[Panel-devel] Plasmatic widgets

[Hans Oischinger]

Hi everyone,

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.

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.

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.

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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