_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE for desktop widgets

[boamaod at gmail.com]

Hi all,

What's the right window type hint for desktop widgets? I have been 
involved with Screenlets project which provides some old school python 
widgets mainly for GNOME. If I look at the code, there has been never 
clear decision about what window type hint to use. DOCK, TOOLBAR and 
UTILITY have been used throughout the history, but none of these really 
satisfies the needs of widget users.

The problems are:

* Hiding the widgets on "Show desktop". Normally, this shouldn't happen. 
Usually happens using TOOLBAR, UTILITY.
* Denying focus and/or proper drag and drop functions. This occasionally 
happens using DOCK, TOOLBAR.

About a month ago Screenlets switched to DOCK in order to not hide the 
widgets on "Show Desktop" in Unity shell of Ubuntu. However this ruined 
the focus plus drag and drop in GNOME shell. Now the best option among 
all the bad choices seems to use UTILITY, but this makes widgets to 
disappear on "Show desktop". TOOLBAR too, has focus plus drag and drop 
issues under GNOME shell.

For my perspective, widgets are quite special objects on desktop. Some 
people like to have them on special desktop layer, but mostly they are 
kept always seen on the desktop in background of other windows, so "Show 
desktop" makes the widgets appear. Widgets cannot be treated as utility 
windows, docks or toolbars and probably it would be good, if they had a 
special window type.

This could even help desktop environments to set some special overall 
style for consistent looks of the widgets. What do you say?

Guido Tabbernuk