This week in KDE: Easy Emoji input and more

This Week in KDE 3 Minutes

Something cool this way comes… easy Emoji input! Speaking personally, lack of easy Emoji input on Plasma has been irritation for years. But no longer! Plasma now has a built-in Emoji chooser similar to the ones on other competing operating systems. Ours is invoked with the Meta+period keyboard shortcut.

Here it is:

Let’s give a big hand to to Aleix Pol Gonzalez for implementing this! It’ll be available in Plasma 5.18, and in the meantime we’re going to continue to improve its polish, integration, and discoverability.

More New Features

Bugfixes & Performance Improvements

User Interface Improvements

How You Can Help

Ar you good at web design? KDE has approximately five hundred million (okay, slight exaggeration) websites in need of visual refreshing and technical improvement! Our web team is desperately overworked and in need of help–yours, perhaps. 🙂 Each individual person who joins in will be making a humongous difference! If this sounds like your cup of tea, check out https://community.kde.org/KDE.org

More generally, have a look at https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved and find out more ways to help be part of a project that really matters. Each contributor makes a huge difference in KDE; you are not a number or a cog in a machine! You don’t have to already be a programmer, either. I wasn’t when I got started. Try it, you’ll like it! We don’t bite!

Finally, consider making a tax-deductible donation to the KDE e.V. foundation.

Published by Nate

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32 thoughts on “This week in KDE: Easy Emoji input and more”

  3. Hello, I love KDE since your articles “Productivity and usabilit”. I’m french and I would like to contribute at KDE (Plasma preferably). But my level in English is low (for the moment) and I don’t know how to start…

    Excuse me for my bad English, and have a good day! 😁

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    1. There’s a paragraph at the end of the blog post “How You Can Help”. You should “have a look at https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved and find out more ways to help be part of a project that really matters.” 🙂

      > Excuse me for my bad English, and have a good day!
      You may also take your future participation in KDE as a motivation to improve your English skills! 🙂

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    2. > You may also take your future participation in KDE as a motivation to improve your English skills!

      Or maybe anglo-americans and englishmen could start to think about abandoning your proverbial illiteracy about anything that exceeds the anglosaxon world and start learning other languages! 🙂

      If we want to make technology free, democratic, non neo-colonialist, and all those laudable adjectives we preach about the marvels of FLOSS, we should start by permitting that any human could contribute and participate in their native languages instead of forcing them to switch their words and thoughts by those of the language of the USA and all the load of cultural influence every language unavoidably includes. A language is not just words and a grammar, it’s a way to understand/explain the world.
      Online translators are better every day, especially DeepL translator, and especially with “big” languages, and new languages come constantly. The argument “Sorry, but I can’t read Spanish/French/Russian/etc is not a valid excuse anymore. For smaller languages Gtranslate is an acceptable option most of the time, evenif way sub-optimal, though.
      Have you seen any Android phone in other languages besides English? Their Play Store is in the phone’s language; the apps’ descriptions, the comments, etc. Even my granny can understand it. Magic? No, just automatic translation. KDE, well, all the FLOSS ecosystem, in fact, should follow that model and all major sites should use automatic translation in order to allow as many human beings as possible, participate and contribute.
      What KDE should do instead contributing to americanize the world should be pretty the opposite: contributing to internationalizing the world and respect its diversity. 😀

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    3. >>we should start by permitting that any human could contribute and participate in their native languages

      Ever heard about the Tower of Babel, what happened when builders started to speak different languages? Not that I believe in fairy tails, but mankind requires lingua franca for international cooperation. In Middle Ages it was Latin, now English is filling that niche.

      >>A language is not just words and a grammar, it’s a way to understand/explain the world.

      That’s why automatic translators can’t completely solve the problem. Languages have many tiny caveats that can be hard to translate automatically.

      >>anglo-americans and englishmen could start to think about abandoning your proverbial illiteracy about anything that exceeds the anglosaxon world

      I do not understand the hate towards USA and the rest. But you may show us your civil position by boycotting everything that “illiterate” americans invented. First cut down the internet and throw away your PC. Don’t forget the mobile phone. And stop using microwave oven. Then the air conditioner…

      >>Have you seen any Android phone in other languages besides English?

      Don’t like it? Then stop using any android or iOS phones. Invent your own mobile OS or fork Android and popularise it. Come on, show us who’s the new sheriff in town 🙂 Alternatively you may contribute to internationalization of the OS, or pay someone who can do it.
      Instead of whining about your problems and blaming others for them (americans, jews etc.) start doing something.

      Disclaimer: I’m not anglosaxon.

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    4. – Disclaimer: I’m not anglosaxon.

      Then why are you so servile? Idiophobia perhaps (from greek “idios”, oneself + “phobia”, hate, distaste)? Or just yet another “american wannabe”? Wouldn’t you really like that many more people from your country could contribute bug reports, ideas, etc, to the KDE community? That you could install Plasma to many more of your acquaintances because there were no language barrier?

