Another Summer of Code proposal (desktop dock)

[J. Janz]

Hello, Aaron,

I had, waaaay long ago, an idea for something that has a dock behaviour but
was not intented to be a dock (I'm thinking about submiting it to GSoC or
not - it'd depend on time for writing it down in a formal way).

Anyway, exactly because I, too, don't see a diference between a widget on a
dock and on the panel, I think all we need to get a dock implemented
according to description in ideas' page is a plasmoid to contain the
launchers/tasks (i don't know if they have a name on OS X). That plasmoid
would make the separation between those launchers/tasks and, quoting idea's
description, "widgets such as the trash, battery, etc.".

As a plus, "widgets such as the trash, battery, etc." could be placed
wherever the user like on the panel but would never be messed up within the
launchers/tasks. And the plasmoid could also go wherever user wants it to
(and not limited to the panel - I wouldn't but if someone wanted to use it
on the desktop and, maybe, use it through show dashboard). That is, user
could arrange things on his panel according to his taste with no extra
implementation effort (and, if I'm not wrong, not doable on OS X' dock - but
I badly know OS X and I do may be wrong).

Questions: With that in mind and now what you said about containments being
a subclass of applet), is Quick Launch applet (for an example of applets
that contains items) a containment, then? And would this, as a proposal, be
ok for an implementation of that dock idea in GSoC (otherwise I won't even
bother subscribing ... =( )?

Thanks, in advance.

[ ],
-- 
JJ (|´:¬{)»
---------------------------------------------
"Eu sou a ressurreição e a vida. Quem crê em mim, ainda que morra, viverá; e
todo o que vive e crê em mim não morrerá, eternamente. Crês isto?"
O Senhor, Jesus Cristo - Jo.11:25-26
---------------------------------------------

2009/3/24 Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org>

> On Tuesday 24 March 2009, Fábio Firmo wrote:
> > Ok, so the main question is: Will be the dock a containment or a applet,
> > and why?
>
> Containment (which is actually a subclass of Applet); why? because it will
> contain and lay out other items/widgets and probably wants to have a whole
> panel to itself including painting the background.
>
> > Making it a different containment will make a separation of the tradional
> > panel and the dock more clear (as opposed to the new Windows 7 bar), and
> > will possibly make the implementation easier (i'm thinking about
> parabolic
> > zooming right know).
>
> right
>
> > The downside seems to be that every plasmoid (clocks,
> > etc) needs a "third context mode": the desktop, the panel and the dock.
>
> not at all. and the "modes" are called Form Factors, which currently are:
> Planar, Horizontal, Vertical and MediaCenter.
>
> the dock containment would simply state how big and where the widget should
> be. what would plasmoids need to do differently on a dock in your mind?
>
> > This will bring more complexity to the plasmoid makers, and I cannot see
> > any diferences between a clock in a panel and a clock in a dock.
>
> me neither. so the widget shouldn't need to know. the dock would simply
> provide Horizontal and Vertical form factors as all panels do.
>
> > I already started writing the proposal. There will be a first version
> > tomorrow for your review.
>
> i look forward to seeing it.
>
> --
> 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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Plasma-devel mailing list
> Plasma-devel at kde.org
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/plasma-devel
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/plasma-devel/attachments/20090325/868ce7cc/attachment-0001.htm