Feature Request

[Ric]

Hi Jeff:

Would you be open to a little different suggestion?

These are nice ideas and I like them but the question is 'Should xfdesktop be
doing all this?'  
There are already quite a few programs that do these things and much, much
more so I do not see why xfdesktop must do them too.   Adding these kinds of
widgets would be okay but is a duplication of effort and, as such, defeats the
purpose of using existing tools to accomplish tasks.

All that is really needed is for xfdesktop to allow another program to set the
(root window) background.  Very popular programs such as XV, qiv, chbg, ee and
others do all these things quite good and, as mentioned, can do much more.  
E.g., chbg is capable of a 'smart' sizing of pics so you do not have to
specify what size but if a certain pic does not give a good hint, you can tell
chbg to make it scaled, centered, <whatever> just as you can in the XV and qiv
programs.  chbg can also _already_ manage multiple 'lists' which can be
rotated on a timed schedule with 2 choices of timing, <blah> and each item in
the list can be set to have whatever display orientation and size that is
desired.  I think qiv has some of the same options.  BTW, those programs can
already handle just about any kind of graphic image. I would venture to say
that every X system has at least one of those installed.

So, IMO, it is duplication of effort to make xfdesktop do these things.  All
that is really needed is a single widget that says " Use program:  " with a
text entry box so that the user can enter a program to use for displaying pics
and to, of course, make  xfdesktop  friendly enough to allow another program
to set the background on the _root_ window and allow it to be displayed, at
least, locally.

I do not know how hard the latter would be but requests/questions like yours
are going to continue forever, or until xfdesktop is more friendly to other
aps that want root window for pic displays.  ( I currently have to run
xfdesktop(after the XFce 4 is loaded) to set the workspace names and then kill
it so that I can use chbg to manage the background.  I, of course, lose the
menus too so I also have to run deskmenu with MenuMaker.  It's a "horrible
hack" but the only way I know to get the job done with the way xfdesktop is
now (but I am open to suggestions). )

BTW, gnome with sawfish allowed one to enter a program for the background. I
cannot recall at this time if sawfish was required or if it was a gnome widget
and do not know if the gome2 still allows it.  I think KDE might allow that
too BICBW since I never use the K de.  GDM allows it too by modifying the
startup files.  So, it is not a really new idea for a widget -> should not be
as hard to do.

WDYT?

--- Jeff Stuart <jstuart at computer-city.net> wrote:
> As per the suggestion, here's the feature request that I made in IRC:
> 
> <jstuart> Ok.. when I go to the settings | background
> <jstuart> if I choose a SPECIFIC image, then I can choose the style that I
> want.
> <jstuart> IE centered, scaled, etc.
> <jstuart> HOWEVER, if I choose a LIST, it greys out the style and ONLY
> allows use of automatic.
> <jstuart> What I want is to force ALL images in the list to be
> centered or scaled or tiled.
> <jstuart> IE global style of center, and then it displays the pic.




=====
Have A Great Day!

Ric
***
Thought for today:
Software is like sex: it's better when it's free.

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