Hi

browsing the scant documentation about KDE activities, I read over and over again the following statement "you can have multiple virtual desktop operating within each activity"

now what does that mean exactly?
that you can associate multiple virtual desktops for each activities (1),
OR
that you can have in fact a DIFFERENT set of virtual desktops for each activity (2) ?

with option (1) i really don't see any point in using activites, since you can use virtual desktops only and obtain the same workflow
with option (2) the concept of KDE activities starts to make some sense
for example it would make sense to create two basic activities like business and leisure and two different sets of virtual desktops, one set for each activity

and if that is the case, what is the actual step-by-step procedure to obtain the configurazion of the example?

thank you

pjones wrote:Hi

browsing the scant documentation about KDE activities, I read over and over again the following statement "you can have multiple virtual desktop operating within each activity"

now what does that mean exactly?
that you can associate multiple virtual desktops for each activities (1),
OR
that you can have in fact a DIFFERENT set of virtual desktops for each activity (2) ?

with option (1) i really don't see any point in using activites, since you can use virtual desktops only and obtain the same workflow
with option (2) the concept of KDE activities starts to make some sense
for example it would make sense to create two basic activities like business and leisure and two different sets of virtual desktops, one set for each activity

and if that is the case, what is the actual step-by-step procedure to obtain the configurazion of the example?

thank you

To clarify further, option (1) would be a system configuration with 20 virtual desktops, each with different widgets and wallpapers, and one can associate a subset of these virtual desktops to each activity created. In this a case the use of activity doesn't really change the workflow since the orginal configuration has 20 virtual desktops already.

Conversely, option (2) would be a system configuration with 20 activities, and each activity has its own set of multiple virtual desktops. In this case the workflow changes substantially, since it would be possibile to use a different set of virtual desktops for each activity and overcome the limitation on the maximum number of virtual desktops one can use

Currently, VDs and Activities are orthogonal systems. That is, they have no influence on each other.

> you can have multiple virtual desktop operating within each activity

This means that you can create a few VDs, and you'll have them in all activities.

> (1) i really don't see any point in using activites, since you can use virtual desktops only and obtain the same workflow

My workflow is as follows:

VDs:
- The main VD contains applications that reside in all activities (web browser, mail client and similar)
- Other three VDs are: Editors (vim, konsole windows), Graphics (inkscape, gimp), Other (everything else)

Activities - one activity per project.
- One per KDE project I maintain, and a few others
- One per the course I teach
- Writing papers and similar

I use the above VDs for all of the aforementioned activities.

It is possible to establish the same workflow without VDs, or without activities by creating 20+ of them. But if would (for me) be painful - I'm used to switching between VDs with Meta+1...4 - where each number means always the same thing (as stated - 1 for communication and internet, 2 for editros, 3 for graphics, 4 for other), and I do that quite often - thinking about which VD contains the text editor for the thing I want (since I'd need a few VDs for editors) to edit would be a bit overwhelming.

> (2) ...

This would be awesome (and you're not the first who desired something like this) if anyone dared to implement it - code in kwin that deals with VDs is anything but simple. Apart from being a big task, it would make the configuration UI rather interesting

ivan wrote:Currently, VDs and Activities are orthogonal systems. That is, they have no influence on each other.

> you can have multiple virtual desktop operating within each activity

This means that you can create a few VDs, and you'll have them in all activities.

Ok, I think I finally got it: you can - in fact you must - have the same number of VDs within each activity, and since each VD can have a different configuration within each activity, when you add a new activity you will have a new set of VDs, in the same number as before, that you can configure in a different way.

For example if you have 20 VDs ( maximum number allowed ) within one activity, when you add a new activity you will have the same 20 VDs, but you can configure them in a different way ( in terms of widgets, wallpapers, windows, ect. ).
Well, it is kinda like having 40 different VDs in fact.

All in all, not bad at all


I think that at this stage of development KDE activities are quite an obstruse tool, expecially if you compare to or use together with VDs, but hey this is mostly a volunteers-based project so who am I to complain?

Heh, agreed. The problem in this case (IMO) is not that there is not enough man-power to implement stuff* but that the activities are too abstract concept that can not be precisely explained - everyone uses them in a different way.

We /would/ benefit from more UI-related work that would make the concept at least a bit more obvious.

* there is lack of man power, but it is not the reason for it being abstruse