Hello rekonq list. Let me start off by saying I'm pleased with where rekonq is, and where it's going. I still find myself using Chrome & Firefox, but rekonq does meet a lot of my needs, and that's an exciting change from Konqueror. Actually, on the topic of Konqueror, I've thought about it a number of times recently - particularly the feature whereby tapping ctrl- will offer shortcuts for the links on a page - very useful when all you have is a keyboard.
Anyway, the reason I have come calling, is that I've been doing some reflection on my browser usage. I find myself with an always increasing collection of open tabs, and have been wondering how best to manage this. I have discovered a couple of the main reasons my list of tabs grows so crazily. I will discuss some of the things I have observed, and then move on to some of my thoughts on how a browser could be improved, based on these observations. Problem/Context --------------- I have realized that my tabs are generally grouped according to what I am doing. Programming documentation is a big one. If I'm writing something with Rails I'll have the Rails reference open (maybe even more than once), the Ruby reference open, plus guides on a couple relevant topics (blog posts or tutorials). Writing a Rails program also leads to writing XHTML & CSS & JS, for which I'll find myself opening references. Until I'm satisfied that a particular task (or an aspect of a task) is complete, the relevant tabs will remain open for quick reference. When a such a project is delayed, or loses priority, I keep these tabs open so that I can return to the project without having to rediscover all my sources. Since I find myself picking up new projects before I complete old ones, I find myself with a growing collection of these activities. Other activities can also lead to groups of tabs. 'Comparing alternatives' seems to summarize these cases. For example, I'll be looking at a variety of different hardware options on some site, and I'm waiting to offer someone else my opinion, and to hear theirs, on what I'm looking at. These pages will remain open until a decision can be reached on which piece of hardware to purchase, or it's been decided that such hardware isn't really needed. Another of these cases is when I'm reading up on a variety of different programs implementing different solutions to a particular problem - distributed file systems for example. I'll open tabs to look into the different solutions, closing tabs that aren't relevant - completely closing off solutions that don't meet my needs, but leaving open tabs which summarize a particular solution well or highlight features that are useful. That leads me to the last major source of tabs that I have identified - general reading. I will from time to time find myself reading up into topics which have no immediate activity, but are very useful or interesting generally. Sometimes these get left open because I get pulled away from reading them, other times because I imagine they'll be useful in the future, or I want to think further on the material presented. Solution -------- These observations have lead to a number of ideas on how things might be improved - having lots of tabs open is difficult to manage, and strains the computer unnecessarily. Let me start with the general reading. The needs of this use case are almost met by bookmarks. I haven't nailed down exactly what's missing, but some thoughts are context (connection with other tabs I'm reading, and history), completedness (I'm part way through - either a single page, or multiple pages - history again), and my intent to resume reading. Perhaps Nepomuk is the answer here - semantic bookmarking? As for the rest, I believe grouping tabs is the solution. Important features are: visually distinguishing groups, saving groups to disk (like sessions, complete with history), and restoring from disk. I think this would tie in very nicely with Chani's 'activities'. Thank you for taking the time to read through my ponderings, and I hope they have been of use to you. I hope you have been inspired, and if I have been unclear on any topic or insufficiently elaborate, I'm more than willing to add what I can. -- Stefan Buller _______________________________________________ rekonq mailing list [email protected] https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/rekonq
