Hate panel interaction with window managers. Way to nullify it?

[Paul Johnson]

Here's my angry rant about the way panels interact with window
managers in XFCE4. Can you tell me how to fix? If it matters, I'm
running Debian Wheezy with XFCE4 packages,  xfce4-panel  4.8.6   and
the window manager at the moment is compiz 0.8.4.

Basically, I don't want the window in which the panel resides to be
treated as special and protected. I don't want the panel always on
top, it should not block window movement or resizing in anyway.

I often want to hide part of the panel, but look at the rest. I like
to drag windows "off the screen" so I'm only looking at one section of
the window. I want them to go on top of the part of the panel they
overlap, but let me look at the rest of the panel, which is not
covered.

I want to be able to resize a window to go over a part of the panel,
but leave the rest of the panel showing.

I don't mind if windows maximize on top of the panel. I wish they would.

I want to be able to raise a panel to the top when I want to see it,
otherwise leave it below, peeking out. Right now, I can see one half
of a panel (I dragged a window over it). and there appears to be no
way to raise the panel to the top of the screen. It is necessary to
move all of the windows off the panel.  I've have difficulty believing
that anybody likes it this way, unless one is using a cell phone.

In Compiz, I have found some settings that allow me to move windows
over the top of the panel, but I can't find settings that let me
resize windows over the panel.  I can "Alt-drag" a window over a
panel, but cannot "edge drag" to resize over the panel. The drag
motion is "blocked" at the panel's edge.

The only "workaround" I've found is the panel preferences setting
"automatically show and hide panel", but I don't want that. It makes
the panel an all or nothing thing.  Why can't I be allowed to see the
clock on the top right part of the panel without having the whole rest
of the panel imposed over the top of the screen?

In the early days of Gnome, before they became so paternalistic, I
recall a panel setting similar to "treat as ordinary window".  Or am I
dreaming of a  happier day that never truly existed :) I am not sure.

pj
-- 
Paul E. Johnson
Professor, Political Science      Assoc. Director
1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504      Center for Research Methods
University of Kansas                 University of Kansas
http://pj.freefaculty.org               http://quant.ku.edu