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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Floating toolbar new option
From:       "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Jonas_Sundstr=F6m?=" <s96j1su () csd ! uu ! se>
Date:       1998-03-27 12:56:51
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Mark E. DeYoung <Mark-E-DeYoung@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

>Vitaliy Pilipiv wrote:
>>
>> Hi!
>>
>> Floating toolbar is really good idea. It will be nice add
>> "Top(Bottom,Left,Right) of screen" options.
>> As for me "Top of screen" will be enough ;) . What KDE'rs think about it
>
>Personally I've found floating toolbars to be useless.  Neat but
>useless.  Whenever I "float" a toolbar it quickly gets lost.  Hopefully
>it will be a useful feature at some point.
>
>The idea of attaching a floating toolbar to a the top, side, or bottom
>of the current desktop might be workable.  Maybe with some kind of stays
>on  top option.


This sounds just like the MacOS menu-bar... *:)..
(If I was a MacOS hardcore guy - would I be here?)
The MacOS menubar stays at the top of the screen,
where the active app can sort of 'rent space' for it's menus.
(This was great when screens were small. On a 19" screen you don't want to
move up to the top of the screen every time you need the app-menu.)
MacOS uses it for app-switching, preferences menu and plugins cant rent
space too.

Perhaps, the K-bar (what is it called?) could be extended to hold (floating)
menus as well. Or am I totally missunderstanding the issue?
Please define floating toolbar.
I think there are two different ideas here.
First the windoze style toolbars that can be rearranged inside the
application window.
I really like that. It's great to be able to change the leyout of the
application.
It's too bad you loose the changes every time you have to reinstall windows.
These personal layout should be stored in a file, so that I could make
backup
of the layout only, if I want to.
Second, floating windows, like the MacOS way of an application splattered
over the screen in a zillion of windows. Photoshop (Mac) for example.
There needs to be good window management, like the MacOS 'hide [application
X]'
(with all its windows) and 'hide the other applications', for this type &
amount of floating toolbars to be bearable to live with.
All of this is IMHO, of course.
Perhaps these two 'types' of floating toolbars can be made the same way
with the combined functionality.

Inspiration could be found in the BeOS replicator technology:
http://www.be.com/products/beos_tour/index.html#anchor3153222
and perhaps in the BeOS TrackBar:
http://www.be.com/products/beos_tour/index.html#anchor3155067

Perhaps also in the WindowMaker application Dock.
www.windowmaker.org

the mini-hacker mantra:
...borrow, mimic, copy, improve, enhance..
Perhaps 'invent' should be in there as well, but I have a feeling that
there is no real inventing /possible in this world/, only evolution and
synthesis.

Regards,
Jonas Sundström.
CS student, Uppsala University, Sweden

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