Aurélien Gateau and Shaun Reich started to implement a QML version of a SAL-like containment, which is also useable as a Launch-Button.
The project is called "KDE Homerun"


See it in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK8Z1LHX80k

Debian packages are here:
https://launchpad.net/homerun
https://launchpad.net/~blue-shell/+archive/homerun

Report bugs and ideas here:
https://github.com/blue-shell/homerun/issues

The code can be found here:
https://projects.kde.org/projects/playg ... se/homerun

Homerun is already quite useable while still being in development, so all ideas are welcome.

Why post bugs on that closed source github platform and why not publish Homerun on OBS because every KDE user in his right mind uses openSUSE anyway?

Well, it's certainly possible to build packages on OBS, it's just that Team Kubuntu took the lead and compiled it on Launchpad.
Since the code is hosted on git.kde, anyone (from opensuse) can go ahead and compile it on OBS.

KAMiKAZOW wrote:why not publish Homerun on OBS because every KDE user in his right mind uses openSUSE anyway?

If I didn't read that post, I wouldn't know I am out of my mind.
I am glad you shared this news with us. But next time try to not insult random people, please.

starbuck wrote:Well, it's certainly possible to build packages on OBS, it's just that Team Kubuntu took the lead and compiled it on Launchpad.
Since the code is hosted on git.kde, anyone (from opensuse) can go ahead and compile it on OBS.

OBS can build Kubuntu packages as well (and Fedora, and openSUSE, and CentOS, and Debian, and Mandriva,…). The standard deployment platform for anything Plasma is OBS. You must've missed the Planet KDE posts by Aaron etc. from last year or so.

Added a video link to see Homerun in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK8Z1LHX80k

Very good work being in this project,
you may also look to the concept design of this launcher :
viewtopic.php?f=226&t=106891

keep the good work up.

Hi Deve,
the thread you mentioned is really useful, especially this post has quite some valid points:
viewtopic.php?f=226&t=106891#p246165

I personally also think the classic menu has much advantage over kickoff, resulting in finding an app you dont know exactly much much faster by browsing through the categories. The reason is that it neednt to click and go back to categories and also the main categories always stay visible in place, so there is no need for a memory effect and re-adjustment when going back like in kickoff.

So one interesting thing is how to make use of the additional space of a fullscreen launcher, while still making it easy to navigate and surf the categories fast in case you don't use search nor click on a favorite.
Most of the time when I invoke a launcher it is only for the reason to launch a not so often used program, as there are already good ways to pin your favorites like in the panel, taskbar or icontask to reach them much quicker and always in sight.

There are also currently two modes of application sections in "Homerun": One is the drilldown like SAL and another shows all applications at once, sorted by their categories. You can try the second, if you edit the homerunrc under /usr/share/kde4/config and uncomment the commented line.
You can also further experiment quite a bit with the setup through that file.

Also, using Homerun as containment is another twist, the "Show Desktop" keyboard shortcut makes it again useable without mouse.
So one usecase for Homerun would be to make it even more useable through keyboard navigation, that you easily can navigate and filter through and launch what you want, a possibility that the classic menu cannot do.

One more thing for the search:
There is also a filter mechanism in Homerun: Simply begin typing and the current content is filtered.
The goal would be then to combine search and filter to a mode where simply typing reveals or brings up content that you then can navigate to with keyboard and execute with return.

Altogether, with Homerun we have the opportunity to think of good combinations and usecases and if worth trying, we can implement them for testing and see if they work! So this thread should encourage anyone to try it and get a feel and then think of ideas to make it a true homerun for anyone to use

Useful read for bascially the same topic:
http://worldofgnome.org/removal-of-cate ... nt-happen/

This layout with categories on the left could be useful for an "all apps" section, imitating classic menu functionality:
http://mediacdn.disqus.com/uploads/medi ... iginal.jpg

KAMiKAZOW wrote:Why post bugs on that closed source github platform and why not publish Homerun on OBS because every KDE user in his right mind uses openSUSE anyway?

