I'm wanting to get the position and orientation of the status icon ... this isn't possible on Windows but is easy on X11.

However, to do it even on Linux I'd have to cut-and-paste all of GtkStatusIcon, or do some gross hack like get_toplevels() then scan for the tray icon widget... or maybe watch for map events in a gdk filter ... going downhill quickly ;-)

What's needed is something like 
GdkWindow* gtk_status_icon_x11_get_window()

Though that doesn't quite work since you would also need signals on realize/unrealize of said window or something.

Another approach is something like:
 
gtk_status_icon_x11_get_orientation()
gtk_status_icon_x11_get_position()

Though, the "get window" approach might be simpler and allow people to experiment with improving the tray icon spec. I guess it depends on whether people think the basic operation of the spec (involving embedding an X window) is likely to change.

Any pre-existing discussion on this topic?