OneFinger - screenshots

Here's an explanation: below the Kicker (i.e. the KDE panel), you can see the "OneFinger main window". The main window looks very different from traditional apps: it has a "text area" above, and below it are three "panels":

• the "file browser" panel, to the left, which shows the current directory. Here is how it works:
  • if you click a file name, this is copied to the command area, which is useful because you are ultimately composing a CLI command;
  • you can enter directories by clicking the "door" icon beside them; (Note: to get back to a parent directory you must use the history panel - see below)
  • you can select files and directories by clicking the "+" icon: if you select one or more files this way, the programs will be narrowed to only those programs that make sense with the selected files. (This is roughly similar to right-clicking a file in konqueror - with the difference that OneFinger learns the appropriate programs by watching the way you work.)
  • A very important feature of the file panel is that it can group the most recently (or frequently) used files on top. This improves your navigation speed a lot, because statistically we tend to use only a fraction of the files in each directory.
• the "history" panel, to the right. This one is the most versatile panel: it can assume many possible "configurations", and it can hold files from multiple directories (which is a key feature).

  For example, the history panel can become

  • a flat list of recently used files from any directory (this is like the "recent documents" applet in KDE, with a big difference: its items are "first-class citizens", i.e. they can not only be viewed with the default viewer, but acted upon in any way: copied, dragged, deleted, etc.). This way, the important files are always at hand;
  • a list of recently visited (or used) directories (each of these directories is once again a "first-class citizen", so it can be acted upon in any way, or entered by clicking the door icon. Incidentally, this is the only way to go to a parent directory. People usually don't realize that immediately). This way, the important locations are always at hand;
  • a list of bookmarked locations;
  • a list of options/files/directories used with a given program;
  • a combination of all the above things,
  and more. All these configurations are useful in different situations.
• the "programs" panel, in the middle; by clicking the button beside a program, you narrow the history panel to show only those arguments used with that program. By clicking the program name, you insert it in the command area.

Also notice the KDE taskbar and pager have been removed, in favour of the "OneFinger Kicker applet", which spans the whole Kicker's width. The applet is so big because you must be able to click it without looking at it.

In the following screenshot you can see a new component: the "OneFinger window-list". This appears when you left-click (or drag onto) the kicker applet, and allows you to activate windows, drag something onto windows, close terminated output windows, etc.

The killer features of the window list are:

• it sorts the windows by recent usage (like ALT+TAB). This fact:
  • minimizes (asymptotically) the amount of searching you have to do;
  • allows you to keep many window open, and still to quickly find (on average) the window you need. This makes the KDE pager superfluous in many cases;
  • is especially suited for continuously switching between two or three windows - a task that is frequent but terribly difficult with the kicker taskbar;
  • automatically brings "utility windows" on top when you click their "parent" window; this is a feature the KDE taskbar does not yet have, and which is very useful with multiwindow programs like The Gimp: imagine clicking a picture window and having the other Gimp tool windows go on top as well.
• it allows you to select a window by reading the whole window title; no more truncated names;
• and no, the fact that the window-list is popup does not slow you down: the kicker applet is so big that, after a while, you begin to click it without looking at it, and completely unconsciously, while thinking of other things. Furthermore, after it's open, the actual click is quicker because the clickable areas are larger.

I have clicked the "+" button of a picture in the file panel, and as a consequence the program panel has been narrowed to show only the programs that can open the picture.

Now, if I wanted, I could also drag the selected picture to another window, by clicking the "Drag to..." button; then the window-list would appear, asking for the target window. Dragging is particularly easy with OneFinger, because you never have to resize windows or keep the mouse button pressed.