[Panel-devel] Plasmatic widgets

[Ryan Nickell]

On Sun, 2005-06-05 at 10:47 +0200, Hans Oischinger wrote:
> Hi everyone,
Welcome to the list!
> 
> I didn't yet introduce myself because I joined the list a little late.
> So my name is Hans and my only noticable KDE contribution until now was 
> Komposé, an Exposé clone.
> Plasma sounded like a great opportunity to help shape a next gen KDE interface 
> which is no more limited by technical barriers, but really one step ahead.
> I'm looking forward to work together with you guys.
Can't wait to see some Kompose elements in KDE 4.0!
> 
> Due to my late arrival here I somehow missed the discussion about 
> applets/widgets and want to give my 2 cents to it:
> One limitation nearly every Panel on every DE still has is that it's geometry 
> is only modifyable in very limited ways.
> Kicker right now is a rectangle that can be positioned at the 4 edges... not 
> really overwhelming.
> 
> I'd like to see "plasmatic widgets". That means the user can shape widgets 
> freely either when creating panel themes in his vector editing app or even 
> better in some kind of editing mode plasma provides (see attachment)
> That would allow the craziest UIs and give the user full control over his 
> panel arrangement.
I agree that the user should be able to make that decision should they
like.  If they would like a very usable desktop with curved/rounded
widgets, then they should have that opportunity.
> 
> Also setting real widget masks is quite important for applets. SuperKaramba 
> widgets currently use a rectangle and allow fake transparency to create the 
> illusion of, for example, a lava lamp sitting on your desktop.
> We will however need to allow mouse events go through the now transparent 
> parts, so that the underlying widgets can receive them.
Masking is possible in SuperKaramba. However its an extra step that the
most users don't take.  You simply have to create a bit mask and add an
option to your KARAMBA line in your .theme file.
KARAMBA X=0 Y=0 W=136 H=136 LOCKED=true INTERVAL=1000 MASK=mask.png
Here's a theme I wrote that uses it:
http://kdelook.org/content/show.php?content=8083
Regardless, you're right that it needs to be better implemented to do
"auto masking".  Does Qt4 have an improved self masking mechanism that
will allow this?  My only experience trying to do this was using
createHeuristicMask() with pixmaps.  
> 
> A problem that may arise is that bezier curve editing is not something every 
> user understands, but then again it should only be available in a "editing 
> mode" which a a normal user may never see.
> All this may be a little to concrete now but it just came to my mind and I had 
> to get it out from there again :)
> 
> Greets, Hans
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