Guess I'm officially out of lurk mode now, and one day early B-). I have a problem with modules and the e17 menu being locked in the root layer. The basic problem is that in order to access any of that stuff, I have to first navigate to an empty desktop. Since this includes the pager, this problem also renders the pager useless, as I have to navigate my way to said empty desktop without being able to use the pager. If the current desktop happens to have any part of the root layer exposed, then I can at least use the e17 menu.
Since I have only a small resolution monitor (wish I could afford a 1600x1200 15 inch LCD or OLED monitor that will fold up and fit neatly into my backpack, or that such a thing even existed), I usually have one desktop per application, and most of the time that application is in full screen mode to give the application as much useful screen real estate as possible. Some programs are quite painful to use with a smaller window. On the other hand, e17 boasts of being useful for PDA's, phones, and other limited resource devices, so this problem is not just limited to me. In e16 I solved the problem by writing my own theme that had "semi automatic hiding borders" using a script that is invoked by hovering the mouse over marked parts of the border, and added the desktop menu to the window menus. This was a hack that probably pushed e16 beyond what would normally be reasonably expected of it. I used the special borders for the e16 pager, e16 icon box, and gkrellm (with a gkrellm plugin app launcher I wrote myself). In this way, all three programs would hide out of the way off screen when not in use, be sticky on all desktops, and appear with a quick wave of the mouse when needed. When I needed the e16 desktop menu with no desktop visible, I could just click on a window border to bring up the window menu, which had the desktop menus embedded in it. BTW, due to my limited screen real estate, I also made the window borders as thin as possible, with the window title and other widgets dropping down into the window contents on mouse hover. I must pull my finger out and release that e16 theme (matrix-RAD I call it), and one day, after I make it configurable, the gkrellm plugin. In e17, I would like to do exactly the same sort of thing, but from what I have seen in the mailing lists and elsewhere, the modules are firmly ensconced in the root layer and it may not be possible to turn them into sticky, on top, auto hidden windows. Or otherwise make them popup on top of other windows when needed, taking up minimal screen space when not needed. Also, I like to use a transparent theme for gkrellm, but I really like the e17 animated backgrounds. I suspect that turning the modules into on top windows but keeping transparency will be impossible. I like transparency, it helps to alleviate limited screen real estate problems, and looks sexy. I could use gkrellm for all the modules that are useful to me except for the pager, but with broken transparency. Engage is actually better than my gkrellm plugin app launcher, if only because it includes minimised icons and system tray, which mine doesn't. On the other hand, engage can run as a stand alone window, which solves some of the problems, but engage as a stand alone window is deprecated. Will future compositing and OpenGL support help? Is there any hope for me? Could some kind soul donate a 1600x1200, 15 inch, flat folding, OLED monitor that fits into my backpack (which is why it needs to be 15 inch) to one of my open source projects? Or a 1600x1200 (or bigger) HUD? How about peace on earth and an end to poverty? Must stop now, gotta remove my foot, it's getting uncomfortable and I may meed to speak soon. -- Stuff I have no control over could be added after this line. Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App Server. Download it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very own Sony(tm)PSP. Click here to play: http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php _______________________________________________ enlightenment-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/enlightenment-devel
