Re: _NET_WM_STRUT and corner panels

[Michael Rogers <banthafodder connectfree co uk>]

Havoc Pennington wrote:
> The _NET_WM_STRUT spec is really inadequate for "corner" panels; in
> these cases, you really want to simply avoid the area covered by the
> panel.
> 
> For example, Nautilus uses the struts to avoid putting icons
> underneath the panel. But if you have a corner panel it comes out
> all wrong:

A better type of strut would specify a rectangle (in the co-ordinates of
the window on which the hint was set) that the WM should avoid covering.
A non-hiding panel would set the strut to cover the entire window, and
an auto-hiding panel would set the strut to cover the part of the window
that remained visible.

The WM might choose to ignore struts that were not touching a screen
edge when calculating the work area. The work area could be a single
rectangle or a list of rectangles (allowing icons to flow round corner
panels, etc).

I proposed this idea when struts were first discussed... I think Sasha
Vasko agreed with me... but it never made it into the spec.  ;-p

Michael