[Goodies-dev] Panel plugins HIG

[Harald Judt]

Am 28.05.2012 19:48, schrieb Mike Massonnet:
> Hi,
>
> it can be useful to list the plugins that are used to monitor values
> (with or without a dummy progress bar).

I know of these:

battery
cpugraph
diskperf
genmon
netload
sensors
systemload
time-out
timer
weather
wavelan

> Than it is possible to know where to work on and compare existing
> code. It shouldn't be too complicated to list two values:
> - size of a progress bar

Taking another look, it seems the sizes _are_ consistent (8px), just the 
calculations are done in different ways. Or maybe we've fixed them 
already to be consistent.

> - padding around the progress bar

Most plugins don't have padding around the progress bars. This is 
intended, because some people like to string together the meters, 
without any free space between them.

So, in most cases there is only padding around the plugin container box.

> Ideal would be a padding that is dynamic; if you have a small panel
> you want small padding, if you have a large panel you want larger
> padding. Such values should not be requested through DBus... but it is
> possible to define "default" values directly in Xfconf. (Not talking
> about additional signals to listen to.) Note that most plugins don't
> even use Xfconf and are therefore completely DBus-free.
 >
> However it might be best to define good convenience values and reuse
> them directly in the code, having these kind of options is overdone.
>
> A default of 8px for the progress bar, with 4px padding (8px / 2) is
> what is most common to existing panel plugins. I suggest a padding of
> 2px is preferred.
 >
 > --
 > Mike

I've uploaded several patches to the bug tracker for demonstration 
purposes which do for the padding something very similar to what you 
proposed (you can quickly find them by using the search terms "use 
better border sizes"). These solutions are certainly not ideal, though; 
Landry Breuil thinks a function replicated in every plugin is not the 
way to go, as this might lead to another copy-and-paste orgy. I agree 
with him in that such a function would be better located in a central 
place, or a better solution can be found.

Harald

-- 
`Experience is the best teacher.'