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This one really bugs me too and I'd love to see if anyone here knows if there's a way to fix it.

I can't reproduce this bug on my computer.
What distribution are you using?

From what I can tell, it's not a bug. I think it's actually behaving the way it was intended to but I, and apparently xanaxa also, would rather it behave differently.

Here's how you would reproduce what we're talking about. Add the "Show Desktop" applet to your panel. Now open a few windows so that your desktop is nice and cluttered. At this point if you click the Desktop Access button that you added earlier, you'll see all of the windows minimized and your desktop will now be visible without the clutter. Now--and here's where the odd behavior comes in--open a NEW program or window. What you will notice is that ALL minimized windows automatically unminimize themselves as the new window opens.

The preferred behavior would be that the minimized windows stay minimized until the user decides to unminimize them; basically the same as the show desktop bottons in other desktops like GNOME, XFCE, or even Windows.

Rinse, have you managed to duplicate this behavior yet? If so, do you know if there is a way to change it?

When i open a new window, all other windows appear back on the desktop

When i unminimize an existent window, only that one appears on the desktop

When i richt click on the desktop and choose [create new -> folder], when the dialog opens, only that dialog appears on the desktop.

So i can reproduce some of it.

I think this follows the least astonishment path for users familiar with ms windows - it displays the same behavior.

Otherwise, if the windows are kept minimized in your test case, and you press the show desktop button again, what would you expect to happen?
* I might expect that desktop will be shown since this is a "show desktop" button
* you might expect that the previously-minimized windows are restored, since the button keeps a "state"

It will be even harder to tell who's right if it comes down to that

Quoted

Originally posted by Fry-kun
I think this follows the least astonishment path for users familiar with ms windows - it displays the same behavior.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that, but it should be made clear that this is not a "Windows Way" versus the "Linux Way" issue. It's a "KDE's Way" being wildly different than "Every Other DE's Way." In every DE (that I know of) except KDE, the "show desktop" button minimizes the windows. KDE does not. Instead it seems to "hide" the windows while "showing" the desktop and that's the reason for the strange behavior already mentioned.

Quoted

Originally posted by Fry-kun
Otherwise, if the windows are kept minimized in your test case, and you press the show desktop button again, what would you expect to happen?
* I might expect that desktop will be shown since this is a "show desktop" button
* you might expect that the previously-minimized windows are restored, since the button keeps a "state"

What you're describing sounds fine but it does not sound like the KDE show desktop applet so I'm not sure I follow your point.

Quoted

Originally posted by Fry-kun
It will be even harder to tell who's right if it comes down to that

I don't think it's a matter of right or wrong. It's a matter of KDE being the blacksheep on this issue. I'm not saying that they're wrong, all I'm saying is that there's a defacto standard out there that says a "show desktop" applet should minimize (I mean a true minimize--not hide) all windows and KDE has broke ranks with that defacto standard.

Quoted

Originally posted by Lamar
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that, but it should be made clear that this is not a "Windows Way" versus the "Linux Way" issue. It's a "KDE's Way" being wildly different than "Every Other DE's Way." In every DE (that I know of) except KDE, the "show desktop" button minimizes the windows. KDE does not. Instead it seems to "hide" the windows while "showing" the desktop and that's the reason for the strange behavior already mentioned.

Fair enough, though I don't agree that "show desktop" is synonymous with "minimize all windows". To me, "show desktop" does exactly what it says, without any side-effects.
If your changes are to be implemented, I'd really like the button description changed to "Minimize all windows". Or, better yet - implement it as a separate applet

Quoted

Originally posted by Lamar
What you're describing sounds fine but it does not sound like the KDE show desktop applet so I'm not sure I follow your point.

I meant, if the "minimize all windows" way is to be implemented, this will become the next question. And that it might become a source of confusion to users.

Quoted

Originally posted by Lamar
I don't think it's a matter of right or wrong. It's a matter of KDE being the blacksheep on this issue. I'm not saying that they're wrong, all I'm saying is that there's a defacto standard out there that says a "show desktop" applet should minimize (I mean a true minimize--not hide) all windows and KDE has broke ranks with that defacto standard.

I'll take your word for it - I'm only familiar with winderz and KDE

Quoted

Originally posted by Fry-kun
Fair enough, though I don't agree that "show desktop" is synonymous with "minimize all windows". To me, "show desktop" does exactly what it says, without any side-effects.

I agree that there's no official standard that dictates how the show desktop applet should behave which is why I don't refer to this as being a right or wrong issue. I do, however, think that there is a defacto standard--basically being "everyone else is doing it"--that gives rise to the expectation of "minimize all windows."

As far as there being no side-effects I'll have to disagree, and hopefully convince you (and possibly developers?) that there are side effects with the current applet that would not exist if it actually minimized the windows instead of hiding them. If you open a few windows then use the applet to hide all open windows, you will at least see these side effects when performing certain actions.

1. When attempting to switch to another virtual desktop, all hidden windows will open and you will not change to the desired desktop unless you try again.

2. When opening a new window, all hidden windows will reappear.

3. Less imporant, but still a side-effect, is the fact that a true minimized window is not grouped with the hidden windows and therefor when using the secondary applet feature--show all--the minimized window isn't included.

The fact of the matter is this; if the windows were actually minimized, you and I both would still get the functionality we expect from the applet. In fact, to the end user, everything would be exactly the same but without the above mentioned side-effects. I seriously doubt anyone will miss those side-effects as I cannot imagine a user being pissed off because he/she was actually allowed to switch to a different desktop while his windows were still minimized. To be honest I can hardly believe that more people aren't pissed off that they can't! It only leads me to believe that not many people actually use the applet.

I agree, preventing me from switching to another desktop, as you described, would annoy me.
However, just now I tried to replicate your problem and I can't say I'm seeing it: the desktop switches perfectly fine, and the windows on old desktop become unhidden (as can be seen in desktop preview).
I think you just stumbled onto a bug

You keep mentioning how windows should be minimized - I just remembered that I was pissed off at windows for doing just that. What the UI would do, when I press "show desktop":
* all windows become minimized and the windows that could not be minimized would become HIDDEN
* if I open any new window, the windows that were HIDDEN would re-appear by themselves, but minimized windows would stay minimized
* pressing the "show desktop" button would again minimize all shown windows (not restore all others)
There would be no way to batch-restore the windows that were minimized. THAT was a pain in the rear, especially in the days of no tabbed browsing.

To me, the behavior in KDE seems much more natural. I would be pissed off if they change the current one.

As I said earlier, the functionality you're asking for seems like a perfectly reasonable request for a new applet (or a feature extension -- not a feature replacement -- to this applet). I might use it too - sometimes I want the windows minimized, too


By the way, what is this secondary applet feature "show all"? I don't remember seeing that anywhere...

run the command kcontrol
search for keyboard shortcuts
in the Global Shortcuts tab, you will see the action, "Toggle showing Desktop"
doubleclick on it and set the value to win+D