I want to say thanks to the KTorrent team for all the hard work and efforts. I really like KTorrent over any other torrent tool I've seen yet. But, the recent changes have introduced what I consider to be a nightmare interface for searching.

The core search tool is great - a keyword text box, search button, and a selector for the search site you want to use. With the results opening in an area below. There's very little I can see to improve on this part (with the exception that the result area behaves like a search page, so it'd be nice to be able to use tabs and such there, and use basic browser navigation - forward/back, etc.)

Where I think the interface is borked is in how you access Search to begin with. As I look at the screen, the only way to access search is a button in the lower left corner. This is a BAD spot for frequently used items - especially at larger screen resolutions when the user is working at the top of the page. When this button is clicked, a split view is shown with a search interface. Again, the default position for this split view is NOT in the areas a user would typically be working in. And then when the search is done, the results open in a new tab back in the main area, with a basic search bar at the top of that tab. Which just screams the question - what is the purpose of the split view when it's not needed once a search is done???

May I suggest that a better interface would be to have a search tab open by default (if the plugin is enabled), with the search interface currently on the split view at the top of that tab. Search results would be the current results shown below the search form on the same tab - without the need for another search form.

Alternatively take the same idea above, but put totally into the split view. For those folks who want to see the search form/results, AND the current torrents at once. But I think both interfaces should be supported.

I'll be the first to say that perhaps I haven't looked hard enough for a way to tweak this myself (though I have looked). The best I can find is that the search button/spit view can be dragged to different docking points. But that setting is not saved and things move back to the bottom left on the next reboot/login. So perhaps my own system is not quite right (rather basic Kubuntu desktop - 6.10).

Out of all the possible things that could go wrong with a project like KTorrent, this is the ONLY thing I can see that I would like to see changed. The search works. The integration works. Everything works (most times, and is typically my fault or easily restarted when it doesn't). So I do feel sheepish in asking for a mundane interface change.

Thanks again for all the work!

You might want to checkout the latest SVN snapshot :

http://ktorrent.org/downloads/svn-snaps ... -07.tar.gz