      I do share the objections made by the OP, that I suppose to be german or austrian, but I, even if portuguese, agree with him 100%.
      “There’s no cloud, just other people’s computers”. I’m sure you know that “proverb”. Well, nowadays there’s no international language, just other people’s language imposed to others, and the worst: being paid via taxes by the same people who is being culturally colonised.

      – mankind requires lingua franca for international cooperation

      Sure, but why that lingua franca had to be the language of Donald Trump? The most spoken language on earth is mandarin chinese, then arabic, then hindi, then spanish… Well, I don’t know the numbers exactly, perhaps I’m not being precisely correct, but exact data isn’t too important, you get the idea that matters. Or, if we don’t want to consider native speakers number, what was wrong with latin, there’s even a modernised version of latin that doesn’t use almost declensions, making it a lot easier, or esperanto or interlingua or whatever artificial language you prefer. All those could be as easy or as hard to teach to the people exactly the same way they have spent billions of our own money in teaching us english, and don’t imply any advantage for their native speakers because there are no native speakers.
      When latin was the lingua franca of Europe in the Middle Age, Renaissance and part of the Baroque periods it was a dead language; it didn’t imply hegemony for any country because no country had it as native language anymore since centuries ago; no latin companies, institutions think tanks, lobbies, could obtain economical benefits due to that hegemony.
      Do you know about economics? Has anybody made a study about how much money have made american and british companies thanks to competing whit advantages over, say, greek, polish, or papuan companies? Where’s the free and equal market opportunities?

      Lingua franca? Of course, but why english, or chinese, or spanish, or arabic or any other “big” living language. Do you know something about anthropology, well, sociology maybe? Then you sure know the conceot of “acculturation”. I’m sure that, if you really aren’t anglosaxon, something that I’m having a hard time to believe due your passionate defense, you are seeing how your language is being invaded by english terms that are even expelling the native ones; and how your society, teenagers and young adults specially, is beginning to use bad translations of expressions that come from the american pop culture, abandoning the way of express and interpret the world of your own culture. Do you really agree with that or do you really think that it has nothing to do with the increasing presence of english everywhere? Because that has a name…

      The free software should increase the people’s liberty and identity, not force us to accept cultural impositions, jump through hoops, if we want to collaborate in any way.

      – I do not understand the hate towards USA and the rest

      I can’t answer for the OP, but in my personal case I think there’s a misunderstanding among many people that think that claiming for respect and diversity mean to hate the USA and its satellites. Sure that Trump isn’t a very popular person outside his country, but I think that most of us understand that the USA as a country and its politics, especially foreign policy, are not the same thing. Disliking the fact that after the Cold War, the USA are extending their tentacles much further and deeper than ever doesn’t mean one hates that country, just hates its neo-imperialistic impulses.

      – First cut down the internet and throw away your PC. Don’t forget the mobile phone. And stop using…

      I’m sure that if you re-read your comment you’ll feel ashamed.
      Are you nazi? You don’t like them? Well, if you don’t like the nazis never use a Volkswagen, nor travel ever onver a highway, don’t ever use a voice recording device, throw away your Adidas, Puma and Hugo Boss stuff, and refuse to make any use of anything related or depending on rocket science, for instance your mobile phone and mobile Internet connection, and whan you have done all this and are at home, don’t even try to enjoy listening Carl Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’.
      Yeah, it’s stupid and puerile. Totally. The fact that some country or person can do bad things doesn’t imply that that cannot do also good things useful for the whole mankind. That doesn’t mean that we must let them do whatever they want. And the answer “If you don’t like, go and do it by yourself” is also infantile.
      I’m a lawyer, and collaborate with a NGO here in Portugal to help people without resources to have legal coverage beyond what our public system offers (legal aid lawyers here aren’t usually too diligent, I’m afraid) If your were my client and I weren’t doing things right so you could see that I was going to lose the trial, claim to the administration, appeal, whatever, and you would criticize my job, should I answer “Go defend yourself at court”? That’s stupid, sorry.

      Anyways, despite agreeing with commenter Ludwig, I don’t think his wishes are too realistic. While automatic translation would do a decent job for many bug reports, the problem is that the only decent translator nowadays is Deepl, that is a paid one for using its professional edition. KDE EV couldn’t use its API for bugs.kde.org, Planet KDE, KDE forum, etc, etc, for free, I believe. Even if there were possible some kind of agreement with any online translation service, I’m not sure that due the scarce manpower in KDE, implementing such a feature were feasible.
      So I think it’s an utopia and I don’t think KDE will ever be as big as to be able to implement it.

      To all: sorry for the OT. We should not reject to talk about the consequences and implications that our technology has from time to time, but I’m aware that this isn’t probably the best place.

      Cheers.

