KWin Dashboard effect

[Lucas Murray]

2009/2/11 Martin Gräßlin <kde at martin-graesslin.com>:
> Hi plasma-devs,
>
> I had the idea to improve the appearance of the plasma dashboard by using a
> KWin effect for it. Currently I have some proof-of-concept code, but there are
> still some issues ;-)
>
> The effect changes the brightness and satuation of all windows on the same
> screen as the dashboard (causing some problems for multi-screen setups, but I
> have some ideas to solve them ;-) ). That's the same way as dim inactive or
> dim screen for administration mode works. So we can have a nice animation
> instead of "it's just there".
>
> I changed the background of dashboard to be transparent, but nevertheless
> there is some black background. I have no idea where that comes from :-(
>
> My idea for the effect does not only include the way the background is changed.
> I would like to have a smooth transition. I have not yet tried anything but I
> would like to paint the windows transparent and raise the dashboard from
> desktop to the top and when deactivating the other way around. I think that
> could be a nice animation. If someone has a better idea please provide it ;-)
>
> But here is the next problem: the white flash when opening the dashboard. As
> long as there is this white flash an animation does not make any sense. So we
> have to get rid of it. What about never closing the dashboard widget? It is
> created during startup and just put behind the desktop. We could also use the
> existing effect to always hide it. Or just have it on top of the desktop and
> have the plasmoids live in there. That way we could also benefit in other
> effects. We already had requests to hide the plasmoids in e.g. coverswitch.

If the widgets are separated from the wallpaper and placed in a window
with a transparent background it would be possible for KWin to raise
them and add the dashboard background behind it fluidly. Problems
occur when the user is not using KWin though and so the existing
functionality would be required to stay as a fallback.

> Ah and we can use the effect to block things like present windows and desktop
> grid. Alt+Tab is not that easy to block but it would be possible as well. We
> just have to try hard enough ;-)
>
> Attached you find the current patch for dashboard and kwin. The kwin code is
> also available in my git branch
> (http://github.com/mgraesslin/kwin/tree/dashboard). The dashboard code is
> really just proof-of-concept ;-) Please give it a try and provide some
> feedback.
>
> Regards
> Martin
>
>
>
>
>
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