panel development update

[Bobby Bingham]

On Fri, 2005-04-15 at 16:47 -0400, Ori Bernstein wrote:
> > Progress on the design for the 4.4 panel has been a bit slow, because I don't
> > have much time. Apart from the plugin design I need to think hard about the
> > user interfaces that are needed to properly use and configure the new
> > features, especially access to configuration for multiple panels (possibly on
> > multiple monitors)
> 
> I think the best way of handling this is simply letting the user drag the panel
> around, esp. between monitors, and completely getting rid of
> position/orientation controls in the panel - let that be a function of which

That works fine for those with a Xinerama setup, but what about those
who have multiple monitors as separate screens under the same X server?
For example, I have TV out on my videocard, and the nVidia drivers offer
a few ways of using that under X:

a) "TwinView" - uses Xinerama to treat the TV as another monitor
   If this were the only case, I think your idea would be perfect

b) have the TV display an exact copy of what's on the monitor
   Multi-monitor support doesn't apply here, as the monitor and TV are
   both presented as one and the same screen

c) use two separate screens for them
   The downside is that the mouse cannot be moved between screens, but
   that's fine for simply displaying things on the TV.

For several reasons, I've chosen (c) for my setup, but with your scheme,
I won't be able to drag a panel there.  Granted, without being able to
use the mouse on that screen anyway, a panel has a somewhat limited use,
but it could still be useful for plugins that monitor things (clock,
mail checker, weather, etc).

I'd suggest that dragging a panel works, but I'd also like a GUI
interface to manage the screens/positions of the panels.  Actually, if
it would be possible to position the panel on one screen, then somehow
send it to the same position on another screen, then perhaps the
positioning part of the GUI wouldn't be necessary - just being able to
configure the screen then.

What do you think?

Bobby Bingham