Feature Request

[Moritz Heiber]

On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 07:54:09 -0700 (PDT)
Ric <fhj52ads at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 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.
> 

So much thoughts about such a little feature being added? Scaling has
been in xfdesktop from day one, now scaling should be provided for every
state of backrounds not depending on wether its a list or just a single
picture. Thats all.

Bye,

Moritz