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Glx-Dock / Cairo-Dock List of forums Ideas | Propositions New View Mode for Netbooks/Convertibles/Tablets
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Ideas | Propositions

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] New View Mode for Netbooks/Convertibles/Tablets
christophermluna English 15 fabounet [Read]
22 August 2011 à 12:56

christophermluna, Friday 29 July 2011 à 15:27


Subscription date : 24 July 2011
Messages : 13
So, I love Cairo-Dock as an alternative to Unity. I've been using Cario-Dock since I switched to Ubuntu three years ago, and it's always been the most customizable, robust option for my needs. I've read a bit on these forums about the discussions for making a Dock optimized for netbooks and small screens, and I've followed them with interest.

Right now I'm using the default 2D view, and my dock floats in the middle of the screen. I've got the new Notification Area applet, the Applications Menu applet, and the Music Player applet. I don't use Evolution because all my email/calendar data is on the Google Cloud, and I have no interest in an offline copy of everything that I have to keep synced, so there's no need for me to use the Me Menu, Messaging Menu or Mail applets.

I don't feel like Scooby-Do is an adequate replacement for the Gnome-Panel's Alt+F2 run command, but I dislike the look of the panel even hidden (it makes a little one-pixel boundary at the top of the screen), so I use Gnome-Do as a replacement for that.

I like the way it's setup right now for me, but I think it would be cool if we had another view possible that's made for showing/hiding on a small screen especially.

I'm thinking of a floating-box kind of view, with maybe a definable height/width in pixels that had its icons in rows and maybe even scrolled if there were too many icons to fit on one screen in the defined size. You could almost think of the App Drawer on Android (image: http://cdn.androidcentral.com/sites/androidcentral.com/files/articleimage/9274/2011/03/thumb_450_atrix_app-drawer1.jpg).

What do you think?

ppmt, Friday 29 July 2011 à 20:49


Subscription date : 29 November 2007
Messages : 3520
the Slide view is doing that now if you put your apps in a subdock

so you could have one dock that contains only a subdock and would open up with the slide view

The only thing you can't do with it is defining the size of it and that could be indeed an improvement

Actually I am warming up to the idea

@Fabounet can you update the slide view to be able to specify a size for the subdock? you then jump drop icons in it and when it becomes to small you use the scroll bar!

@christophermluna: did I got you right or am I completely off?

SQP, Friday 29 July 2011 à 22:33


Subscription date : 03 July 2010
Messages : 1081
I'm thinking of a floating-box kind of view, with maybe a definable height/width in pixels that had its icons in rows and maybe even scrolled if there were too many icons to fit on one screen in the defined size. You could almost think of the App Drawer on Android (image: http://cdn.androidcentral.com/sites/androidcentral.com/files/articleimage/9274/2011/03/thumb_450_atrix_app-drawer1.jpg).


I guess it would be better defined as : nb icons columns * nb icons lines

something like : 4 columns * 6 lines (like your example) with a forced scrollbar if icon number is higher

Could be nice with a 0 = unlimited, to get all possible displays settings.

And 0 * 0 would use the current automatic display.

I guess I'd like it on my weather applet. With a vertical dock, using a (FORECAST_DAYS * 1) subdock for weather forecast would be perfect

But it would require some coding...

christophermluna, Friday 29 July 2011 à 23:21


Subscription date : 24 July 2011
Messages : 13
ppmt :
the Slide view is doing that now if you put your apps in a subdock


Very similar to this except (and call me a perfectionist), I don't want the little V at the bottom, you know what I mean?

ppmt :
so you could have one dock that contains only a subdock and would open up with the slide view


Except that I don't really want to have an empty dock and sub-dock, if possible.

SQP :
I guess it would be better defined as : nb icons columns * nb icons lines

something like : 4 columns * 6 lines (like your example) with a forced scrollbar if icon number is higher


Yeah, that would be cool. Except what if you define a number of columns that makes the dock wider than the screen? Would it just spill out? Is this what you'd have to control as the user?

I guess there are plenty of ways to break the display of the current Cairo-Dock, by putting too many icons on a dock, right? What happens? It just spills off to the left and right, yeah?

SQP :
I guess I'd like it on my weather applet. With a vertical dock, using a (FORECAST_DAYS * 1) subdock for weather forecast would be perfect


Yeah, and for a netbook display it would be awesome, hiding the dock completely normally, and showing it with a keyboard shortcut that's tied to an Easytouch gesture.

fabounet, Tuesday 02 August 2011 à 15:29


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118


@Fabounet can you update the slide view to be able to specify a size for the subdock? you then jump drop icons in it and when it becomes to small you use the scroll bar!