Wow, really?

1. I find a way more useful to show recent apps and recent documents in the first tab insead of favorites.
- for favorite apps we use panel launchers
- for folders, we use dolphin if we need to organize files.
for documents, we must use 1. respective applications recent files, 2. or stack folder plasmoids, 3. or homerun recent history , enanched with searching ability for filenames.. or, much much better, integrated with a krunner backend (such a feature!)

2. displaying most recent downloads in home tab is very very useful.

3. categories in home tab should be expansible. apps to a number of.. 10? and docs categorized by day till.. last week? same for downloads

4. items shown in recent docs should not be shown in recent downloads.

5. applications tab should show categories on the left (for occidental languages), which are still very useful.

6. i see no useful reason to show a documents tab.

7. must introduce a way to resize the plasmoid for big screens.

what about ROSA SimpleWelcome launcher? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo6m8UAsbJ8
Nice design, it's good to use. Off course everething can be improved, Rosa laucher too.
anyway qml is VERY fast

my 2 cents after years of observations, hope they are welcome.
thanks for your attention, good job/fun
alex!

Thanks Aurelien and Shaun for your effort.

Some comments on what josephk said. Yes, recent documents is very useful. I would also prefer it in the home section. But favourite places is also useful. It beats having half a dozen folder view plasmoids on a panel.

The documents tab is as useful as having an application tab. Perhaps even more useful when doing a search.. Having a recently downloaded section somewhere is also pretty clever. I have a download folder but there are so many files in there, I spend some time finding what I just downloaded. But that would mean using a kde download manager, right?

josephk wrote:1. I find a way more useful to show recent apps and recent documents in the first tab insead of favorites.
2. displaying most recent downloads in home tab is very very useful.
3. categories in home tab should be expansible. apps to a number of.. 10? and docs categorized by day till.. last week? same for downloads
4. items shown in recent docs should not be shown in recent downloads.
5. applications tab should show categories on the left (for occidental languages), which are still very useful.
6. i see no useful reason to show a documents tab.
7. must introduce a way to resize the plasmoid for big screens.
alex!

I also want to describe an idea. One of the reasons I use thunderbird over kmail is the search. I cannot use kmail's search productively. Have you used thunderbird search? It would be great to have something similar in homerun. It looks like this

https://plus.google.com/photos/108256022196412058824/albums/5778341125106108545?authkey=CJ2n0ZCzrN2eTw

Besides filtering from and to after a free term search, I like the date filtering. The bar chart shows dates on the x axis and number of emails on the y axis. If I click on a bar of a month, it mill zoom in and present the bar chart of that month with bars for each day. This is incredibly useful when you want to find a specific email that was sent by Patrciia round March. The bar chart btw is expandable.

Thanks, George

i think it would be good if the "favorit applications" where synct with the starters in the windowlist/icontasks or if we can set starters for windowlist/icontasks from homerun

Kookii wrote:i think it would be good if the "favorit applications" where synct with the starters in the windowlist/icontasks or if we can set starters for windowlist/icontasks from homerun

+1
Setting starters from homerun for icontasks/windolist is a brilliant idea!

I wish there was favorites tab with apps icons that I could organize in my own, custom way. Generally I think about something similar to Takeoff favorites, but in Takeoff there is no way to put icons in custom order. I wish this option could be independend from "Edit applications" options available in Kickoff.
For example I want to have one line with media apps, and second line with accesories apps and put them in custom order. As additional option - if possible - ability to set the size of icons, the numer of rows and columns (as in Takeoff) and "Show it in full screen mode" as in takeoff.

By the way it would be great if the whole Homerun could have many options to choose from, for example if I don't want to have documents tab I'd like to be able to switch it off / unmark option.

Homerun is similar to this idea:
viewtopic.php?f=226&t=106891