[PATCH] fade out panel in desktopgrid

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Monday 09 February 2009, Lubos Lunak wrote:
> On Sunday 08 of February 2009, Sebastian Kügler wrote:
> > Hey kwinners,
> >
> > Apparently, we've had complaints that the panel shown on the desktopgrid
> > is the same for all virtual desktops, even when configured to only show
> > windows from the current virtual desktops. As we have only one panel
> > which is shown for all virtual desktops and we just change that panel
> > based on current virtual desktops, it's not easy to solve.
>
>  It is the same problem like with wallpaper-per-desktop. Both could be

it's not the same problem. in the case of the panel, people actually do want 
the same contents and simply having a copy of it on each desktop that we 
somehow synchronize the applet layout on each but not the contents of ... 
yeah, that's not going to work at all. the applets will not be the same size 
depending on the contents, for instance, so it would be an imperfect illusion. 
and let's not even talk about the added overhead.

> implemented by having Plasma provide one window per desktop, and
> additionally the taskbar would have to specially handle the case when its
> visible but not on the active desktop. It's a question if it's worth the
> effort.

given that there is a simple, elegant solution (don't show the panel when 
showing these multi-desktop overview effects) it certainly is worth the 
effort.

> > The attached patch hides this issue by simply fading out the panel when
> > the desktopgrid is activated and fades it back in when the you zoom into
> > a desktop.
> >
> > OK to commit?
>
>  We talked shortly about it on IRC and we don't like it.

i'd like to ask that you reconsider.

> Other effects like the cube would have to be modified too

i thought the cube already had an option to keep the panel full size? and 
honestly, that probably makes more sense anyways since the cube rotates the 
desktop contents.

> and having the panel hidden would
> look worse than just having it slightly incorrect

that's obviously a matter of opinion.

> . DesktopGrid is still
> only an effect and not the real desktop (e.g. clicking doesn't work
> normally either), so we consider to be better this way.

effects that are more visually consistent with naive expectations are more 
satisfying. thinking in terms of "this is fake, this isn't" misses the point 
of what makes a user happy or not.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Qt Software


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