KDE-Forum.org

Preamble (Preramble)

The one thing (or one of) that I have been disappointed in with *nix DE's in general (okay, only GNOME and KDE, as I've only tried them) and KDE4 specifically is the taskbar. We haven't really done any innovation in that area. Sure, there's a new taskbar coming out with grouping, but what I've seen (which is very little) is not very promising so far (though it is an improvement).

Then, along came Windows 7(pre-alpha). I don't necessarily like the specifics, but the thumbnail tabbing by application was a good (though not entirely original <ehem>compiz and OSX Dock</ehem> ) move in the right direction. However, its not perfect.

So I set out to think about what I want in my taskbar. First thing, if implemented properly (NOT a la OSX) launcher/task duality would be very useful. Also, I like the idea of tabbed, clickable previews with window peeking on hover.

That being said, what was shown for Windows 7 fell somewhat short. There were no custom groupings, no clear way of launching a new window of an already running application (clicking, maybe, but that would be a pain, cuz people are so used to it to just switch tasks) and, of course, no multiple desktop integration.

Well, since clickable window previews (alt-tab) and window peeking (also alt-tab) are already available in KDE4, I don't see how this would be difficult to implement.

Here are my ideas for how the plasmoid would work. I would have started programming it myself, but not only do I need to learn the plasma API, but I also need to learn C++, which is making it a struggle to get started.

Idea

• Auto-ordering of launchers before tasks (or after) would be optional
  
• In this case, the option of a spacer between launchers and tasks would be given
  
• Task/launcher duality would be optional (should it be default?)
  
• The red plus over the icon is for adding an instance of the program.
  
• Text beside icons would be optional (though on by default)
  
• In the same way, text beside launchers would be optional (esp in side-panel layout)
  
• In text-on mode, the (+) would place itself in-line with the cursor on hover (or maybe the button would get wider?)
  
• Hovering over thumbnails would peek
  
• Hovering over the icon would peek at all the app windows, or the most recent
  
• Hovering over or clicking the app title might expose all the app windows. (context sensitive to single or multi desktop mode)
  
• The little arrow on top of the previews is for toggling multiple desktop view.
  
• Thumbnails would be draggable.
  
• The red plus on the far right is a sort-of half concocted idea for making custom groups.
  
• Custom groups would go on a subsection that could be separated from the rest of the plasmoid (like Lancelot) if so desired.
  
• Icons could be moved to anywhere along the length of the plasmoid, or even to other taskbar sections (I don't know how possible this would be).
  
• Clicking the icon might make the thumbnails stay up for more complex window management (ie grouping and ordering)
  
• This would allow multiple groups to be visible at a time.
  
• Alternatively, (and I think this is better) clicking could bring the most recent app window forward, and double clicking could bring all of the app windows forward.
  
• Dragging a thumbnail to the taskbar might put it in a new group [TheBlackCat, kde-forum.org]
  
• Group window management buttons |min|max|close| could go in the top-right (?) [TheBlackCat, kde-forum.org]
  
• Cascade and tile might be included somewhere (if they exist in KWin)[TheBlackCat, kde-forum.org]
  
• Mouse actions for all components (left click, right click, middle click, up scroll, down scroll, hover) would all be customizable, and if the (+) and (^) buttons become redundant, then they should be removable.
• The over-sized close button might close the window (though I don't know how this would be achieved) Middle-mouse clicking could also work, but I find that unintuitive. (of course, if the first is possible, then this should be customizable as well

rev0


rev0

Oh! Okay, so dragging between groups and to the taskbar to make a new one. One problem I foresee with freely dragging between app groups is misplacing windows in group composed primarily of one application. There needs to be a way to differentiate mixed versus single app groups. Also, instancing behavior would have to change between these two types of groups.

This second one is a bit too technical for me I appreciate that you're thinking about implementation, normally I would too, except that I don't know enough about the plasma api. I sort-of get what you mean.

I can see the | min | max | close | in the right corner, but putting cascade and tile there might confuse people. Maybe on the bottom right? I'm also not sure if Kwin4 has those features built in yet... I'm not sure how often people will be using the
| min | max | close | though, and maybe they would be better off in the context menu? Whether its default or not, I think it should be an option, because it could be very useful.

For the minimizing and restoring, I was thinking that double clicking on the task might do this (single clicking doing only the most recent) This would take less adjusting to use, but would take away the locking feature... so how else might that be implemented, or is it necessary?

Enlarging the thumbnail? Maybe slightly for emphasis, but I was thinking peek would serve this purpose, and an overly enlarged thumbnail might get in the way... something to think about...

And I know that closing would be possible, I was just wondering about getting the close button from Kwin and putting it slightly enlarged in the corner of each thumbnail (or maybe just on hover).

The main place I'm have this posted is here http://forum.kde.org/showthread.php?tid=15259 because the forum is more active.