Re: gnome-panel rounded corners

[Mark McLoughlin <mark skynet ie>]

Hi,
	So, I've taken a good look at the patch, even tried it out, and there's
a number of detailed comments I could make ... but I won't because I
have one concern which overrides all others.

	This is a horrible hack. I'm not talking about the way you've coded it,
I'm just talking about the mechanism for doing this.

	So, what is the mechanism ?

  + In any corner of the panel which touches the edge of the screen,
    pack a 7 pixel wide image of a black rounded corner. This has the
    side effect of pushing over (down on a vertical panel) any item at
    the corner of the panel by 7 pixels.

  + Because applets/icons/menu bars etc. can no longer be at the very 
    corner of the screen you lose the pinning action of the corner of
    the screen which makes aquiring the target much easier.

  + To get around this Fitt's Law problem, you can make any events
    at the corner of the screen be forwarded to any object which 
    would otherwise be at the corner of the screen.

    And this is the really hacky bit:

      - Overlay an input only window over the image in the corner
        and the object in question.
      - Make any events on the input only window be forwarded to
        the object.

    Because we have no prior knowledge which widget within the object
    events should be forwarded to, we need a new API for libpanel-applet
    to designate which widget is in the corner. Every applet must use
    this API and must also make sure to get the widget right for 
    whatever corner its in.


	So, in summary I see a patch which:

  + Has the very minor (in my opinion) aesthetic benefit of making your
    screen corners look slightly rounded as long as you have a panel in
    that corner.

  + Causes any objects which would have been in the corner be moved over
    by 7 pixels. (Again in my opinion) this isn't very aesthetically 
    pleasing. For example, the icon on the menu bar looks much nicer in
    the corner of the screen rather than 7 pixels over.

  + Introduces a very nasty hack into the panel which complicates the
    code significantly.

  + Adds new complexity to the panel applet API.
 
  + Requires work in every applet to get this right. This may be a one
    line trivial fix for most applets, but AFAICS its going to require
    more than that for applets like the Window List.


	The way I'm weighing this up, it just isn't worth it unless we can
think of a better way to do it.

	No doubt I'm going to get all sorts of flamage from people who think
this is the most essential feature GNOME has ever had ... but I've never
understood that point of view, personally.

Cheers,
Mark.