System Info:

Code: Select all

> plasmashell --version
plasmashell 5.5.5
> kf5-config --version
Qt: 5.5.1
KDE Frameworks: 5.18.0
kf5-config: 1.0


In the Task Manager Settings I have the following settings:

• Sorting: Alphabetically
• Grouping: By Program Name

The Problem:

Using these settings I expect to have:

• everything grouped by the application's name
• groups themselves to be sorted alphabetically by application name
• within the groups, windows to be sorted alphabetically by window name

However, the behavior I'm seeing is:

• everything grouped by the application's name
• groups themselves sorted alphabetically by application name
• within the groups, windows sorted in the order they were opened

After doing a bit of searching I stumbled upon the following revision to the task manager's sorting behaviour: https://phabricator.kde.org/D4469
Essentially the behavior was intentionally changed because the contributor thought it would be better for multi-windowed applications that frequently change window titles to have a stable order in the task manager.

While I agree that the behaviour is a desirable option for some, "Alphabetical" should not be the description for the sorting behaviour because it is most certainly not alphabetical.

My Use Case:
I use PyCharm for all my python development needs and at work I manage 20+ separate code projects and I like to have most of these projects open so I can quickly switch between them. Since all of these open project windows belong to the same application, they are grouped together which is very convenient for me. However, because they are sorted in the order they were opened, it makes it very difficult to scan through the list of projects to find the one I want. It would be far more convenient for me if they were sorted alphabetically within the group so I could easily find the window I want.

Proposal:

• Change the "Sorting" setting from a single selection combo box into a list of sorting priorities (i.e. Sort by Desktop first and then Alphabetically)
• Revert "Alphabetically" back to its original behaviour (i.e. real alphabetical sorting)
• Add a "Program Name" option to the list (sort alphabetically by program name)
• Add a "Creation Order" option to the list (sort by the order in which windows were created)

This will allow users much more control over the sorting behaviour. If I want the current "Alphabetically" behaviour I could specify the following Sorting priorities:

• Program Name
• Creation Order

If I have grouping disabled but want tasks visually grouped by program name and then alphabetically within the same program I can specify the following Sorting priorities:

• Program Name
• Alphabetically

If I want true alphabetical sorting regardless of the application name then I can just do:

• Alphabetically