Re: Panel positioning on small screens

[Steve Cox <stevec canaries co uk>]

On Sat, 10 Jun 2000, Loban Rahman wrote:

> > Just as another idea on this subject.....
> > 
> > We currently have various types of panels, sliding, menu, edge etc, could
> > we have a 'positioned' panel? Rather than having it anchored to the edge
> > etc, it could be anchored to the position it was last placed. To
> > place it is either drag-and-drop into place or use an option off of one of
> > the desktop mouse click menus to position it to where the mouse is now -
> > or it is next clicked?
> > 
> > Sort of like the Windowmaker positionable menus but with the gnome-panel
> > applets and functions?
> 
> Well then! Congratulations! You have just reinvented the floating panel.
> However, it still doesn't solve the problem that started this thread:
> i.e. auto-moving the panel when scrolling a virtual desktop larger than
> the physical resolution.
> 
> 	= L
> 
> PS. Here is a quick summary of the types of panels and what they do, for
> all of you who aren't aware of its capabilities.
> 
> Menu Panel: An edge panel with a fixed width of 24 pixels and fixed menus 
> from the foot menu, plus a clock and a few other things. Not hidable.
> Looks like the mac-bar.
> 
> Edge Panel: A panel with configurable width that takes an entire edge of
> the screen (may be moved to any of the 4 edges with the middle mouse button).
> Hidable with various hiding policies.
> 
> Aligned Panel: Identical to an edge panel but doesn't take the entire edge.
> It's length is dynamically changed to just fit all the applets/buttons/stuff
> it holds. This has 8 positions: 4 corners and the middle of the 4 edges.
> 
> Sliding Panel: Identical to an aligned panel, except now the panel can slide
> (i.e. be moved) to any location of the 4 edges, instead of the 8 fixed ones.
> Again, do this with the middle mouse button.
> 
> Floating Panel: You guessed it! Identical to the sliding panel, except this
> can be moved anywhere, anytime!
> 
> Applets may be added to any and all panels. Also, if you have more than one
> panel close together (for example two edge panels on the same edge, etc. etc.
> etc.), they will be quite smart about not overlapping. Moving applets/buttons
> between panels is a simple middle mouse drag.
> 
> I never looked up the docs on panels, but if they aren't complete, someone
> could add a spruced up version of this into it.
> 
> 
> /-------------------------------------------------------------------\
> |   LOBAN AMAAN RAHMAN  <-- anagram of -->  AHA! AN ABNORMAL MAN!   |
> |  MSC #763, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91126, USA. Tel: 1-626-395-1406  |
> |     loban@earthling.net, loban@caltech.edu, http://i.am/loban     |
> \-------------------------------------------------------------------/
> 
Sorry about the floating panel bit but the point I was trying to make was
that it could be made possible to move the panel without having to click
on it first - having it jump to the mouse position via button clicks. This
is because of the difficulty in having the panel follow the border of the
visible section of the desktop. 

So if the view was scrolled so the panel was lost off of the edge of the
visible screen, then a couple of mouse clicks would drop it into view
again. It was more of a compromise on what was wanted against the
complexity of the task.

Steve