Re: want dash to be always-visible dock

[Ryan Peters <sloshy45 sbcglobal net>]

On 04/03/2011 09:12 AM, Adam Dingle wrote:
> I've been using GNOME Shell recently on Fedora 15.  Aesthetically it 
> looks nice, and I like the full-screen application launcher with 
> integrated search.  But I definitely want a dock which is always 
> visible on the side of my screen (a la Docky, Plank, Avant Window 
> Navigator and so on) and to use it as my primary means of managing 
> open applications.  So for the moment I'm running both GNOME Shell and 
> Plank.  That works, but feels kludgy for a few reasons:
>
> 1. I see one dock (Plank) on my display at all times, but the GNOME 
> Shell Activities view shows a second, independent dock (the dash).
>
> 2. Since I use Plank for window management, I don't often need the 
> Expose view, so I really want the Activities button (and system key) 
> to open the Applications view directly.
>
> 3. The window minimization effect zips toward the Activities button in 
> the upper left, but I want it to zip downward toward the bottom of the 
> display, where Plank is visible.
>
> I'd like to know whether the GNOME Shell developers would accept 
> patches toward either of the following goals:
>
> 1. A preference, command-line option or GSettings key which tells 
> GNOME Shell to display the dash at the edge of the screen at all 
> times.  This would allow me and others with similar inclinations to 
> use the GNOME Shell dash instead of Docky or other docks.  In this 
> mode, Activities would directly open Applications since the dash is 
> used for window management.  Ideally the user could choose which edge 
> of the screen the dash should be displayed on.  The dash would 
> auto-hide when other windows overlap it (just like Docky and other 
> docks).
>
> and/or
>
> 2. A preference, command-line option or GSettings key which tells 
> GNOME Shell to simply never display its dash, and that Activities 
> should directly open Applications.  This would be convenient for users 
> who want to use an external dock program.
>
> If the answer is no on both counts, then I'll need to look at 
> alternatives to GNOME Shell in its entirety.  It would be nice, 
> however, if we could find some way to make GNOME Shell play nicely 
> with always-visible desktop docks.
>
> adam
> _______________________________________________
> gnome-shell-list mailing list
> gnome-shell-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-shell-list
The GNOME Shell Extensions repository on git.gnome.org has a dock 
extension that integrates with the shell (though it displays on the 
right, not the left like on the activities menu; that should be 
changeable if you can read the source). Even still, I don't see how hard 
it could be to press the Win/Super/Meta key to get to the activities 
overlay quickly. I use that as a dock replacement and it's just as fast 
and stays out of my way without the annoying auto-hide feature some 
docks use to stay out of my way.

Link: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-shell-extensions

    - Ryan Peters