FAQ do Plasma 4.4
O Espaço de Trabalho do Plasma é uma das tecnologias chave do KDE SC 4 (também conhecido como um dos "Pilares do KDE"), e uma das mais visíveis para o usuário. Como o Plasma trata a interface com o usuário de uma maneira diferente do ambiente de trabalho tradicional, pode haver alguma confusão sobre o que o Plasma é, o que ele faz e como ele executa suas tarefas mais comuns.
Este documento tenta solucionar estes problemas fornecendo respostas às questões mais comuns.
Perguntas Gerais
O que o Plasma faz?
O Plasma é o espaço de trabalho padrão (interface do ambiente de trabalho) para o KDE. Ele inclui um lançador de aplicativos (o menu Iniciar), a área de trabalho e o painel da área de trabalho (frequentemente chamado simplesmente de barra de tarefas). No entanto, o Plasma é mais do que uma simples coleção de utilitários, ele é uma infra-estrutura comum para a criação de interfaces integradas. Ele é flexível o bastante para fornecer interfaces para dispositivos móveis (celulares e netbooks), centrais de mídia e computadores pessoais, suportando a metáfora da mesa de trabalho tradicional bem como desenhos que ainda nem foram imaginados.
Como o Plasma funciona?
Os principais componentes do Plasma são os widgets. Widgets podem possuir uma grande variedade de funções, indo de exibir sua área de trabalho e um papel de parede associado, indicar o nível de bateria do seu notebook, exibir os dispositivos conectados e desenhar uma barra de tarefas: basicamente, eles são pequenos aplicativos que vivem em sua área de trabalho. Adicionalmente, widgets podem ser agrupados em "contêineres", como o painel e a própria área de trabalho.
What is the Folder View applet?
The Folder View applet, like its name says, is used to display items (folders, files) from a directory. Such a directory can be either a local one residing on your computer, but also a remote FTP, SSH, or SMB share. In the future, it will even contain results from Nepomuk searches and tagging.
You can choose to view either all files, or filter either by specific regular expressions (e.g., all files with a certain extension) or by file type (for example, just images).
This applet also supports basic file management properties (moving, copying, cutting and pasting for example), and you can have as many as you want on your desktop.
Lastly, you can use one Folder View as the whole desktop, effectively replicating the "old style" desktop paradigm.
What is KRunner?
Krunner is the versatile mini-command line you can activate by pushing "Alt-F2" or by selecting "Run Command" from the desktop contextual menu. It can search for applications, bookmarks, even sessions basing on your input, show system activity and even do simple arithmetic calculations.
KRunner's functionality can be extended through the use of plugins ("runners").
What are the "cashews"?
What is commonly referred as "cashew" is the Plasma toolbox, the logo you can find on the default desktop, on the upper right corner, and on the panel, on the right hand side (left hand side if you use a Right-To-Left language). By clicking on them, you can access other configuration options. Some of these only appear if the widgets aren't locked (see below).
Please provide an option to disable the upper right cashew.
Although putting an option to disable the cashew for desktops sounds reasonable, from a coding point of view it would introduce unnecessary complexity and would break the design. What has been suggested is, since the destkop itself (a containment) is handled by plugins, to write a plugin that would draw the desktop without the cashew itself. As a matter of fact, some distributions ship already a "Desktop without cashew" plugin.
What is the Zooming User Interface (ZUI)?
The Zooming User Interface, or ZUI, is another component of Plasma. It enables the user to group different groups of plasmoids together, and to quickly switch between one and another using a zoom-and-pan approach. Notice that the Zooming User Interface is going to be radically changed for the 4.5 release of the KDE SC.
How does the ZUI work?
Suppose you have three groups of plasmoids (such as widgets, application launchers, etc.) which you want arranged in specific combinations depending on what you want to do. You first group them according to your tastes, then you can switch between them by zooming out (getting a preview of all the groups) and then back in on the specific group you want to use. Notice that it is different from traditional X11 virtual desktop switching, as there is a higher degree of flexibility by using this approach, as the groups can be totally different from each other.
A very good example of this behavior is shown by this image courtesy of Half-Left from #kde on freenode.
That said, you can tie virtual desktops to ZUI activities.
Configuration
Whether you like a clean, mean desktop, the Plasma Netbook interface, or a more traditional one, you'll find lots of help on this Configuration page
Glossary
See the Special:myLanguage/Glossary page.
HowTo
A page of Screencasts will help you understand Plasma
Thanks
- Daniel Laidig & Simon St.James - thanks for the umeet IRC logs!
- Marco Martin - thanks for the information on panels!
- Sebas - thanks for letting me use information from your blog entries!
- Half-Left - great example of ZUI usage!
- Aikurn - Excellent videos!
- Marcelo Magno T. Sales - for giving panel Tips on a mailing list
Contributors
- Luca Beltrame - current maintainer
- Joseph M. Gaffney
- Chani
- Dipesh
- Maninalift
- All the anyonymous contributors
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