Hacking xfce4-panel to show handles with a fixed panel

[Landry]

Hi list !

I'm trying to make a simple thing : showing panel handles depending on 
the settings, whenever if panel is fixed or floating. Yes, it is only a 
cosmetic desire, i use a fixed panel, i love handles look'n'feel, and it 
worked in 4.2.

Atm, even if you set handlestyle to 1 (XFCE_HANDLE_STYLE_BOTH) in
  ~/.config/xfce4/panel/panels.xml, if the panel is fixed, no handles 
are shown. I'd like this setting to be applied event if the panel is 
fixed. Reading the code, i understood that in panel/panel-properties.c , 
lines 785/786 and 1179/1180, handlestyle was internally set to 
XFCE_HANDLE_STYLE_NONE if the panel was not floating => it overrides the 
setting in the config file.

What is the best/cleanest way to make the panel respect the setting ? 
removing these two pairs of lines (will it break something else ?) ? 
Patching the panel config dialog to let the user decide if he wants 
handles even if the panel is fixed ? Is this kind of modification likely 
to be commited before 4.4 ?

Particularly, jasper, what do you think about it ?

Thanks,
Landry