KDE show desktop button: Trying to write DCOP script equivalent to old behaviour

[Richard Neill]

Dear All,

I'm new to this list and I wonder whether I might ask your advice. I've 
seen the new behaviour of the KDE "Show Desktop" button in KDE 3.5, and 
I have to say, I think it's a misfeature. Since it's clearly a feature, 
not a bug, I'm trying to hack up a script to replicate the old behaviour...

----------------------------------------------------------------

The old behaviour upto and including 3.3.x was as described by comment 
#4 here: http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=108899 - and I think much 
better. Basically,

   (1) First press of Show desktop => All windows minimised
   (2) Second press => Revert to previous states.

   (3) BUT, if a window has been maximised from the taskbar
   between (1) and (2), then forget the previous states, and don't try 
to toggle back into an undefined condition.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The new behaviour is:

   (1) First press of Show desktop => All windows minimised
   (2) Second press => Revert to previous states.

   (3) If any window whatsoever is created, then (2) happens, and then
   the new window is placed on top.

----------------------------------------------------------------

I can see the rationale for this as "expose the desktop temporarily so 
the user can access it to click on a file". But it's really annoying.

Consider:
    a)I create a couple of konqueror windows, maximised.
    b)I click on the "show desktop button"
    c)I right click an icon on the desktop and choose "Properties"
    d)I get the properties window I wanted, but to my great confusion
   (and irritation), the desktop at which I was looking is now obscured 
by the konqueror windows which have suddenly re-maximised, and which I 
didn't ask for!

----------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, I'm trying to find a way to list and control windows from the 
shell. Either some X function, or some DCOP function would be ideal.
I'd expect something to exist like:

   dcop kicker getListOfWindows()
   dcop kicker maximiseWindow()
   dcop kicker minimiseWindow()

But I can't find them! kwin and panel don't seem to have anything 
helpful either.  Neither does X (there's xprop, xwininfo and 
xlsclients), but these are insufficient.

I found this thread, but it isn't sufficiently helpful.
http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/905

I've spend several hours searching, but to no avail - perhaps someone 
here could point me in the right way?


Thanks very much for your help,

Richard
___________________________________________________
This message is from the kde mailing list.
Account management:  https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde.
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.