[e-users] E17: "what I want to do"

[The W. <wan...@fa...>]

As suggested in the "feature parity" thread, here's a list of things I want to
be able to do in a window manager, which I could do in E16, and which I haven't
figured out how to do in E17.

(There are probably more things than I've managed to remember so far, which I'll
notice once I get past these and get deeper into the nitty-gritty details. As
such, more may follow.)


I want to have the same visual style (window decorations, WM-element colors, et
cetera) as with the classic BlueSteel theme.

I get the impression that in order to achieve this. I'll have to create an E17
analogue to that theme myself.


I want to have a plain black background, instead of an image-file wallpaper.
(For that matter, any other single color should also be possible.)

Having to keep a plain-black image around just for this purpose would be an
undesirable kludge, and a mild aggravation on the grounds of "this shouldn't be
necessary!", and as such I don't desire to do it.


I want to have no desktop icons, period.

A bit of experimentation has revealed that the created-by-default icons can be
gotten rid of by deleting ~/Desktop/, but it is not clear whether icons will
ever be displayed from any other location, nor whether anything will ever
automatically re-generate the ~/Desktop/ directory.


I want to be able to use one mouse button to switch between desktops in the
pager, and a different mouse button to move windows around in the pager.


I want to be able to decide which way a window should maximize (horizontally,
vertically, or both) at maximize time.

E17 provides a way to control this globally as a system-wide config option, but
unlike with E16, no apparent way to make the decision manually at maximize time.


I want to be able to set "window opacity" to 100%, except for cases in which the
program itself specifies that a particular part of the window should be
transparent.

E17 works this way by default with compositing turned off. I'm simply saying
that I want to be able to get that same behavior back (that is, to disable
translucency effects) even if compositing can't be turned off. I think I recall
having found a way to do this already, but I can't confirm that offhand right at
the moment.


I want to be able to jump to any window (including restoring "iconified" ones)
from any desktop readily at any time, without having to dedicate screen space to
this functionality at any other time.

In E16, I can do this by closing the "iconbox" window, and using the
alt-middle-click "list all windows" menu. E17 doesn't seem to have any
equivalent capability that I recall having found.


I want the pager to not display miniature "snapshots" of the contents of
windows, just representations of the location and size of those windows.

In E16, this could be done by setting the pager to "Simple" mode. E17 does not
appear to have any option to disable this behavior.


I want to be able to have windows overlap between "desktops", and visible on
both sides.

Specifically, I've found this useful for A: windows too large in some dimension
to fit on the screen (e.g. for very large image files), and B: windows which get
automatically placed so that the window-manager decorations are offscreen (and
so the window "handles", other than for resize, aren't readily accessible from
the desktop where the window was placed). A brother of mine also uses this to
play games from Simon G. Tatham's "puzzles" collection, such as Net or LightUp,
with custom play-space sizes larger than will fit on his screen.

I know that you've spoken about this feature before, and IIRC, said that it's
not coming. It's still something I want, and so I'm listing it here regardless.


I would like to be able to place the pager in any arbitrary location, rather
than just in whatever locations a "shelf" can be pinned to.

In E16, the pager was just another window, and could be moved around (and
redecorated) like any other window; I personally consider this to be an
advantage. In E17, it's apparently a "shelf" gadget, which while it probably has
its advantages apparently also has its limitations as well.

Note that I myself don't actually *need* this - I normally put the pager in the
top right corner, and there's an option to pin a "shelf" there, so that would
potentially work for me. However, this does seem like a customizability
regression, and I believe one of my brothers does use a sufficiently nonstandard
pager location that he would be impacted by this limitation.


That's all I can think of off the top of my head, though as mentioned above, I'm
sure there's more. (There are probably some things which I don't remember
because I've never needed to configure them, since E16 does them "right" by
default, but for which E17 has changed the default.)


However, as long as I'm here, I'd like to ask about one other change - not
something I myself actively need, but something I've noticed which seems odd.

Fairly late on as far as I recall, E16 added support for "window groups" - that
is, tying multiple windows together so that the same set of flags (e.g.
"sticky") and of "remember" settings would be applied to all of them
collectively.

As far as I can tell, E17 does not include this feature at all, or any even
vaguely comparable functionality. Is that accurate? If so, is it intentional?

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

Every time you let somebody set a limit they start moving it.
   - LiveJournal user antonia_tiger