4.4 TODO

Use this page for discussing development issues for Xfce 4.4. For blue sky feature request it is better to use the Wish List. If you open a bugzilla report, please link it back here.


 * Panel Design: Discussion about panel and panel plugin development.
 * Thunar: Alternative file manager for Xfce 4.4 with desktop icons support.
 * Xfce's developer blog: Features to be implemented in 4.4

Unsorted

 * Intelligent placement seems to not affect all apps. Xfarchiver and mousepad always pop up behind other apps, no matter if intelligent placement is set on or off.
 * Thunar and XfDesktop: Dragging links from firefox only creates links too. I'd like to be able to choose between creating a link and downloading the file. When I click at a link in firefox, I get a select dialog or even automated downloading as well.
 * interestingly Thunar sorts the hyphen before the dot though gtkfilechooser sorts the dot before the hyphen
 * Thunar: make rubberband optional because it conflicts with the single-click option. Specifically choosing a file for drag/drop doesn't work properly because instead of the file one gets the rubberband. There is another problem: when files are selected and one wants to deselect them, there is no good way to do this in single-click mode.
 * Terminal and mousepad should allow the configuration of tabstop
 * Thunar: provide ctrl-m besides ctrl-s to select files via their real mime-type (like checked with the file tool) and not via the extension
 * Thunar: the main-menue option to delete trash should be always availabe
 * All: be compatible to D-BUS 0.92 and upwards (API is freezed now)
 * All: generally all view-based apps (Thunar, Mousepad, ...) should provide (reconfigurable) tabs (via ctrl-t). Tabs for views should be seen as focused and better manageable extensions to the taskbar (and thus saner and easier to use and organize than windows). Copy/paste and drag/drop on tabs should insert into the belonging pane.
 * Make gtkfilechooser obey to the Thunar mouseclick settings - should be a system-wide option that works even for desktop icons (text can unfold at mouseover, for example)
 * Mousepad should remember previously opened files and restore the last open file
 * Marking a full line in mousepad (same in gedit) by moving down the mouse cursor at the left border includes the (invisible) beginning of the next line so that middle-click inserting on that line actually means inserting into the marked range and is blocked.
 * Make the red alert bar in Thunar (when the user is root) optional and configurable via the 'kiosk-mode' manager. Such alerts are useful only to some people but definetly an own category of warnings that can be used instead of real shutdowns of options in the kiosk-mode.
 * Get rid of ugly or wrong terms, like 'firefox' for 'mozilla' or '1280x1024px, 76Hz' for '1280x1024@76'. In the german translation, the widget for selecting the to be used volume control in the volume/mixer applet is subtitled with 'wannabe-master'...
 * Add mute buttons to mixer application and panel volume applet.
 * Add 'Font Resolution(dpi)' into Fonts Option so we can adjust fonts of both KDE and GNOME applications to the same size. (see 'xdpyinfo | grep dot')
 * Benny: Please file a bugzilla report for xfce-mcs-plugins and assign it to benny@xfce.org.
 * Make it easy to install and View new Fonts in Xfce.


 * Transparent Windows when tab-cycling, windows get only solid if you release keys..
 * dannym: sounds good :)


 * Consistent naming for xfce apps? E.g. xftaskbar, xfpanel, xffm, xfwm, xficonbox, etc...


 * Always-on-top button on title bar
 * Always-on-bottom button on title bar
 * Allow windows to not be resizable by removing borders automatically when maximized ( usefull when you want to scroll a web page with the mouse ).


 * Smoother/rounder/smaller Xfce engine ( but keeping it as fast as it is actually ) ?

Done

 * Make panel transpency configurable via a UI.
 * In 4.4 RC 1


 * GUI to start/stop xfce components (such as taskbar, panel, iconbox). Command line is confusing for newbies. (Maybe as Panel-plugin? : I was thinking in the MCS manager, where taskbar etc. are configured anyway.)
 * Jasper: should be part of the session manager I think.
 * Benny: Please file a bugzilla report for xfce4-session.
 * In 4.4 RC 1


 * button to check whether user wants xftaskbar4 to start automatically... (Since there is a panel-plugin for windows list in the panel)
 * Benny: See start/stop GUI above.
 * Obsolete in 4.4


 * Icon-view in xffm like ROX has
 * edscott: to be available in 4.3.1


 * time scheduling in xfcalendar
 * Benny: It's on the way.
 * Korbinus: It's done :-)


 * Make tooltip for the orage clock configurable to not possibly show absolutely the same like the clock.
 * Juha: In 4.4 RC2


 * Add application icon in window titlebar support in xfwm4 [DONE]


 * Show different sticky button image depending on whether the window is sticky ot not - or maybe this is theme-dependent? :)
 * thehundredthone - Yes this is theme dependent. If the relevant .xpm file is present (stick-toggled-active/inactive/pressed.xpm)

4.4 Beta 1

 * Let's see the system tray more configurable. I don't like the seperators on the edges, etc.
 * Seperators can be removed in XFCE 4.4 Beta 1.


 * Add 'Startup Programs List' under GUI so that makes users easier to control the programs automatically start with XFCE. (And 'Startup Components List')
 * Benny: Please file a bugzilla report for xfce4-session.
 * xfce4-autostart-editor exists in XFCE 4.4 Beta 1.


 * desktop icons (files, launchers, CDE-ish minimised apps) for xfdesktop
 * Benny: Thunar and/or xfdesktop will do this.


