iconbox & taskbar feature requests

[Wade Nelson]

There are a couple things I would like to see,,,

1) iconbox "Hide if empty" should be a zero-visibility hide... It leaves 
a square just a few pixels wide/tall. I think that since it is 
accessible via the settings manager, and minimizing an app would give it 
visibility again, that it could safely be a zero-visibility hide (or an 
option).

2) when an application is minimized, how about an option to set whether 
minimized apps display in the iconbox, taskbar, or both? currently its 
both, which is a bit redundant. My preference would be iconbox only.

3) how possible would it be to allow the taskbar to use all panel 
plugins?  The layout I like to keep has a vertical panel on the left and 
a horizontal taskbar at the bottom, and it would be nice to be able to 
place a couple panel plugins in the taskbar.

4) finally, an option to remove the "dots" that are on opposing edges of 
the iconbox & panel depending on vert/horiz placement.

Any of these a possibility, or have been considered already? I'd like to 
help by submitting patches, but my coding skills are null.

PS: what do the background shades of icons in the iconbox mean? some 
apps have a light green background, some a light purple in my case.