Here's what we chatted on kde.irg.org this day:

Ciao
F@lk

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[23:54:10] <falk> Zogje: it would be cool if the desktop could be 
treated and act like a
KMainWindow. For instance if I could dock KDockWidgets to the right-hand 
side of
the desktop just like in a KMainWindow, without the WM decoration, 
behaving like a
non-toplevel widget. This would let MDI childframe mode be redundant.
[23:54:45] <Zogje> falk: yes
[23:55:15] <Zogje> falk: that would indeed be very cool
[23:55:39] <Zogje> falk: then you can get the StarOffice desktop effect 
and still play
nice with the rest of your desktop I guess
[23:55:50] <Hoffman> falk: you talk of something similar to windows' 
AppMenuBars?
[23:55:52] <falk> Zogje: exactly
[23:56:06] <cullmann> Zogje: hmm, would be cool, but what should be used 
for
communication with the wm, dcop ?
[23:56:09] <Zogje> falk: and it might actually be rather easy to do
[23:56:54] <Zogje> cullman: dunno, Lubos will know what will work best
[23:57:44] <Hoffman> falk: Toolbars (like window's taskbar and ICQ) that 
can dock to
any screenside and being able to vanish automatically - either or not 
reducing the
available desktop size.
[23:57:55] <cullmann> Zogje: if somebody comes up with such a framework 
will surely
help with the work and port kate over ;)
[23:57:59] <falk> Zogje: in that case the desktop acts like a maximized 
KMainWindow,
menu docks to the upper border, and toolbars are also docked to one of 
the desktop
borders
[23:58:43] <Zogje> falk: can you put that in a mail to kwin-devel / 
kde-core-devel? I
like that idea a lot.
[23:58:43] <falk> KDockWidgets would look like non-toplevel widgets and 
dock to one
of the desktop borders.
[23:59:07] <SadEagle> There is some overlap here with the Slicker/Card stuff
[23:59:18] <cullmann> not really
[23:59:19] <falk> The views would be normal toplevel windows on desktop 
but they
need to be clipped by the docked KDockWidgets
[23:59:35] <cullmann> SadEagle: slicker/card stuff is for small info 
windows and as
replacement for kicker
[23:59:53] <SadEagle> But I guess docked KDockWidget would be like 
panel's/struts
WM-wise though, right/
[00:00:25] <SadEagle> cullmann: Yeah, but the whole
docking-something-at-screen-edge and sliding it out thing is potentially 
nice.
[00:00:41] <SadEagle> cullmann: Imagine doing IDEAL-type UI where the 
sidebar
slides in
[00:06:57] <falk> Zogje, cullmann: but I'm not sure how the switch 
between several
opened MDI apps would look like when using such desktop-docking approach
[00:07:15] <Zogje> falk: try and find out :)