GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 332418
Applet is button mode takes up to much panel space
Last modified: 2007-02-22 09:34:36 UTC
To have the applet as a single icon with out the 'arrow' that allows history to be shown. If there was an option to turn the 'arrow' on and off that would be fine. The Deskbar Applet takes up 4 times the amount of space that my Ubuntu Menu Icon does. The icon itself is also displayed oddly. Small and simple please! Other information: http://www.enterlife.net/deskbar.png to see what I'm talking about.
We have a problem here: The button has a margin of ~3 pixels between image and button border. There is also a margin of ~3 pixel between button and panel border, this makes ~12 pixels of blank space.You seem to use a very small panel ~20 pixels, which means only 8 pixels left to render the icon, which is impossible. The problem here is that the two margins i mentioned above are not modifiable, they are constants in GTK i think, or at least i didn't find any way to tweak them. When the panel has it's default size the icon renders at ~15 pixels and is not clipped. What are you suggesting instead ?
I have my panel set at 19/20px. Anything below 24/25px and it starts clipping the icon. Can it not be configured to fit like the ubuntu icon? L
As i told above, the margins you see are inherent to the GTK Toggle button and cannot be edited. The ubuntu icon isn't a button, nor are the launchers, that's why they can fit the bar easily with 20 px. Maybe we can try without a button, but i don't know how it would look like..
Sorry for my confusion on buttons. But what is the benefit of having it a button? I would prefer to just have it as an icon (or whatever the specific name is for when it isn't a button). The only other thing that I have on my panel that is a button is the clock applet. Is there a difference is what can be done if it were not a button? Seems the menu and the volume applet work accomplish similar things as Deskbar, without being buttons. Again, my apologies for not being full competent on the matter.
Yes you are right, maybe the button is overkill, we'll experiment with a simple icon to see how it feels.
If used the above approach in CVS, can you test it ?
Yes, I would love to. I currently don't have deskbar installed via cvs, but I don't mind tinkering with it to get things fix/changed.
Not sure how far along you are in your work, but I have just compiled the latest cvs and I have a new icon, not button. Looks great! I'd still like it to be smaller. Maybe having the option to display the history arrow. Also, is the main icon user changeable? Great work!
I don't understand what you mean :) How would you want it smaller ? The icon ? Removing the history arrow is not possible, too much confusion for a little gain. The main icon is hardcoded, and i don't think we'll ever make it changeable. You can however provide your own by overwriting the icon file in /usr/lib/deskbar-applet/data/art/ somewhere..
Raphael. I'm working on doing depression/prelight drawing on your ToggleEventBox widget. It is almost done. Using Cairo ofcourse.
Created attachment 60137 [details] [review] indicate when the ToggleEventBox is active The attached patch draws a darker background on the "button" (both main- and arrow-button) when it is activated. I skipped prelighting since I did not think it was a good idea anyway (I added a comment on how to enable if desired later though).
BTW: Raph - don't commit this without looking at it first. I think I like it... But my judgement might be questionable :-)
Well i must admit i don't like it :) It just looks like a cheap toggle button imitation .. I don't think we need to visually represent the toggling stuff. Maybe just a highlight like launchers have when you hover over it would be cool, and sufficient. I don't see the non reactivity of it as it is like a problem..
So will deskbar remain as an icon? Or will it revert back to a button?
No i was talking about the patch. It will stay as an icon, but with no (or only highlighting if mikkel can do it) interaction with the mouse except clicks
Is there a way to access the history (the arrow) via keyboard shortcut? For me personally I tend not to use the mouse much at all. As so for the history to be useful to me, it would be nice to have it shortcut-able. So your against the idea of making the history arrow an option in the preferences?
(In reply to comment #16) > Is there a way to access the history (the arrow) via keyboard shortcut? For me > personally I tend not to use the mouse much at all. As so for the history to > be useful to me, it would be nice to have it shortcut-able. Just a short comment. History search can be enabled in preferences. In addition it can be given 1. priority be simply dragging history to the top in preferences. This is close to equivalent to having a shortcut to history if you're a "keyboard user". I.e. it's a matter of entering a few characters to identify the history item, or tap the arrows a few times to navigate to the desired history item. The only real use case for the history is for mouse activation of history items. So in the spirit of simplicity I prefer not having another shortcut for history. In my opinion at least :) Though an option to disable the history arrow might be ok since it would have the space requirements for d-a ?
Good comment Bjorn. And I agree with you there. And the more I think about it, I would be less likely to use the history anyways, as I already have it disable. But from what you write, it seems that the history arrow really isn't need since it can be found even quicker via the regular deskbar menu. Maybe it is just me, be does anyone use the history that much? I'd love to have an option to disable it personally.
The history provides a complete list of historical matches which helps if you don't remember the command, or don't want to browse through history with up/down keys, so it definitely has it's added value and thus is needed by default. If someone submit a patch disabling the history button (but i don't really see the point) i'll gladly accept it.
I find d-a so immensely useful that I put it into my lower-left two-dimensional Fitt-zone (viz. screen corner). I'm sorry but I have to say disagree with the changes to icon mode. I actually liked the approach with the button, that gave the applet a very interactive feel. Now it's just a flat pixmap that happens to eject a menu. So for the awesome power-functionality tht d-a provides I think a double width applet is not too much to have on your panel (It replaces half a dozen of the conventional kind). Also, please don't remove the arrow. Raphael described well why it has to be there.
Well, the icon mode was designed to take as little space as possible mainly for vertical panels, or for people like you using the corners, etc. With that in mind the flat pixmap makes sense, since the button is eating easily 6 pixels out of the icon space. Besides it's just a look issue, not a functional one, so unless i receive hundreds of flames i won't revert this. The history icon will stay.
When Deskbar is in button mode, the history icon is not discoverable, and so it is not useful. I had to read this bug to realize that the triangle next to (or below, in a vertical panel) the deskbar icon pops up the history when pressed. Moreover, in version 2.16.0 offers no way to activate the history in button mode, using keyboard only. The history should be shown when a Up or PageUp is pressed, or the mouse is clicked, in an empty search box. It does not currently. (I will submit a separate request for this.) This is behavior that users of Mozilla, Firefox and Epiphany are used to, for example. It does works least as well as a history icon, yet saves space on the panel and makes the user interface cleaner.