      P.D: BTW, I live in a very touristic city and think am an open person who likes to help and talk with tourists and foreigners in general. So, in my experience, I have also to agree than most anglosaxons are usually really illiterate in matters that are outside the anglosaxon environment. Frenchs, spaniards, italians, germans, greeks, etc, usually know a little of many cultural matters, even if just a little. Some of them even sometimes go ask me for some help and start the conversation with an “Olà”, a “Por favor”, and they say goodbay with a kind “Obrigado”. Americans and britons, I’m sorry, almost never know a single thing, not only about Portugal but Europe, specillay latin Europe, and also almost never make the slightest effort to learn 4 words in a country where they are going to spend a week or two. Let’s not talk about the bahaviour of young britons in our beach destinations… Savages is saying little…
      This is not hate towards them nor their countries, it’s just a fact that I’m sure you could verify if you talk to people who are used to receive anglophone tourists and doesn’t neglect all the great english literature, science, or the cool american inventions, even if most of them have been made by non american scientists and engineers, that have made our life much more comfortable. Valid criticism is NOT hate.

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    5. Eric gave you great advice. Also… Je suis sûr que que tu parle Anglais beaucoup mieux que je peux parler en Français! Donc, t’inquiete pas. 🙂

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    6. Thanks, I go to try to access on KDE in the soon months ! And in effect, I think (as say Eric) its also a motivation for learn English !

      PS : Your phrase in French is very good 😉

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  4. 7Zip is one of my favorite application on Windows, and now that it can be browser through Dolphin is such a great addition.

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  5. s it possible to add to dolphin a setting to start typing it already filter the files, with the same function accessible using Ctrl + i, but without having to use the shortcut?

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    1. So basically you want the filter bar to open immediately when you start typing, instead of using the default type-ahead behavior?

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  6. While for me it’s more useful to have a native Color Picker than an Emoji Picker, I think this is a nice addition.

    The Plasma Network Manager applet’s Details tab showing more information about the selected network is very nice, but I hope it will work also for the ones of us who replaced WPA Supplicant with iwd as explained in this tutorial:
    https://blobfolio.com/2019/10/replacing-wpa-supplicant-with-iwd-in-ubuntu-eoan/
    I hope the developer of this can test also this case.
    I still don’t know why Ubuntu doesn’t just switch to iwd, at least the connection to wifi network is very fast with it.

    Besides this information that it’s already displayed I think it would be very helpful to display in parentheses or as a tooltip how the IPv6 address was generated, if it came from the access point through DHCP or it was generated from the MAC adress, which in my opinion is a privacy nightmare and something that I want to be informed of.
    A tooltip with the connection band (2,4 / 5 GHz) and channel over the “Signal strength” and one with the connection type (b/g/n/ac) over “Connection speed” would be very useful for debugging slow connections.
    Or a button instead of tooltips can be added to open a pop-up window with all these informations about the wireless connection.

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    2. I was going to, but from one of the latest updates to that topic, it seems like Kid3 developer has agreed to be a part of KDE community just yesterday and Kid3 and Picard are too similar – both metadata editor for music files – so I think it’s no longer necessary. But if I see another software project that I feel like would be a good addition to KDE, I’ll make sure to leave a comment there. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Can you extend the emoji picker for easier accented letter and symbol input as well? Add a tab for symbols. And you can go further by “guessing”, for example if I press the shortcut after letter o, if will show accents like õ, ō, etc and pressing if after $ it can show other currency symbols.

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    1. I rather like the approach taken by smartphones whereby if you press-and-hold on a letter or character, it will show a little pop-up with alternative/accented versions. That would be my vote.

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    2. But how do you press-and-hold on a desktop? Your suggested approach is going to great on Plasma Mobile, not so much on a mouse and keyboard setup. Besides, that’s why there’s a shortcut for emojis to begin with, no?

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    3. You’d just press-and-hold the appropriate key on the keyboard. This is what macOS does and IMO in practice it works out really well.

      Liked by 1 person

    4. Oh, that’s interesting. But what key is bound to do that in macOS? What key would you suggest for the same function on a conventional keyboard?

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  10. Thanks for informative report. I notice some regressions in KDE Plasma Version: 5.17.4. All of them related to usability:
    1- If you type wrong password in Login screen then typed the correct password, the enter button doesn’t work , you have to use mouse click to login.
    2- In firefox when you download a file, “Open containing folder” doesn’t work.

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  11. Is there going to be a generic Unicode input method in the future? Then I could finally get rid of ibus on most systems, where I use ibus to a) enter emojis (Ctrl+Shift+e) and Unicode characters, that are not directly mapped on a keyboard.

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  12. I really can’t get enough of this amazing weekly posts, always with interesting new features, bugs fixed, improvements, etc, of our beloved KDE Software, nice!! Plasma 5.18 LTS really is looking so nice, with a great bunch of new features and fixes, as always.

    Thank you very much to everyone who make all this fantastic software possible.

    A huge hug to everyone ^^.

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  13. Tried the emoji picker again in the current KDE release and it still doesn’t insert directly into the text fields, it still doesn’t close on select of a emoji. It’s really sad how inferior it is to what ibus is offering. I really wanted to switch to it (and fcitx for the unicode code point entry support). But again I have to use some Gnome crap, that integrates only after wrestling with the config. But at least it works nicely afterwards.

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