[COLUG] KDE Questions

[Chris Clonch]

On Friday 07 March 2008 1:54:00 Rob Funk wrote:
> Mark Erbaugh wrote:
> > I'm trying to get up to speed with Kubuntu / KDE. It seems slower
> > navigating in Dolphin than in Nautilus.
>
> You might try using Konqueror instead.  Dolphin was recently introduced as
> a friendlier file manager, but Konqueror is the more advanced program,
> capable of both web browsing and file management.

Or Krusader if you're an orthodox file manager fan.  And the term is only an 
F2 keystroke away.

> > I can't find any way to disable the animated bouncing wait cursor.
>
> KDE Control Center -> Appearance & Themes -> Launch Feedback
>
> > One of the things that has really increased my productivity in Nautilus
> > is shell scripts. I often use different application to work with a file
> > so I don't want to rely on the mime type to pick an application for me.
>
> When you right-click on a file, you can pick "open with" to open it with
> any app that's configured to know about that file type.
>
> Or you can create custom actions to use your shell scripts:
> http://developer.kde.org/documentation/tutorials/dot/servicemenus.html
> http://legroom.net/2007/04/20/adding-custom-actions-kde-context-menus
>
> (The second link is more of a tutorial than the first, and may help you
> more.)
>
> > Is there something similar to Nautilus shell scripts in Dolphin?  I've
> > come across service menus but that looks like a lot of work to set one
> > up as compared to dropping a shell script into a folder.
>
> There's not really all that much work.  Any complexity is because there
> are so many variables in how to work with a file.
> I'm not familiar with Nautilus, but how does it know how to call your
> shell scripts?  How does it know what name to put on the menu?

Also KDE may seem complex because it offers a lot of options and choices.  
Because of this, it is extremely more configurable, tweakable, and accessible 
once you understand their layout (which could use some work).  Another thing 
worth mentioning is DCOP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DCOP).  While I 
haven't gotten down and dirty with it yet, it lets you access all of the 
desktop environment (and a lot of apps too).

> Here are some of my servicemenu files:
>
> $ cat ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/chmod664.desktop
> [Desktop Entry]
> ServiceTypes=all/allfiles
> Actions=Chmod664;Chmod664Staff
>
> [Desktop Action Chmod664]
> Name=Permissions 664
> Exec=chmod 664 %F
>
> [Desktop Action Chmod664Staff]
> Name=Permissions 664/staff
> Exec=chgrp staff %F ; chmod 664 %F
>
>
> $ cat ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/abiconvert.desktop
> [Desktop Entry]
> ServiceTypes=application/vnd.ms-word,application/msword
> Actions=abiHTML;abiRTF;abiText;abiLatex;
> X-KDE-Submenu=Abi Convert to
>
> [Desktop Action abiHTML]
> Name=HTML
> Exec=abiword -t html %f
>
> [Desktop Action abiRTF]
> Name=RTF
> Exec=abiword -t rtf %f
>
> [Desktop Action abiText]
> Name=Text
> Exec=abiword -t txt %f
>
> [Desktop Action abiLatex]
> Name=LaTeX
> Exec=abiword -t latex %f
>
>
> $ cat ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/xls2csv.desktop
> [Desktop Entry]
> ServiceTypes=application/vnd.ms-excel,application/msexcel
> Actions=xls2csv
>
> [Desktop Action xls2csv]
> Name=Convert To CSV
> Exec=/bin/sh -c 'cd "%d";xls="%f"; csv=`basename "$$xls" .xls`.csv;
> $HOME/bin/xls2csv "$$xls" > "$$csv"'


-Chris