For me Plasma is the right word for Plasma, cause you can't imagine what plasma consist of.

When you use Dolphin you see the window and understand what Dolphin is doing and how to configure Dolphin to your needs. When you see Plasma you see an wallpaper and an panel maybe some plasmoids and the cashew for some config. But what are the parts Plasma consist of? And how the different parts work together and have an cooperate design/behavior.

Please I love plasma and I don't want to make everything NEW. I will discuss how we can make an cooperate design with the existing solution. maybe also on thinking of plasma mobile.

Plasma Theme
Is an kcm and you can change it via System Settings -> Workspace Theme

Panel
Click on the panel right click -> unlock the panel -> click on the burger icon -> Pannel Settings

how you can change the visibility, panel wide, .... I never saw such an behavior in any other software.

Widget explorer
The widget explorer is on the right side cause you can drag and drop the widget to the desktop. you have there an app icon (some use action icons as app icon, we will work on that) the widget name (not the technical name. I never now what the technical name of the application launcher is) and an discription on top categories and on button get new widgets.


App switcher
Also on the let side as overlay of the desktop (you can see that the app switcher is on top of the panel instead of the widget explorer) With an preview and on button of each preview the app icon and an name.


App grid
You get an overview about the open apps (on each virtual desktop) and can select by hover. the app icon is on buttom right and the name is in the middle you can close the app with an delete icon (only visible when hover I think) on top right.


Desktop Grid
You should get an overview of the open apps on your different virtual desktops. You can't select an app you can only selct the desktop with an hover effect. Nice dark background. The system tray is there but I don't know why and you have an (big) delete and add button


Widget Config
good is that it works always the same when the screen isn't locked with hover you get the sidebar. Sometime it is strange cause the config is so minimalistic but you have the config tab, but again it works always the same.


Plasma Desktop Settings
right click on the desktop -> desktop settings open a normal window you can switch between desktop grid or desktop, picture, slideshow, .... and have also other stuff. It look lick System Settings but you don't find it there. You can edit the desktop settings also when the desktop (widget) is locked. So widget an panel setting only when unlocked desktop setting always.


there are additional things plasma do but I don't know or forgot. so please link and move the screenshots and mockups to share.kde.org (Visual Design Group Share\Public\Brainstorm\Plasma)

I don't really understand this topic, but about desktop grid:
The visual artifact in the lower right corner of each desktop stems from the +/- buttons and is a bug.
Also, you *can* select a window - just click it - it will close the effect and activate a the window.
I guess your grief is that there's no hover indication for windows?

luebking wrote:I don't really understand this topic, but about desktop grid:
The visual artifact in the lower right corner of each desktop stems from the +/- buttons and is a bug.

good to know thanks

luebking wrote:Also, you *can* select a window - just click it - it will close the effect and activate a the window.
I guess your grief is that there's no hover indication for windows?

yes you have right I miss the hover indication.

I start this thread because I love plasma cause of the flexibility BUT I have problems to have an overview what plasma is and which components are made with plasma. In addition I don't understand why each of the screenshots are plasma but each screenshot look different (in design) and is different in behaviour (configuration, hover indication, icon size).

luebking do can can post other parts of plasma or have I itemize everything?

I'd rephrase the question as "What part of KDE software doesn't belong to Plasma?", aiming to have a unique look and feel over similar parts of the system. Is that correct, Andreas? And to introduce even more confusion: here is the KDE wiki page https://community.kde.org/Plasma

exact what I mean Heiko. technical plasma is top but in other parts there is space for improvement.

andreas_k wrote:Plasma Desktop Settings
right click on the desktop -> desktop settings open a normal window you can switch between desktop grid or desktop, picture, slideshow, .... and have also other stuff. It look lick System Settings but you don't find it there. You can edit the desktop settings also when the desktop (widget) is locked. So widget an panel setting only when unlocked desktop setting always.

I think Plasma Desktop Settings needs a re-design or at least some refinements in elements' spacing etc.
Additionally it will be great to add a crop-image feature when adding a new wallpaper to fit screen ratio (just like mobile OSes change wallpaper feature). Currently you can set an "auto-crop" option that automatically put the image in the center of the screen: not so much useful when the selected image isn't design to be a wallpaper.

I'm thinking more on an global approach than on detailed improvements Alex.

andreas_k wrote:I'm thinking more on an global approach than on detailed improvements Alex.

Ok, I misunderstood
In this case we should mention activities... their behavior related to virtual desktops is an old hot topic
Or do you mean even more global?

alex-l wrote:In this case we should mention activities... their behavior related to virtual desktops is an old hot topic

No activities are also part of plasma so I will add an screenshot when I'm at home.