IIRC, you can already specify how much % of the screen the Slide can use.

so you could have one dock that contains only a subdock and would open up with the slide view

you can just set the Slide view for the main dock.

I don't want the little V at the bottom, you know what I mean?

yep, the arrow. is it present in the case of a main dock ? if so, it should just be removed in this case.


Yeah, and for a netbook display it would be awesome, hiding the dock completely normally, and showing it with a keyboard shortcut that's tied to an Easytouch gesture.


indeed, seems a very convenient way. I think that using the "popup on shortcut" visibility mode, you can already achieve that, can't you ?

christophermluna, Tuesday 02 August 2011 à 15:32


Subscription date : 24 July 2011
Messages : 13
Now I feel silly! I will give it a shot!

fabounet, Thursday 04 August 2011 à 13:34


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
let me know your feedback, maybe we can smooth some rough edges

christophermluna, Monday 08 August 2011 à 01:04


Subscription date : 24 July 2011
Messages : 13
Okay, just got back from a family camping trip and had some time to play with the display mode. I like it, but it seems like there's no clear way to constrain the width of the slide mode in terms of a number of columns. If I could do that, it would be just about perfect. As it is, it works nicely.

The other thing that would be cool would be a way to alter the size of the icons in main docks independent of the dock that holds most of the settings.

But overall, it's pretty good.

fabounet, Monday 08 August 2011 à 13:38


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
it seems like there's no clear way to constrain the width of the slide mode in terms of a number of columns

not in term of colums number, but in term of screen width percentage. I think you can adjust this value until you get the number of columns you want.

The other thing that would be cool would be a way to alter the size of the icons in main docks independent of the dock that holds most of the settings.

per-dock icon size? I'll think of it

christophermluna, Monday 08 August 2011 à 15:03


Subscription date : 24 July 2011
Messages : 13
not in term of colums number, but in term of screen width percentage. I think you can adjust this value until you get the number of columns you want.


Aha! I was confused for a little while, but then I remembered this value. This value is the maximum screen width, right? Like, how wide can it go, and then you have to force it that wide by adding enough icons to get it there. But it increases width, then height, then width, then height, trying to keep the display roughly square, right?

fabounet, Monday 08 August 2011 à 17:30


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
yep, you got it

jesuisbenjamin, Sunday 14 August 2011 à 11:26


Subscription date : 28 October 2009
Messages : 415
Can launchers go on a widget layer too?

Otherwise it could be an option to organise your launchers and widgets on Compiz' widget layer.

But I don't own small screens nor touch-screens so I don't really know what I'm talking about Just throwing the idea out there anyway.

B.

christophermluna, Sunday 14 August 2011 à 17:07


Subscription date : 24 July 2011
Messages : 13
They can't, and there are issues with Ubuntu 11.04 and the widget layer.

fabounet, Tuesday 16 August 2011 à 16:14


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
there are issues with Ubuntu 11.04 and the widget layer.

I think this have been fixed (apparently, Compiz changed "utility" to "Utility" in the windows filter, so the rule for cairo-dock was broken)

christophermluna, Saturday 20 August 2011 à 21:12


Subscription date : 24 July 2011
Messages : 13
fabounet :
there are issues with Ubuntu 11.04 and the widget layer.

I think this have been fixed (apparently, Compiz changed "utility" to "Utility" in the windows filter, so the rule for cairo-dock was broken)


Really? I have not found a combination that makes the Widget Layer work with the dock in 11.04. If you mean "class=Cairo-dock & type=Utility" that did not work for me either.

fabounet, Monday 22 August 2011 à 12:56


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
hmm, that's what I was thinking about

what about class=Cairo-dock & type!=Dock & type!=Normal ?

or maybe you need to disable/enable the widget-layer plug-in ? or maybe trigger it once ? sometimes Compiz doesn't refresh correctly.

Edit: after googling a little, I've seen this:
The "widget=1" match will be true for every widget that has the _COMPIZ_WIDGET hint set, and additionally for every window that matches the match at Behaviour -> Widget windows.
so the dock could set the _COMPIZ_WIDGET hint, or you should be able to define a rule. I'm not sure if the rule syntax has changed in the 0.9 though

Ideas | Propositions

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] New View Mode for Netbooks/Convertibles/Tablets
christophermluna English 15 fabounet [Read]
22 August 2011 à 12:56


Glx-Dock / Cairo-Dock List of forums Ideas | Propositions New View Mode for Netbooks/Convertibles/Tablets Top

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