[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #53893] Rearranging widgets in the variable editor switches to another workspace

[Dan Sebald]

Follow-up Comment #18, bug #53893 (project octave):

On the matter of disabling the floating of individual V.E. variable panels, I
see your point.  Ultimately if that is what happens I'm fine with it.  I think
from the Qt perspective it's simply a matter of whether the user likes the
fact these child QDockWidgets disappear when the QMainWindow goes out of
focus.  (Octave's complex method of changing floated main GUI
octave_dock_widgets avoids this question.)  I've seen plenty of comments on
the web about Qt programmers/users who dislike that behavior.

At the same time, I think at this stage I'm more inclined to just let all the
Qt features exist for the time being--the double-click float, drag float, the
sub-panels disappear--and get some user feedback for one or two releases. 
Even if they are a bit buggy, and I think we are past the difficult spots now.
 If a person doesn't like some bug (like this one), then they just won't use
that feature.  They may report a bug, but disabling Qt features from the start
is effectively the same as the user not using some buggy feature.

In addition, the V.E. float/unfloat allows one really nice feature, which is
the maximize button that enlarges the variable sub-panel to full screen.

So, I'd say to not disable things too soon and just leave them for now.  This
project doesn't have a formal process of putting together design requirements
up front then following with verification and validation.  Instead the
approach has always been more organic evolution than anything else.  After a
year or two, there will have been plenty of comments about how the V.E. and
its subpanels should behave--by both users and developers.  No consensus I'm
sure, but enough feedback to decide on some reasonable compromise.  At this
point though, I'm sure few have used the V.E.

The one direction I'm a little wary of is that folks will want the V.E.
subpanels to be floated with decorations just like the main GUI
octave_dock_widgets.  That is, V.E. windows should be very analogous to Figure
windows.  Doable, but that would make for a really bloated bunch of windows in
the task bar to keep track of.  I realize there is KDE's feature of grouping
similar windows under one application, but I've found I don't like that much
because the order in which KDE lists these grouped windows doesn't make sense
to me.  (Mint has this nice feature where it allows one to drag the icons in
the task bar to whatever location s/he wants.)  Maybe if there were multiple
KDE groups: one for octave_dock_widgets and the main GUI, one for Figures, and
one for Variables.

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