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Katapult

Various KDE 1.-4. Improvements

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Description:

-- I AM PROBABLY NOT GOING TO CONTINUE DEVELOPING KATAPULT --
I began developing Katapult primarily for two reasons: the first is that I find using Alt+F2 to open anything other than programs unpleasant, and that only works well if the program you're opening is a simple command in your path. The second is that KDE currently does not have any convenient way of searching for particular items (e-mails, etc).

However, it seems that our wonderful KDE developers are taking care of that. KDE 4 is supposed to include a new contextual search engine, which will be more powerful and better integrated than anything I have the ability to produce. I may make an attempt to contribute to this project, or I may try making a Quicksilver-like interface to KDE 4's engine after its release. I hope to soon contribute something new to KDE and the open source community in general.

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Katapult is an application for KDE, written in C++, designed to allow faster access to applications, bookmarks, and other items. It is plugin-based, so it can launch anything that is has a plugin for. Its display is driven by plugins as well, so its appearance is completely customizable. It was inspired by Quicksilver for OS X.

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747419
14 years ago

I really like Katapult and the idea behind it - but since I made it dissappear from the system tray, there's no way to change any settings or put it back into the tray. I still can use it, though, and it works really fine. I would highly apreciate some suggestions, since even un- and deinstalling could't change that.

cypherpunk
14 years ago

Thank you for Katapult, I absolutely love it! It keeps my desktop clean and saves me the hassle of navigating through menus and submenus each time I have to launch an application. Great stuff!

mengle
15 years ago

I am also an avid Mac user and have found Quicksilver to be one of the best programs I've ever used. This is certainly on the same track.

I am very disappointed to read that development has stopped. Although I realize that KDE 4 will include a built-in search function (presumably much like spotlight for OS X), I find that Katapult (and quicksilver) is much better and faster finding and opening programs and folders. In fact I see a need for both types of programs, so I strongly urge you to move development forward, if possible.

Either way, I want to thank you for making this wonderful program.

joeprusa
15 years ago

Well, most of you probably know already but the thing is in Kubuntu Breezy and it's one of of its best features for me...

piranha2001
15 years ago

Year! For me too. I also like Katapult very much and look forward to coming extensions...

troggan
15 years ago

Why have you stopped working on it? It looks like a promissing application. Exactly what I needed. But unfortunatly there are some bugs that prevent me from using it.

Can I post the Bug-List? Will you fix them? Do you have other Developers that could take over the project?

Zoombie
15 years ago

I stopped because I didn't want to duplicate the work of the KDE developers working on Tenor. After the new search framework is available, I will see what it would take to provide a Katapult-like interface to it.

Also, I was contacted sometime back by some Kubuntu developers that were interested in continuing the project, and I gave them permission. I don't know what came of that, though.

nuka
15 years ago

i installed it and its in my taskbar, i get a kde logo when i click it, but it doesnt do anything. typing stuff doesnt show anything, and when i press enter it says no results found.

Neko
15 years ago

but... after the compilation... were do I open it?

I'm a... 80% newbie...
Thanks!

mikegr
15 years ago

If katapult is already started, press
ALT+SPACE to activate search.

Ekardnam
15 years ago

alt+F2 (or whatever your shortkey is for
"Run Command") the last time in your life
in your life and write "katapult"

brockers
15 years ago

Does anyone besides me find it ironic that the suggested way to start Katapult is to use the minicli; the very feature that Katapult is meant to replace? Nice application... I am a fan of any eye candy that KDE can get. Bobby

jnaous
15 years ago

Hi,
I really want to try this app, but when I press the shortcut key to show the UI, nothing happens. I changed the shortcut to be both ctrl+space and alt+space, but nothing is happening.
Also, when I right click on :\ icon and select configure katapult, the application crashes.
I'm using KDE 3.3.1 on SUSE 9.2
Thanks,
Jad.

Zoombie
15 years ago

I hope to release 0.3 later this week, which will include a bunch of bugfixes. It will also include more useful feedback when something goes wrong (a lot of errors are currently ignored silently), and I've implemented some programmatic structures to better avoid potential bugs (like using KShared for item results). I hope that you'll be able to use 0.3.

Ekardnam
15 years ago

Ok, here are my requests for the next versions:

- It can't find all my apps, looks like they in /usr/bin are forgotten? (Slackware 10.0). Seems like it just lists the apps in my K Menu?
- Like I said before, URLs: typ http:// or www opens the URL in you browser.
- "/" after the folder names. (If you want to enter subfolder, you don't have to typ "/" yourself)
- Possibility to enter like /usr, /etc by typing /usr, /etc ... (if you want to enter "etc" in your home folder, you just type etc
- Possibility to enter hidden folders, like .kde

- An icon would be cool. Any artists here?

