. I've added the resizing functions. I think the resizing "directions" feel natural with the arrow keys as defined. Please let me know if you agree or disagree.

• Fix mismatched brackets

• Rewrite key handler; add rectangle resize functions

ALT + Arrows = resize rectangle
ALT + CTRL + Arrows = larger resize of rectangle

The bug report is a bit unclear... the title is

In D13415#275567, @ngraham wrote:

I encounter the very same issue as in D13202: Changing the Avatar in System Settings results in a blank circle in Kickoff. Here's a clue though: it only happens on the first change for each image. For example, if I change the image to something else in the gallery, hit apply, and open Kickoff, I see a blank circle. If I go to System Settings and change the avatar again--but choose the very same gallery image--then it shows up in Kickoff.

I rewrote this patch using an OpacityMask and a second rounded Rectangle to draw the ring. It's a separate diff - D13415: Reshape Kickoff avatar to a circle with Opacity Mask.

I thought I had the blank circle problem fixed, but it appears I was wrong - must've done something incomplete in my testing.

In D13202#275279, @davidedmundson wrote:

Worth noting that some values were tweaked here because of the smaller circle size.

@ngraham - This now appears to function properly with no blank circles. Will you please confirm?

• Remove explicit visible: true, as default == true

@apol : My first pass at this used OpacityMask. It worked well. See below.

• Reset QtQuick version to 2.4

Let's try this...

• Force icon to be visible, avoiding blank circle

@davidedmundson - could use your input here, please. Your circle shader effect detects a user avatar change, partially - it goes blank. But it doesn't reload squareFace despite the fact that all three avatar locations (~.face, ~.face.icon, and /var/lib/AccountServices/icon/$USER all update immediately. Any idea why it doesn't refresh, or how to force it to refresh?

I don't know if I need to edit user-manager to emit a signal of some kind, or if some trigger needs to go over the D-Bus... I'm wading into deep water here.

I'm not clear why user-manager removes the previous avatar, but the new one isn't immediately available.

In D13202#270585, @ngraham wrote:

Looks great now! Quite pleasing to the eye.

I've got a few blockers though:

• When I change the icon in the user-manager KCM and re-open Kickoff, the new icon isn't displayed; instead I just see a blank circle with no image in it until I quit and restart plasmashell.

• Whitespace once more

• Remove redundant OpacityMask; tweaked antialiasing

In D13202#270529, @abetts wrote:

It doesn't look any different to me. They are both the same. Maybe the screenshot is too small? I can see the pixels from far on both images.

AA option not set

In D13202#270496, @ngraham wrote:

Cool! But in your latest screenshot, the circle is aliased pretty badly....

• Whitespace (again...)

I stuck with @davidedmundson 's use of PlasmaCore.ColorScope.textColor for the highlight ring. I tested it with a few different color themes and the whole thing comes out looking like a natural match. This shot is back to my personal choice of an openSUSE scheme.

If you copy and paste the ShaderEffect from UserDelegate.qml colorBorder is a property you can change

• Add theme-colored ring around avatar

The one visual improvement I could think of is adding a thin light gray outline around the circle to help separate it from the background. This is done on the login and lock screens; might be able to mine those implementations for ideas, if it's not too hard. But even without that, this is looking good. :)

I intentionally didn't tag Bug 386656, as it has some debate allowing the user to select between a round or square avatar. @ngraham voted for the circle, which is what I implemented. If we want it switchable, I'll add a toggle. If not, I'll add the BUG: tag.

• Remove whitespace

+1 for this as a whole. If I can find a way to help, I will.

Message received and understood. Sorry for jumping the gun.

Either I'm not understanding your request properly, or the color picker does work as you're requesting. See the following YouTube link - video is too large to upload directly to Phab.

I had a rough day today (technically, it's not over yet), so I spent about $80 on a used LG V500 Android tablet that will run LineageOS. We have a wiki page for how to get PM up and running on a Lineage-powered device.

Oh. I see. The Phab emails say "now ready to land", so I did what the machine told me to. But I clearly see your point.

• - Remove trailing whitespace

I forgot it was a bug. I thought it was an assignment. :-)

• Add units.smallSpacing as margins around search bar row

@davidedmundson (and/or others) - what's the most-correct and most-effective QML method to add a bit of padding around these elements? I know we want to link "tops" to "bottoms" in row layouts, which makes perfect sense. But what's the right way to add a bit of margin? In this case, the descender in the g in Widgets is right up against the search text bar. Likewise, the icons for the available widgets run right up to the bottom of the text field.

• Merge branch 'master' into new-search-row
• Revise QML using relative sizing & spacing instead of fixed values

D11926: Add "SkipSwitcher" to API was already landed and closed several weeks ago. I believe everything is complete.