Re: Re2: Some general facts about panel ...- Gnome Pager

[Hassan Aurag <aurag crm umontreal ca>]

 I am not an expert either, and like you I don't understand how 
gnome-pager knows when an app is iconified, and how to draw the opaque 
snapshot of the running app with correct position and size?

 All we really need to do is take a picture of that app instead of an 
opaque outline. 

 Then you need to get the bacground image which must be somewhere in 
either control-center or as is the case with enlightenment in the 
window manager.

 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

On 1/15/00, 5:30:07 PM, "David B. Lounsberry \(Dave\)" 
<dlounsberry@kc.rr.com> wrote regarding Re: Re2: Some general facts 
about panel ...- Gnome Pager:


> Anders Carlsson wrote:
> >
> > Hassan Aurag wrote:
> > >
> > >  Ok,
> > >
> > >  I agree Gnome needs a real Pager instead of the present
> > > tasklist-deskguide-gnome panel
> > >
> > >  Here is a suggestion. Btw, I could write the frameboxes (in python)
> > > if someone wants to write the screen-shooting part. So I hope we are
> > > not just talking vaporware.
> > >
> > >  The Gnome Pager applet:
> > >
> > >         -Two parts: one left-side and one right-side.
> > >
> > >         -The left side is a scrollable GnomeCanvas with a screen-shot 
of all
> > > desktops with their running apps:
> > >                 -GnomeCanvas because it has graphics and picture in 
it.
> > >                 -Scrollable to avoid huge pagers.
> > >                 -Horizontal and vertical scrolling. Easy with
> > >                 GtkScrolledWindow()
> > >
> > >         -The right side: an E-like icon-box
> > >                 -Again a horizontally scrollable one row, multi-
> > >                 columns GtkTable, with each slot containing one icon 
for
> > >                 each minimized app.
> > >
> > >         -A small arrow-headed button like in present gnome-pager to 
allow
> > >          you to jump to different desktops.
> > >
> > >  Now, who can write this thing?
> > >
> >
> > No one.
> >
> > To be able to display small screenshots of running apps, you need 
direct
> > integration with the window manager, to be albe to know when a window
> > minimizes, moves, resizes etc. And it's very difficult to get a
> > screenshot from a program that's iconified.
> >
> I am not in any way an expert in X programming so excuse the stupid
> question but....

> How does desk-guide and tasklist get the icon status, movement, window
> sizes,  etc. when it is not part of the window manager? Deskguide 
shows
> the size and location somehow. I would assume that because deskguide 
and
> tasklist both know when a window is iconified then a graphic pager 
could
> also know the same information and know better than to snapshot an
> inconified window. If a snapshot type icon were desired, why couldn't 
it
> use the last known snapshot of the newly iconfied window?

> Please explain.

> >
> > If you want an eye-candy pager/icon-box, use enlightenment or propose 
to
> > the wm-spec people about a way to see if a window is
> > moved/resized/iconified.

> Sorry, I want my candy and sawmill too, thanks anyway. I can live
> without the eye candy if having the eye candy means I have to live 
with
> overlayed panels and duplicated functionality when running
> Enlightenment.

> >
> > >  H. Aurag
> > >  aurag@crm.umontreal.ca
> >
> > //andersca
> > andersca@gnu.org

> --
> ---
> Dave Lounsberry

> EMAIL: dlounsberry@kc.rr.com
> HomePage: http://home.kc.rr.com/dlounsberry