I think that was all, thanks again for a great app!

Zoombie
15 years ago

I'm going to add typing URL support in the future, but probably not in the next version. 0.3 will feature multiple item results (pressing down to see more than one result), more than one action for different types of items, and indirect items (like sending files to contacts).

I will have support for accessing folders other than your home folder (like /usr), and hidden folders (like .kde).

0.3 will also be able to index a single item under multiple titles (kdf and kdiskfree both work), which means that I can allow indexing of executables in specific folders (like /usr/bin).

Lee Olsen has contributed a fantastic icon that will be used in 0.3.

I'm not sure what you mean by your third request. Do you want to be able to use spaces instead of slashes, or for it to guess that srkata might be src/katapult?

Ekardnam
15 years ago

I want to goto "Program/katapult".

Now: I type "Pro", it suggests "Program". I click Complete Query key, then I have to typ "/kat" then hit enter.

I want it: to suggest "Program/" (notice the slash), when I click Complete Query I don't need to type "/", I just type "kat" and hit enter.

Kner
15 years ago

I really love this app. Thank you!

a great replacement for the old "Run command" dialog

kkerwin
15 years ago

For the program! A very sleek, sexy, and intuitive replacement/enhancement for the Alt-F2 "Run" dialog. Well done!

I do have one feature request, or perhaps the feature is already implemented and is rather a bug with that feature: better integration with Konqueror's handy Web Shortcuts (like gg: to search Google) and other nifty KParts (like camera:/ to open a digital camera). These are both provided by the Alt-F2 dialog, but are either missing or buggy in Katapult (because Katapult crashes when I try them).

Aside from that, thank you so much for your hard work!

Kris Kerwin
kkerwin@insi__REMOVE_ME__ghtbb.com

Zoombie
15 years ago

These features are not currently supported. Konqueror quick links (and Mozilla's quick searches) should be included in a later version.

I will try to find a way to add KIO slaves like system later - eventually I plan to add multithreading support.

However, it should not be crashing - that is a bug. If you could, please report the bug at the SourceForge page (linked above) and include details, such as your distribution and version of KDE.

LMCBoy
15 years ago

First of all, Quicksilver is just about my favorite thing on OSX, so thanks for katapult!

Unfortunately, I am getting a crash whenever I try to open the configuration window (compiled on Fedora core3, KDE-3.3.1).

Maybe I don't need to open the config, but I don't know the default keystroke to open the UI! Maybe you can add that to the (presently empty) README file...

In the meantime, can anyone clue me in as to what keystroke opens the UI?

Zoombie
15 years ago

The default shortcut is Alt+Space, which can be changed by choosing "Configure global shortcuts..." on the menu.

If you could, please report the crash bug at the SourceForge page (linked above). I will look into it.

kkerwin
15 years ago

To your question: what keystroke opens the UI.

For me, it is Alt-Space. Though, you can right click the :/ icon in the system tray and select "Configure Shortcuts" from the menu to change it.

Best of luck.

Ekardnam
15 years ago

It would be nice if it could open URLs in
your browser, but when I tried that katapult crashed:

Using host libthread_db library "/lib/libthread_db.so.1".
0x412c6497 in waitpid () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
#0 0x412c6497 in waitpid () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
#1 0x4076e5c0 in KCrash::defaultCrashHandler ()
from /opt/kde/lib/libkdecore.so.4
#2 0x412c4be5 in pthread_barrierattr_setpshared () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
#3 0x00000007 in ?? ()
#4 0x00000000 in ?? ()
#5 0x0000007b in ?? ()
#6 0x0000007b in ?? ()
#7 0xbfffede0 in ?? ()
#8 0x00000000 in ?? ()
#9 0xbfffed18 in ?? ()
#10 0xbfffecd4 in ?? ()
#11 0x41f098e4 in __JCR_LIST__ ()
from /opt/kde/lib/kde3/katapult_programcatalog.so
#12 0x080dbad4 in ?? ()
#13 0x415410a0 in __after_morecore_hook () from /lib/libc.so.6
#14 0x080ff448 in ?? ()
#15 0x0000000e in ?? ()
#16 0x00000004 in ?? ()
#17 0x41f06528 in ActionRunProgram::execute ()
from /opt/kde/lib/kde3/katapult_programcatalog.so

Zoombie
15 years ago

I'll try and figure out what happened there. However, it would be very useful if you could post some information about your installation (Distribution, version of KDE, etc). Also, it's a lot easier for me if you report bugs at the SourceForge page (linked above).

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