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

[Paul Johnson]

On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 3:48 AM, Olivier Fourdan <fourdan at gmail.com> wrote:
> Paul,
>
> This the whole point of the semantic of window in the EWMH specifications... [1]
>
> The panel sets its type to "dock", the window manager then *may*
> decide to treat those particular type of windows differently.
>
> You said you use Compiz, then if Compiz does not treat the dock
> windows the way you like, then report that to Compiz.
>
> As the maintainer of xfwm4, I do believe that Compiz does that right
> and if you were asking about xfwm4 I would certainly reject the idea
> of treating the panel differently from what it is now. The cast
> majority of users do expect the panel to remain above other windows
> and I believe it's the way it should be.

I would agree that most people writing panels want them to be on top
every single moment.  And window manager writers seem to agree.  But I
bet you could get diversity of user opinion there. I've sat with
plenty of frustrated students who want to arrange windows and are
blocked by the panel protection policy. I don't know of any surveys,
though. But I know these decisions are not based on surveys.
Otherwise, we would never have had to put up with Gnome 3 :)

Seriously, though, I don't see why window manager writers won't give
us an  option. I don't want to change the default that most folks
want.

I have an almost workable solution, in case somebody else agrees with
my view on this.

In Compiz, use the settings to liberate window placement and put the
panels at the bottom of the stack..

In ccsm, "Window Rules", make these 2 changes:

Above: (title=Run Application) & (type=Dialog)
Below: (role=Panel) | (role=DOCK) | (type=xfce4-panel)

In "Move Window" panel, uncheck "Constrain Y".

This *at least* allows windows to go on top of the panel and off the
edge of the screen if desired.

That still leaves the problem that the panel can get buried under a
lot of windows and there seems no way in Compiz--no setting--that
allows us to give the panel focus again so it can rise to the top when
we want it. Its necessary to move all the windows out of the way. I
wish the WindowRules had an option "allow focus click" or something
like that.

I've found a workaround in a program called wmctrl. It can be used to
toggle the behavior of the panel, to make it come to the top or go
back down. Install that, then run this to toggle the panel visibility.

$ wmctrl -r xfce4-panel -b toggle,above

Its really fun to run that over and over :)

Bind that command to a key stroke or make a icon or something.

Right now, it only works on the top panel. I don't know why, will
figure out later I expect.  The wmctrl manual says you run "wmctrl -p
-G -I" to find out the state of currently managed windows. Here's what
I get, as  you see 3 panels:

$ wmctrl -p -G -l
0x0221577a -1 0      840  868  1080 212  pjlap-124 N/A
0x01200021 -1 4377   0    0    1920 49   pjlap-124 xfce4-panel
0x01200035 -1 4377   3718 102  61   276  pjlap-124 xfce4-panel
0x0120003d -1 4377   0    2060 1633 50   pjlap-124 xfce4-panel
0x01e00001  0 0      74   368  804  460  pjlap-124 mlterm
0x05000001  0 0      48   1150 804  517  pjlap-124 mlterm
0x052872fd  0 4698   18   150  1484 908  pjlap-124 wmctrl-examples - Iceweasel
0x02000001  0 0      2088 882  804  517  pjlap-124 mlterm
0x022140dd -1 0      -2   -2   1    1    pjlap-124 N/A

Oh, well.  That's enough entertainment for one evening :)
-- 
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