ANNOUNCE: xfce4-panel 4.7.0 released

[Vincent]

On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 9:13 PM, Nick Schermer <nick at xfce.org> wrote:

> xfce4-panel 4.7.0 is now available for download from
>
>
> http://archive.xfce.org/src/xfce/xfce4-panel/4.7/xfce4-panel-4.7.0.tar.bz2
>
> http://archive.xfce.org/src/xfce/xfce4-panel/4.7/xfce4-panel-4.7.0.tar.bz2.md5
>
> http://archive.xfce.org/src/xfce/xfce4-panel/4.7/xfce4-panel-4.7.0.tar.bz2.sha1
>
>  SHA1 checksum: 64e89d8c276a96806e52c7a90af7e91a7e952626
>   MD5 checksum: 4b6a6fa4a37d9bfe713151c1bc9bec97
>
>
> What is xfce4-panel?
> ====================
>
> Xfce's panel.
>
> Website:
>  http://www.xfce.org/projects/xfce4-panel
>
>
> Release notes for 4.7.0
> =======================
>
> This is the first development release of xfce4-panel for Xfce 4.8. It is
> basically a complete rewrite of the 4.6 panel, so it needs a lot of
> testing. Below an overview of the biggest changes. If you're going to
> check it out: don't forget the recompile panel plugins else they won't
> work.
> Please report all the regressions and bugs you find at bugzilla.xfce.org
> (and don't forget the set the version to 4.7.0).
>
> Have fun testing!
>
>
> General
> -------
> - Almost a complete rewite of the code. Everything is now written
>  in GObjects. This makes each individual part easier to understand.
> - All plugins are ported to GObject-based plugins and use Xfconf for
>  storing their information (apart from desktop-files of launcher).
> - Interfaces are all created by GtkBuilder.
> - Ported to new Libxfce4ui (4.7.1) and Garcon (0.1.1) libraries.
>  Other dependencies include Gtk+ 2.14, Glib 2.18, Xfconf 4.7.2,
>  Exo 0.5.1, DBus-Glib 0.73 and Libwnck 2.22.
> - Documentation (will be) written in Mallard.
> - On first startup a dialog will appear to migrate old panel config,
>  start with the default setup or one empty panel.
>
> Panel
> -----
> - Panels can be dragged around the screen and snapped to every panel
>  edge. Each panel also has a setting to control the window length (%).
> - Possibility to lock panels. This will fix the position and hides the
>  handles of the window.
> - Alpha backgrounds.
> - Item (plugin) editor in the preferences dialog, so you can easily
>  add, move, delete and edit plugins that are sometimes hard to reach.
> - Using Xfconf for storing the panel settings. Panels also watches the
>  Xfconf channel for changes, except for adding and removing panels.
> - New code for monitor/screen positioning. This should work a lot
>  better with randr.
> - DND of desktop-files on the panel to create new launchers.
> - Possibility to add new plugins from the command line, including
>  startup arguments.
> - External plugins are automatically restarted if they have not
>  crashed in the last 60 seconds. If they crash more then once in
>  this time window, the user is asked what to do (restart or remove).
> - Gtk style properties for popup/popdown delay.
> - Hidden option to disable struts for windows on a screen edge, so
>  the space is used by the window manager for other windows.
>
> Plugin Framework
> ----------------
> - Plugin API should still be the same, however the ABI changed so
>  you need to recompile plugins against this version of the panel.
> - New way to run plugins compiled as modules externally. Whether a
>  plugin runs internal or external is controlled by a boolean in the
>  desktop-file of the plugin. This does not affect the 'old' external
>  plugins that are compiled as binaries, it is however recommended to
>  port plugins to this new framework (only Makefile and macro change)
>  since it is more flexible.
> - Communication between the panel and wrapper (that embeds plugins to
>  run external) is handled through D-Bus.
> - XfcePanelPlugin is now a single object (not an interface for 2 other
>  objects). This drops a lot of code.
> - Some new API and a couple of deprecations. Some of the new
>  functionality is only available in the new plugin framework.
> - New way to build plugins as GObjects with XfcePanelPlugin as parent
>  type. This gives all advantages of GObject like type checking.
>
> Actions Plugin
> --------------
> - New settings dialog that allows one or two actions in the plugin
>  in each order you want.
>
> Applications Menu Plugin (new)
> ------------------------------
> - Plugin similar what Xfdesktop provided, but using Garcon.
> - Gtk icons size property to control the menu icon size.
> - Script to popup the menu, optionally under the cursor.
>
> Clock Plugin
> ------------
> - New fuzzy clock mode.
> - Improved vertical orientation.
>
> Directory Menu Plugin (new)
> ---------------------------
> - Menu that provides a directory tree in a menu. It allows to quickly
>  open a Terminal or File Manager for some directory.
> - Possible to set a file filter for files that should also be
>  visible in the menu. Files are opened by the default application
>  that provides the mime-type reported by GIO.
> - Gtk icons size property to control the menu icon size.
> - Script to popup the menu, optionally under the cursor.
>
> Launcher Plugin
> ---------------
> - Support to create a launcher from the command line with a number of
>  desktop files as argument.
> - New dialogs, with an application finder like interface to add new
>  applications and using the Exo item editor for modifying launchers.
> - The desktop files are stored in the .config/xfce4/panel/launcher-$id
>  folder and monitored for changes.
> - Possibility to use desktop-id in the default configuration which are
>  read from a GarconItemsPool on first startup. This is a very useful
>  feature for distributions providing a custom default config.
> - Gtk icons size property to control the menu icon size.
> - Option to show labels instead of icons.
>
> Pager Plugin
> ------------
> - Button to quickly access the Xfwm4 workspace settings.
>
> Separator Plugin
> ----------------
> - Same drawing modes as previous panel, but a check button for expand
>  instead of a mode.
>
> Notification Area Plugin
> ------------------------
> - Support for transparent tray icons (required at least Gtk 2.16).
>
> Window Buttons (tasklist) Plugin
> --------------------------------
> - Option to only show icons. This drops the icon box plugin.
> - Complete rewrite, not entirely finished yet (group buttons are not
>  working yet + some other less noticeable features).
> - If the list becomes too crowded windows will show up in an overflow
>  menu, similar to what a menu bar does.
> - Option to set the sort mode of the tasklist.
> - Draw wireframe of the window on mouse hover, similar to the Alt+Tab
>  wireframe in Xfwm4.
> - A lot of style properties to tune the behavior of the plugin.
> - Vertically orientated buttons for vertical panels.
>
> Window Menu Plugin
> ------------------
> - Gtk icons size property to control the menu icons size and minimized
>  icon translucency.
>
>
Sounds great, thanks!
-- 
Vincent
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