Status of xfce4

[Biju Chacko]

On Sat, 2003-02-08 at 22:02, Marc Hildebrand wrote:
> Is there a plan to implement "dockapps" like wmaker and fluxbox have? 
> (These are the two I know they support it) By implementing I mean 
> loading into the panel.
> If not, we should think of more panel-apps like device mounting, 
> volume-control and so on.
> I know the average user will want this and I like the above two too.

Hmm ... I haven't really looked at the problem yet, but I suppose it
might be doable. OTOH, support for dockapps would reduce the incentive
to develop native panel plugins ... which is a major new feature of
XFce4.

IMHO, plugin development should be independent from main line XFce4
development anyway. It's ideal stuff for a 'contrib' package.


> Second thought is what about an aoutohide-function for the panel?
> The two desktop-biggies have this and I like the space I save on my 
> laptops display.

I'm not sure how this would work. Unlike GNOME/KDE the xfce panel is not
fixed against the edge of the screen. I'm not saying it's a bad idea,
I'm just saying that it may be rather odd, especially when the panel is
placed away from a screen edge. In contrast, the taskbar *does*
implement autohide.

> Apart from that, I think xfce4 is ready for rc1. As a former fluxbox 
> user I'm pretty used to "joe .fluxbox/menu" and especially flux is a 
> good example for user contribs, the gui menu-editor is a contributed one.

Is the fluxbox menu an xml format? I personally have no issues with
hand-hacking xml, but a lot of people aren't for some reason. IAC, there
is no hurry to release. Olivier's main concern is that we have *some*
roadmap for release ... it's very easy to get into 'add features
forever' mode.

-- b

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Biju 'botsie' Chacko                        biju_chacko at vsnl dot net
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