Can xfce4 iconize to the desktop

[Brian J. Tarricone]

as i've pointed out on this list before:
http://spuriousinterrupt.org/xfce4/#faq
granted, this hasn't specifically answered the minimised-apps question 
until i just added it now, but the general statement about icons should 
have been enough of an answer.

i personally am not a big fan of having minimised apps turn into regular 
desktop icons.  xfdesktop 4.4 will probably have some kind of iconbox 
embedded into the desktop which you can resize, move around, etc., but 
the icons will auto-place themselves in rows/columns.  actually, now 
that i think about it, it should be possible to be a little bit more 
general so you can essentially set the iconbox to the screen size.  i 
suppose the ability to move them around isn't too much to ask.

one thing to remember: while i acknowledge xfce's roots, xfce4 is not a 
CDE clone.  it has some CDE-ish features, but, to be perfectly honest, i 
don't like CDE all that much, and i don't plan on turning xfdesktop into 
a clone of CDE's desktop.  if your users require a CDE-like environment, 
perhaps xfce3 might be more suitable.

just a quick response from something the original poster said, because 
it bugs me:

> 1. active applications can be iconized to the desktop, remembering 
> where they belong
> (this is CDE.  If your windowmanager can't do this, how are you 
> similar to CDE?)

huh?  i hardly see this as "CDE's defining feature".  one thing that 
makes xfce CDE-like is the panel, with its category/drawers model.  
being "similar" to something doesn't mean you do everything the same 
way.

	-brian


On Fri, 2 Jul 2004, roger wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm not sure that these basic requirements are unpopular... and I'm not the 
> only one thinking so.
> 
> At work, we've got numerous (not so antique) Sun and AIX workstations/servers 
> as well as cheap Linux-based PC's, which we mainly use just for connecting to 
> the Sun's and AIX's, then displaying applications running on those boxes.
> 
> For us, who simultaneously run a lot of applications (mainly xterm's and 
> editors), a taskbar (or even an iconbox) is not up to the job: we definitely 
> prefer the CDE/Motif icons for minimized applications.
> 
> For that reason, we've been running Xfce3 on our Linux boxes until recently.
> Unfortunately, after having swapped our old Sun Workshop's with newer 
> SunOneStudio's, we found out that the Xfce3 window manager wouldn't display 
> properly these IDE's (parts of them were just out of screen!).
> 
> So we upgraded to Xfce4, which is much better that Xfce3 in any respect... 
> except for minimized application icons!
> 
> Personally, I've been running Xfce4 (with iconbox) since its first release on 
> my home desktop, but here I don't have the same constraints I have at work (I 
> don't own 20 other machines on which I would have 10 connected xterm's per 
> each :-)
> 
> Months ago I inquired about the prospect of having CDE-style icons within 
> Xfce4 (features wish). I then was nicely answered to be patient since someone 
> was already working on this.
> 
> Is this project still on?
> 
> Thanks for your time,
> Roger.
> 
> On Thu, 1 Jul 2004 03:09 am, Nepple, Bruce wrote:
> > I currently use CDE, and was told that XFCE was similar.
> >
> > From http://xwinman.org/xfce.html
> > XFce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX platforms.
> > It is similar to the commercial CDE, and is now based on the GTK+ toolkit
> >
> > My requirements for a desktop/windowmanager are simple (but, it seems,
> > unpopular):
> >
> > 1. active applications can be iconized to the desktop, remembering where
> > they belong (this is CDE.  If your windowmanager can't do this, how are you
> > similar to CDE?)
> >
> > 2.  Multiple workspaces
> >
> > 3.  right click or some other simple application startup method
> >
> > Shading doesn't cut it, although it would be neat to have shading & icons.
> >
> > I typically have 8 or 10 terminals with 30 to 40 edit sessions in a single
> > workspace, and they are organized by desktop position.  It is very
> > cluttered, as is my real desk. I may have up to 10 active workspaces of
> > similar complexity.
> >
> > (What use is a desktop if you can't put anything on it :)? )
> >
> > Anyway, can xfce4 be forced to work that way (iconize to desktop).  I
> > disabled the taskbar and got no icons whatsoever.
> >
> > BTW,  If you know what other window/desktop manager might work for me,
> > please let me know. (maybe CTWM?).  I just have to get away from our
> > friggen solaris antique iron.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Bruce
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