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Currently it is very difficult, nearly impossible, to get two plasmoids on the desktop to have the same size and/or positioning, or to position it on key places on the screen. I suggest that when you are moving a plasmoid near the position of another plasmoid, a glowing guide line appears that you can snape to. So for instance if you are moving a plasmoid vertically, and the bottom of the plasmoid you are moving gets near the same vertical position as another plasmoid, a line appears at the vertical position of the bottom of the other plasmoid and you can snap the plasmoid you are moving to that line, making the plasmoids have their bottom edges lined up. Similarly if you are resizing a plasmoid, lines appear that you can snap the resizing to. There could also be lines at key points on the screen, for instance the center of the screen and the edges, that you can use to easily center a plasmoid. This would be similar to many presentation, poster, and vector art programs where objects produce lines that you can use to easily align other objects with.

Here is a mockup showing the cues aligning to the bottom of the folderview widget and the middle of the panel:

Yeah, it always bothers me when one of the Folderviews gets out of place on my desktop and I have to readjust it or it does not look right...

I love this idea! I've been looking for a simple way to align widgets without manually editing the plasma-appletsrc or messing about with mouse emulation (Alt+F12). The proposed combination of visual cues and snap-to functionality is exacly what I would like to see in plasma. +1 from me!

Here is a mockup of how it might work:



In this mockup the digital clock is in the process of being moved.

Since the digital clock is near the center of the screen, the vertical blue line appears on the screen to indicate this. Likewise the red line appears in the center of the digital clock plasmoid. If these lines get very close to each other, the red line snaps to the blue line and the plasmoid ends up centered on the screen. Once it snaps the blue line and red line should probably become significantly brighter and/or the blue line should become red or the red line blue. That would just be to let you know the snap had occurred. If the plasmoid was close to the vertical center of the screen there would likewise be a blue line horizontally across the screen and a red line horizontally across the center of the plasmoid.

In this case, however, the plasmoid is not near the vertical center of the screen. However, its bottom edge is near the bottom edge of the folderview plasmoid to the left of it. To allow you to line up the bottom edges of the plasmoids a horizontal blue line appears across the whole screen indicating where the bottom of the folderview plasmoid is. A corresponding red line appears along the bottom edge of the digital clock plasmoid. The behavior would be the same as for the vertical line.

The lines, both on the screen and on the plasmoid, only appear when a plasmoid is being moved and is near a potential snap point. There would also be a snap point at the top of the folder view plasmoid, at the left and right edges of that plasmoid, half-way up the screen, at the edges of the screen, and probably at the top edge of the panel (or where the top edge would be when the panel is un-hidden).

After changing the size or the position of a corresponding Plasmoid there would be no more alignment and you have to reposition them...

Of course, but that is already the case now. This would just make repositioning them much easier. This assumes you have one plasmoid where you want it, and want other plasmoids to be lined up with that. The problem, at least for me, is not the exact position of a plasmoid, which is fairly unimportant, but getting two plasmoid to line up and/or have the same size. It is pretty much impossible, but if I don't do that they just look ugly.

It would be the same with resizing.
I think Layouts provide a mor "semantic" way also after movement.

The User wrote:It would be the same with resizing.

So is the current system.

The User wrote:I think Layouts provide a mor "semantic" way also after movement.

I assume you mean this idea: Layout/Grid/Containers/Scrollbars: Advanced Positioning (if you reference another idea, please link to it, I had to go into your thread history to find it).

The problem with your method is it is extremely rigid and inflexible. My way allows you to place plasmoids anywhere you want in any relationship to each other while your way forces them to have a certain layout whether you want that layout at all. In other words, my method is as flexible as the existing plasma layout system, but makes certain tasks easer. You lose nothing, but gain something. So there shouldn't be any disadvantages to just adding my system to the existing plasma system. Your method forces the desktop to have a certain layout, eliminating much of the flexibility plasma currently has for position applets. You gain something, but at the same time you lose something. So your idea would require an alternative containment so that it doesn't negatively affect people who prefer it to be more flexible.

That is not to say your idea is bad, there may be plenty of people who do not want that flexibility. But I know I for one do like being able to put my plasmoids wherever I want. Even the fairly minor automatic repositioning of plasmoids in the current version of plasma is an extreme annoyance to me. Far from being a solution to me, your idea would be make things much worse.

Brilliant ! I'm totaly for it !

Why not to add advanced tab in each plasmoid settings and use parameters of other plasmois as variables

Lets say We have Ai and Be plasmoids

Be.top = Ai.top + Ai.height + 20 //We want to have Be plasmoid to Be 20pix lower then Ai
Be.left = 20 //We Ai and be are not related in horizontal position
Be.width = Ai.width //the same width
Be.height = Screen.height*0.25 //Want plasmoid to be 1/4 of screen size.

Even better, if you move Ai plasmid, be moves too, if screen resizes, pasmoid gets resized too.

Last option would be very handy for users with dual head and different resolution monitors.


And just dont tell me this is impossible!!!

Edit by TheBlackCat: please go to the thread [Plasma] Use one plasmoid parameters as others. Relate them for discussion of this idea.

I just love this idea! +1

Just one question: how would this handle rotated plasmoids?

It would probably instead of three lines per dimension (one for each edge and one for the center), it would probably have one for each corner, one for the center of each edge, and for the true center. Also, if you try to rotate a plasmoid near another rotated plasmoid it would probably have snap-to markers to help you get the rotation the same. The same thing could be done with resizing, if you try to resize a plasmoid near another plasmoid it will show snap-to markers to help you get the size right.

Added a mockup I did a long time ago but forgot to include.

The bug report is https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=151662

Have you seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tOAzCQUd5o ?