Goals for next Xfce releases: tasklist

[robin]

I do not intend to 'break' the current systray and launcher. Maybe I  
should not have used the word 'merge', maybe 'link' would be a better  
word? I'll tell you what I mean below.

If this 3-in-1 applet were to be included as an applet. I do not expect  
the current systray and launcher to disappear at all, that simply won't  
happen.

I visualize the list of xfce applets to include:
tasklist
launcher
systemtray
new tasklist with systray/launcher integration (3-in-1 applet)
orage
blah blah

Now, you may assume that developers will have difficulty to maintain the  
applets because if changes were to be made to the current  
systemtray/launcher, you would have to do that in the new 3-in-1 applet as  
well, or don't bother updating at all and you might end up with 2  
systray/launcher behaving differently. So this is redundant and chaotic.

But as you see in the demo, the systray and launcher works exactly the  
same as it is in today's xfce environment. I did not change the behaviours  
of the systray and launcher to make it work in this 3-in-1 applet.

So why should developers maintain the current standalone systray/launcher,  
AND the 'new hybrid' systray/launcher separately. They both should  
function the same. So is it not possible, for the systray/launcher(in the  
new tasklist) to just 'link' to the current systray/launcher?

So what I really see, is not a completely new applet being created, but  
the current working systrays, launchers, and the newly modified tasklist  
'blu-tacked' together. What really changes is the visual aspect, namely  
the icon. Instead of 3 or 2, you have just 1 icon which may work as a  
systray or launcher or both or none, people can choose to have  
systray/launcher integration or not.

In the end I would like to see the current systray/launcher co-exist with  
the new tasklist (with systray/launcher integration).
We can have a panel with:
new-tasklist applet (with systray integration) + launcher applet + other  
applet + ...
new-tasklist applet (with launcher integration) + systray applet + other  
applet + ...
new-tasklist applet (with systray&launcher integration) + other applet  
+ ...
new-tasklist applet + systray applet + launcher applet + other applet + ...

I know this is too ambitious. So as i said before, take the idea of the  
new-tasklist(with DnD, grouping, blah) and implement it WITHOUT  
systray/launcher integration, and have it default in the next xfce release  
if you wish. But I would love to see another new-tasklist called  
'new-tasklist-ambitious-version' which is like a patched version of the  
new-tasklist with systray/launcher integration, being developed on the  
side and is installable but not included in xfce by default.

Should there be a wiki page of about this applet? Can someone make it?

Anyway, I'm just trying to clean up the panel and make things simple for  
newbies, grandmas, developers, human-beings. At the same time, try to make  
something less Windows-like. Something that says, "THIS IS LINUX! You  
can't get this feature anywhere else".

Sorry if I use applet instead of plugin. Plugin to me is like something  
which works behind the scenes, like in browsers and videos, blah. Anyway...

I hope I speak sense.

-----------next email will be about DnD and ALT+TAB--------------

Thank you for reading,
Robin