Xfce Forum

Mr. Swillis

Member

Registered: 2008-08-06

Posts: 10

Suggestion for the future of xfce4-panel

Hi Everyone,

This is probably the wrong place for this, but at least this way it gets recorded somewhere. I'm a long time fan of Xfce and so far every new release seems to do a great job in patching up the little things from previous releases. Anyway, here's a few suggestions for future releases of xfce4-panel:

1) Don't force "real" transparency. This should never really be done, regardless of the app. It's great that xfwm has build in compositing, but not everyone will be able to take advantage of this. Real transparency should be included "in addition to" fake transparency. So the suggestion here is to include both. Tint2 would be an example panel that uses both fake and real transparency.

2) Transparency should only be set to the background. Currently, it applies to both the background *and* the foreground in xfce4-panel, which makes a fully transparent panel an impossible option in Xfce.

3) Add a GUI tool for color changing. Currently, the only way I know of to change the color of the panel is to hack the .gtkrc file manually. This has two disadvantages I can think of offhand:

   a) Changes aren't made until the user exits Xfce and logs back in.
   b) Changes are applied to ALL panels, so panels can't be themed/colored independently.

4) Add support for background images in the panel. This one is probably the least important, but would allow for some cool theming options.

Currently, lxpanel has all of the features I've mentioned, except for "real" transparency, so I bet it could be used as a good reference point for the suggested changes.

Again, these are just friendly suggestions. I love Xfce and I think these options would only help make it better.

Thanks!

Swill

etnlWings

Member

Registered: 2007-10-30

Posts: 218

Re: Suggestion for the future of xfce4-panel

1. Gnome-panel's pseudo-transparency is a horrible hack, I'm not sure why you're suggesting Xfce implement something similar.

2. Gtk+3.0 will support RGBA out of the box.

3. a) xfce4-panel -r, or reload your theme.

3. b) Agreed. Anyone using background pixmaps on their panel can't easily have two different sized panels, or one horizontal, one vertical, etc.

4. Add bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = /path/to/image to your gtkrc.

jeromeg

Member

From: France

Registered: 2010-11-11

Posts: 131

Website

Re: Suggestion for the future of xfce4-panel

2), 3) and 4) are already fixed in 4.7.x which will lead to the stable 4.8.

Mr. Swillis

Member

Registered: 2008-08-06

Posts: 10

Re: Suggestion for the future of xfce4-panel

1. Gnome-panel's pseudo-transparency is a horrible hack, I'm not sure why you're suggesting Xfce implement something similar.

Well, I didn't actually mention Gnome at all, but maybe lxpanel and/or tint2 have a similar "horrible hack"? Really, tint2 is the best example to support my suggestion on point 1. It uses real transparancy when compositing is enabled and fake transparancy when it isn't. And this is automatic. The user does not have to flip any switches for this.

2), 3) and 4) are already fixed in 4.7.x which will lead to the stable 4.8.

Awesome!

And again, these were just meant to be friendly suggestions. Not bashing Xfce in any way and I truly am a big fan. I just figured since other lightweight panels were doing this already that it might be something to easily work into a future release.

Thanks!

Swill

Nick

Dev

From: ~

Registered: 2005-02-17

Posts: 1,144

Website

Re: Suggestion for the future of xfce4-panel

I don't see the point of fake transpaceny, it involves quite a bit of code for IMHO "just not it". You want a transparent panel: enable compositing. And like Jerome already said, other points are implemented in 4.8.

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