Planning for for 4.4 panel

[Erik Harrison]

On 6/19/05, Jasper Huijsmans <jasper at xfce.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I just want to dump some thoughts about developments for the 4.4 panel.
> The idea is to have the new features implemented somewhere in august.
> 
> The two important high-level goals for the panel are:
> 
> 1) Multiple panels. Taskbar and iconbox become instances of the panel.
> 
> 2) Out-of-process plugins. This should protect the panel from problems
>    in plugins (mem-leaks and crashes).
> 
> I believe that to do this properly I will have to rewrite the plugin
> interface more or less completely. This is necessary to get rid of
> references to global variables.
> 
> So, how to go about this?
> 
> - Create a (GObject based) plugin implementation with interface
>   completely separate from panel internals.
> 
> - Port all plugins (from the panel and from the goodies) to the new
>   interface.
> 
> - Implement support for multiple panels.
> 
> - Implement support for out-of-proces plugin, with the same interface
>   as in-process plugins.
> 
> We could always decide to skip the last or even the last two points for
> 4.4 and implement those for 4.6 if time is running short.

Multiple panels is oft requested on IRC, and oft deferred to 4.4, so
I'd like to see this included. Besides, if we reorganize the panel
internals, but don't add some spiffy new feature that uses that reorg,
then all users see is several months of waiting just to be forced to
update all their plugins, with no real "gain" in their mind.

Otherwise this sounds solid to me.

> 
> Does this sound reasonable or are there better ways to handle this?
> 
>         Jasper
> 
> 
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-- 
"This brings me back to a time where I had no worries. 
All I needed to do was watch Perfect Strangers."
-Erik