Xfce advanced settings plugin/module

[Nikolas Arend]

Hi all,

there was a thread recently (which unfortunately took a kind of unlucky 
turn) about the inclusion of certain "hidden" options into the xfdesktop 
mcs plugin. The "over-configurability" of xfce components - i.e. making 
all possible options available by UI - was always a delicate subject. In 
said thread Brian mentioned that there could be something like the 
tweakUI plugin Olivier wrote for xfwm4, just for all hidden options and 
all apps. That way, the "core" settings manager would stay clear and not 
overloaded, but users can mess around with additional stuff if they like.

Anyway, I took glade and clicked together a widget, just to get an 
impression of how this _could_ look like:

http://hobbes.gmxhome.de/screenshots/xfce-advanced-settings-plugin.jpg

As you see, it has buttons for every component included, clicking them 
would open a notebook on the right for that component, with tabs for the 
respective options/settings. I took the xfwm4 tweak plugin for the 
example layout, it could be integrated. There is currently no further 
code behind that. It could be an mcs plugin or a separate program.

I'd like to know what you think about
- the idea in principle (is this needed/wanted/desirable/...)
- would it be possible to reasonably implement and maintain it

One problem I see is that it would have to keep up with the changes that 
are made to all options of all components which are included. For the 
xfwm4 tweakUI plugin that's easy, since it ships with xfwm4 and Olivier 
of course knows what he changed.

If you think it's a good idea, I could start work on this, but only with 
limited effort since my time is actually quite restricted atm. (and if 
my wife finds out that I'm coding for fun, she'll probably kill me, what 
would be the end of it anyway ;-). But if somebody else is interested in 
doing it, just go ahead...


Best regards,   Nick.