Can you spot it? If so, leave your answer in the comments! Once someone has guessed it correctly, I'll blog again about this new feature, and other things coming in 4.4, in greater detail.
(Oh, and if you hang out in #plasma on irc or are a member of the Plasma team, please don't give the answer away. :)
This feature is also a neat example of how we work together in Plasma, building on top of what each other does, filling in the blanks when someone else gets stuck and riffing on each other's ideas. This particular feature was built on top of some work done in 4.2 by Jason Stubbs; the feature itself was started by Sebastian Kugler and finished by Marco Martin using some hints from a similar feature I fixed up for 4.3 in the system monitor widget, which in turn was written primarily by Petri Damsten.
(... and yes, I know, 4.3 isn't even out yet and we're already teasing you with new things ;)
19 comments:
plasmoids can go into the systray?
dammit, i just noticed that Marco blogged about this as well. meh. sort of ruins the game, doesn't it? well, i suppose i should read planetkde before posting :P
and yeah, kaitos, that's right.
Yeah, i readed about it from Marco, and then, about ten minutes later, you wrote about it. Anyway, i did noticed it at Marco's screen ;] I'm wondering what's that cool features you're planning for 4.4?
Greets ;)
@aseigo haha, i hadn't read it yet!
@aseigo: gaaah sorry, dude :p
I love the enthusiasm you guys have for new features XD
I am glad that most of you brilliant people have jobs that allow you to follow your passion.
That said please don't tease me with features that won't be in my distro for another 9-10 months :P (Ignorance is bliss. Not knowing = being happy with the status quo)
But I guess I am asking too much from an _open_ source project and normal users will never see these blog posts anyways.
Keep up the great work and make KDE rock!
This is a great feature, indeed a great progress. When i installed a Network Manager plasmoid i really wish a option to put in SysTry. Also i have same idea for Device notifier.
Becouse of this and some other ideas in my head i start learning C++.
Rock on.
Also, the slider control looks cool
How about the reverse? Can system tray icons (Ones which recognize the new protocol of course!) become plasmoids too? So I can take the kmix tray icon and put it in a rightfully deserved place of its own?
I love the way things are going in the KDE4 world. You guys really showed the non believers that starting from the ground up will sooner or later have its fruits!
@Tom don't visit planetkde then ;-p.
As for the new feature, it's really great as right now the plasmoids' icons consume a lot of the panel width. This + 4.3 systray = win.
And please, keep posting future awesomenes
So it has nothing to do with the image icon being displayed over the top of the power management plasmoid...?
too bad plasma team can't play the game :-P
pretty cool/very useful feature. one of the things i love about KDE. waiting excitedly for your blog on 4.4.
Finally!
Even the Marco's post couldn't spoil it for me!
I'm waiting for this since 4.1! ...
So, is it correct: any plasmoid could go into systray? I think now it's time for that blog post about it ... ;)
And kudos to all involved! You guys scratched a lot of people's itch (as I've been seeing around the web soem people complaining about exaclty battery monitor, 'till now not as in 3.x, systray embeddable - now I won't read it ever again and will be in peace about this! ;).
This is a good feature... I think :) But why did you make the power manager or network manager a plasmoid in the first place, instead of a normal systray app? I always wondered what is the use to have these as plasmoids... all you seem to get over a systray app is a huge icon, taking away space... Shall all systray apps be migrated to plasmoids in the long run? That would make them more flexible within KDE, but also less integrateable into other DEs. What is the big picture behind it?
The bigger picture is that Plasmoids are just interfaces :) And we are trying to revise the concept of "application"
@alien: "Can system tray icons (Ones which recognize the new protocol of course!) become plasmoids too?"
we haven't implemented that yet, but the dbus protocol is designed for that kind of usage. we can already show multiple system trays with the dbus based icons in each of them. but those icons are not tied to the system tray: they are just bits of information floating on the session bus.
writing a KNotificationItemWidget for Plasma would be extremely trivial as we already have all the code that implements the protocol written and tested in the system tray, and they exist as separate, self-contained classes.
so, yes .. you could, once someone writes that plasmoid, have kmix out on its own. you could even have multiple instances of kmix, just like any other plasmoid.
there are limits, however: we can't (at least not yet) show the main interface behind the icon when you drag it to your desktop as we do, say, with kickoff or other popup based plasmoids.
still .. it's a big step in a good direction.
@Andrew: hehe. no, that was just a red herring ;)
@J: yes, any widget. though, of course, some widgets work better with more space given to them :)
we did this specifically to allow grouping of widgets like the battery, device notifier, network manager, etc.
this isn't really even tied to the system tray. we could create a new container type for them if we wanted. *shrug*
so now people have choice: in the tray? sure. out of the tray? sure. on the desktop? why not. dashboard? yep!
the only thing they don't have a choice on is that they get a beautiful, rich interface that harmonizes with the rest of the desktop shell. that's something we don't want to compromise on. ;P
@redm: "why did you make the power manager or network manager a plasmoid in the first place, instead of a normal systray app?"
so you'd prefer it if the only choice is showing it in the system tray? (we've mostly broken down that wall, though, with the dbus-in-plasmoid approach).
or that the only option was running it as a separate process, taking more memory?
or that it didn't integrate as well with the rest of the desktop shell?
when it's a plasmoid we can run it in its own window, we can place it anywhere we want _and_ we get great desktop integration.
for instance, instead of having to hunt for "knetworkmanager" you just go to "Add Widgets" (because it appears in the plasma desktop shell, it's a widget, right?) and pick it.
the "just make it a system tray app" was the short path to getting it into the system tray, sure. but it was also the limiting path, the path with no vision or design behind it that allows us to do better things and give people who disagree with you that that is where it belongs an option that fits them, as well.
now.. imagine this on a very small screen. instead of being an icon in a panel maybe it shows the interface full screen (all 6cm of it, or whatever ;).
start thinking beyond "what i'm used to using on my desktop"; consider what should be possible and what needs to be possible. it's not the short path, but it's the good path.
@drfav: sssshhhhhh! don't give away the ending! ;)
>hat said please don't tease me with >features that won't be in my distro for >another 9-10 months :P (Ignorance is >bliss. Not knowing = being happy with >the status quo)
Please forgive brother Tom, he comes from the land of secretive fruit logos where secrecy rules :-)
It'll take some time for him to get used to this freedom of being able to know ahead of time.
Any plasmoid could go into systray?
Pardon me while I do a Homer drool... Ive been waiting for this for some time
Almost as much as having different wallpapered desktops back but I know that's a Duke Nukem Forever fantasy.
Now, only 9 short months to whither away.
The more I think about Alien's reverse suggestion, the more I can see uses for it.
@v:
I agree about the reverse being useful as well. Alien asked Aseigo if system tray icons could become plasmoids too and it was a yes.
I just hope the graphic is a sign that the system tray icons in 4.3 will use more of their surrounding space (be bigger).
But the system tray settings have to be liberated so people with weaker vision (older people) can see the darned thing.
Let my four eyed people see!!
Post a Comment