Re: Major feature that is missing in gnome

[Pat Costello <Patrick Costello sun com>]

> 
> <quote who="Rodney Dawes">
> 
> > Yes. But it is inconsistent with the rest of the "buttons". I could care
> > less about the implementation too, as long as it's consistent with other
> > implementations, as far as the UI is concerned.
> 
> ... and yet it *is* different. 'Show Desktop' is a toggle button, the others
> are single-click launchers. You have three options:
> 
>   a) make the 'Show Desktop' toggle button flat to begin with, so you have a
>   normal state and a depressed state.
> 
>   b) make all launchers proper 3D (non-toggle) buttons
> 
>   c) do something completely different
> 
> a) and b) sound hokey to me - I'll leave c) up to anyone who can think
> straight at 2am.
> 
> - Jeff

I was piqued by the emergence of this interesting little button. Not so much by 
the intrinsic nature of the button, but more by the functionality of the button. 
What exactly does the button show? The desktop, you might reply. Well, what does 
that mean exactly? My understanding is that the button shows the following: the 
thing behind the icons + the desktop icons + the default panels. In other words, 
the understanding behind this button is not the same as the Nautilus 
understanding of the meaing of "desktop", which is just the thing behind the 
icons. Does this mean after all that there is an engineering understanding of 
"desktop" that is more inclusive than just the thing hanging in the back? 

Pat