[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 124044] KDE5 VCL may require a little more cooking for wide consumption (at least on impress)

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=124044

--- Comment #1 from Michael Weghorn <m.weghorn at posteo.de> ---
Thank you for considering this topic and caring about end users.

(In reply to sergio.callegari from comment #0> 
> I've been using LibO 6.2 for a while on Kubuntu linux (KDE5). On this
> platform LibO defaults to the new KDE5 VCL.  While I greatly appreciate the
> effort to bring this new VCL in LibO and the much smoother transitions in
> between slides that you get in presentations with it, I am encountering a
> lot of little issues, that make me think there can be problems with a wide
> "production" consumption of it for the time being. [...]

Some initial thoughts:

* I do agree that I wouldn't call kde5 production-ready at it's current stage.
* As you mentioned, LibreOffice 6.2 is currently "fresh" and it will remain so
until 6.3 is released, which is scheduled for August.
* I do agree that "ordinary" users shouldn't be bothered with setting
environment variables.
* Should the decision be that kde5 is not "ready" yet:
  * One approach might be to change the default selection order of VCL plugins,
e.g. prefer gtk3_kde5 over kde5.
  * Another approach might be to say that it's up to the people packaging or
installing the software to decide whether or not to enable/install the kde5 VCL
plugin in the first place (i.e. no need to set environment variables if the
'*-kde-integration' package isn't installed anyway)


> As you probably know, the most relevant issues are:
> - Weird "scrollbar" screen appearing when starting presentations
> - Weird behavior of the mouse/keyboard in some conditions
> And most important
> - Sudden inability to perform some actions (for instance, I've decided
> myself to write this report while trying to edit a presentation, I have a
> line selected, but there is no way to erase it pressing DEL)
> - Some unexpected crashes every now and then

There's a meta bug, tdf#102495, for keeping track of kde issues. Please do
create new bug reports if anything isn't covered there yet.
Without checking all of those, I'm currently not aware of any reports for your
second and third case, but in particular the second one is rather vague and
nothing that can be handled properly without clear steps on how to reproduce...

IMHO, any potential decision to switch off kde5 as default (for those desktops
where it currently is the default) should be based on bug reports there.

> 1) Please, consider keeping around the KDE4 VCL for one more release (do not
> remove it in 6.3)

IMHO, this is not an option, since bringing it back would take quite some
effort and it's certainly not a long-term solution, so I think that effort
would better be spent elsewhere (e.g. in improving kde5).
Should kde5 not be the way to go now, I'd rather suggest to go with gtk3_kde5
or gtk3.

Anyway, kde4 is still available for 6.2 - and 6.3 is still quite a bit ahead,
so at least for 6.3, I think it's too early to take any decision as of now.

For 6.2, a decision could either be taken now/soon or once it gets closer to
becoming "still". - I don't know what's better.


> 
> 2) Please, provide an easier way to configure the VCL than the
> SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN environment variable. For instance, the "Advanced" option
> tab could include a "Use conservative view module" option when significant
> changes in VCLs are introduced.

Making kde5 an experimental feature might be an alternative which uses an
already established mechanism.

That's just my thoughts, any other opinions are welcome...

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