[Compcomm] CCS Manager problems / features

[Erkin Bahceci]

Hi,

CCS Manager looks pretty nice and useful. The new "effects" icon has
much better contrast than the one in Beryl settings manager. Closing
subgroups with # items > 3 by default is also nice. Thanks for all the
hard work on settings systems/managers.

Below are some problems and missing functionalities I saw (which you
are probably already aware of):

- It takes very long to start up. Can't the plugin options be loaded
when the user clicks on the plugin button? I guess Compiz Settings
Manager was doing this. Like this, it will take longer and longer to
start up as new plugins get added.
- Plugin options are not sorted in any way, i.e. randomly ordered (xml
order is not used either). Alphabetical ordering would be nice to
have. e.g. "minimize animation" should be at the top in the "minimize
animation" option group, instead of being at the bottom.
- The message "If you click No, the action will still be set." in
conflicting key/button dialogs doesn't make much sense (Clicking on No
acts like cancel anyway).
- Enabling Desktop Wall says it will disable Cube if I click yes, but
fails because it should also disable Rotate, which it doesn't.


Would-be-good-to-have functionality:

- Mouse tooltip should show long descriptions for options. Or there
could be a help/info button for each option to show long descriptions,
or a help button to enable help mode to show long descriptions when
clicked on options.
- Category selection buttons at the left could be shown by default,
which would help users navigate. Why hide it by default?
- "Option search" at the left part to find an option among all plugin
options (like in kde control center).
- "Show advanced options" functionality (with a button at the left
part). e.g. for animation plugin, "Random effect pool" and "window
match" options should be hidden. Some options could have an "advanced"
tag/attribute in the xml to achieve this.
- "File name" tag/attribute in metadata to show a file browser button
to open up a file dialog.
- "Clear filter" button at the left part.
- Renaming "Filter" at the left to "Plugin Filter" (as now it looks
like it will filter options or something, which it doesn't).
- Option grouping above plugin level (like Sam suggested) through a
tag in plugins' xml. e.g. horizontal/vertical virtual size should be
able to be grouped in the same place as cube and wall options. Those
are really important options (and relevant to cube and wall) which are
pretty much hidden there in general settings.


Are these features and fixes to the above problems planned?

Thanks again.

Cheers,
Erkin