Re: [GTK] Suggestion: make panels graggable

["Philip Ganchev" <phil ganchev gmail com>]

On 10/9/06, Paul Davis <paul linuxaudiosystems com> wrote:
> On Sun, 2006-10-08 at 02:31 -0400, Philip Ganchev wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > I have a suggestion for GTK.  It seems that the idea has not been
> > discussed before.
> >
> > I would like to have panels draggable, similar to Apple iTunes.  That
> > is, you click on the panel and drag the mouse to move the window.  It
> > makes it very easy to move windows using just the mouse, because it
> > eliminates the need to aim the mouse at the title bar. Most
> > applications have empty panel space, for example in the menu bar that
> > is not occupied by the menu itself.
> >
> > How feasible is this?  Probably this would require tight coupling with
> > the window manager?  If it is possible, I guess it would be
> > implemented in GTKBox or GTK
>
> this has nothing to do with GTK. it is controlled 100% by the window
> manager (although you could undermine that and move the window from
> within the app).

Not all content inside a window should be draggable, only inactive
content, like the part of the menu bar that is not taken up by the
menu, and spece on a panel that is not taken up by active controls
like buttons, menus, lists, etc.  Does the window manager have
knowledge about what part of the window content is a panel versus a
button?

> just choose a window manager that allows this kind of behaviour. i don't
> happen to like the specific behaviour you are describing, but i do have
> icewm set up so that Alt-F7 lets me start dragging the window directly
> under the mouse. there are other models for doing this, and i am sure
> that there is at least 1 window manager that implements each model.

In popular window managers like KWin, Sawfish, Metacity and others,
Alt+Button1 starts moving the window by default.  I was talking about
using *only* the mouse for this.  In some applications, like Real
Player and iTunes, clicking on an area that is not an active widget
(like a button) and dragging, drags the window.  I would think that
this has to do with the tool kit those applications use.

It is considerably more convenient for users who use the mouse a lot,
as well as for disabled users.