 * Possibility to have several panels and taskbars and that users could put these in what he/she wants (we could have taskbar at bottom, panel at bottom in top of taskbar; and finally a panel at the up). Perhaps a consideration of threading panel as taskbar could serve. Good for gnome panel/taskbar users. (Xan)
 * dannym: sounds overconfigurable to me, but well, if you like it that way, okay :)
 * dannym: although panel configs should be at least per-screen. (i.e. I want to use one screen for one task and another screen for another task)


 * Possibility to move the taskbar to another screen. It's currently locked on the left screen of the three I got; I'd like it to be on the middle one.

Later

 * The true transparency on the panel is nice in 4.2. However what would be more useful to me would be to make the 'panel' transparent, not necessarily the icons.  I like the icons to stand out, but the panel to be transparent, or partially transparent with tinting.  Just one fellow's suggestion.
 * Jasper: This is hard and probably requires gtk 2.6. You need to use RGBA visuals. It would be very cool of course...
 * Bountykiller: I think this worst than that. We will have to wait gtk 2.8 for that. (see http://gtk.org/plan/2.8/).
 * Well, gtk 2.8 is out :-)
 * this feature would be really cool! :D

Unclear
hehe, I have no intention to, don't worry -- Jasper 09:16, 22 Mar 2005 (CET)
 * We didn't find that Icon Box is useful. Instead of that, we prefer a desktop with icons.
 * Jasper: Who is 'we'? ;)
 * Benny: Thunar and/or xfdesktop will do this.
 * ruskie: erm we are talking about the iconbox that can hold minimized apps right? don't you take that away from me....
 * I love the iconbox.
 * I prefer a desktop with icons instead of a iconbox, it's more comfortable
 * I too would like icons on my desktop. 69.42.5.52 21:57, 24 May 2005 (CEST)
 * Same here, I'd prefer icons on the desktop instead of the icon-box.
 * Great... although I'm satisfied with my desktop menu.
 * i dont know how its done but my xfce 4.2.2 (xubuntu-desktop) has desktop icons with full functionality :) (im a linux newbie and i supposed to read in forum.xfce.org about nautilus is stoling desktop to gnomes)--88.240.214.102 03:22, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Would be nice if the iconbox can autohide...--61.48.19.75 23:27, 16 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Please, improve xffm so that it's on par with nautilus. I'd like to see xffm going spatial - becoming a lighter nautilus.
 * Jasper: On par with nautilus == nautilus. We can't do magic. Lighter means less functionality -- this should be fine for most people though.
 * Edscott: The plugin system used by the panel illustrates that you can still have increased functionality and remain lean. With this in mind, xffm 4.4 plans to exceed nautilus but remain lean. And spatial==iconview, available in 4.3.1.
 * Xfce's developer blog on features to be implemented in 4.4 included some discussions on file management


 * Make real terminal transparency (dont only renders the backdrop but renders the  windows before) would be great
 * Benny: I have a patch for that, but this requires heavy support from the window manager.
 * dannym: Is it just me or is it, like, unusable when having 'real transparency' and actually having some window content below 'show through' and distort the terminal content? At least with the background image, its more or less anticipatable what it will be, but with other windows, it would be like looking through a painted glass on a picture, you can't recognize the picture on the glass and and you can't recognize the picture behind either. (then again, I'm not a transparency guy at all)
 * ssam: i think it is ok, as long as you have a sensible tint, and its only the background thats transparent, not the text. and being able to see a video through a terminal is cool
 * bunder : could it' be like multi-gnome-terminal also :)
 * lalo: you can get this kind of transparency if you have composite. I love it.  But (re?)implementing it in the terminal code, with a different implementation, would be just silly.  Go get Xgl :-)
 * it would be nice to have terminal's background not just transparent, but also slightly blurred (as in urxvt) - this will make text more readable with complex wallpaper on transparent background.


 * In the panel when adding a menu to a launcher add the possibility to add a sub menu for some entry.
 * Jasper: Probably not. There is the possibility to use different menu files for the Xfce Menu plugin.
 * dannym: Agreed. What if people would start use panels nested 350 levels deep *shudder*


 * Possibility to use a light external program (like idesk) to have desktop icons without having to stop xfdesktop, and without having to use an heavier window manager.
 * dannym: try to implement it, then come back corrected (or, even better, succeed) :)


 * Expose like feature, like in OS X. But, done right!
 * dannym: available, install skippy or skippy-xd. Or are you missing something? Do tell :)
 * It needs a zoom out :) I suppose that really should be done by the skippy people tho

XFWM4
 * lalo - I'd like to have more "tabbed titles"-style features, as per BeOS and KDE wm. Namely:
 * have a layout like this, when titles are not full width: (button)(button)(title)(button)(whitespace) (this assuming the title is on the left, adjust as appropriate for center and right)
 * an extra "tabbed" option; if this is on, and two windows are vertically positioned so that their titlebars overlap, then shift their buttons and title horizontally so that they're both visible. Even better would be to take transparent areas of the images into account - so my theme, which uses fully transparent inactive buttons, would "know" that inactive buttons can overlap with active buttons/title.  But that may be asking too much :-D
 * the "tabbed" option may optionally be in addition to the left/center/right option; in this case, the existing option would indicate where titlebars would "prefer" to be - so if there is no overlap, that's where it will be, and if there is overlap, that's where they will swarm around.