Discussion Proposal: Specifications about panels and widgets

[IFo Hancroft]

What I am hoping to achieve with this, is widget and panel interoperability.

On 11/05/2018 02:54 PM, Simon McVittie wrote:
> On Mon, 05 Nov 2018 at 13:05:24 +0200, IFo Hancroft wrote:
>> It is not agreed on whether a panel should provide the taskbar/task
>> manager, menu, tray, widgets.
> This is a UX design question. If one desktop environment's designers
> think there should be a panel with a list of running applications (a
> taskbar), and another desktop environment's designers think there should
> not, then they are not going to agree on a specification that tries to
> require or forbid a taskbar: at least one set of designers would object
> to that specification.
>
> Desktop environments have different UI/UX designs, and that's a good
> thing, because different users have different preferences for the UI/UX
> they want to use. Some people want a panel with a taskbar, and they should
> choose a desktop environment that (at least optionally) provides one.
> Other people don't want a panel with a taskbar, and they should choose
> a desktop environment that (at least optionally) doesn't provide one.
>
> Similar considerations apply to various other UI/UX features.
>
> What is it that you aim for desktop environments to agree on?
>
> One of the major topics for freedesktop.org is arranging that an
> application that wants to do something can use the same code for multiple
> desktop environments (for instance, an application can get itself listed
> among other applications by installing a single .desktop file that works
> approximately the same in GNOME, KDE, etc., instead of having to install
> a .gnomeapp file and a .kdeapp file and so on). What application-facing
> functionality do you aim to standardize?
>
> (In particular, when an application installs a .desktop file, there is
> no guarantee that it will be presented in the same way in all desktop
> environments: KDE shows it among other apps in a hierarchical menu,
> whereas GNOME shows it among other apps in a flat, searchable list in
> the overview. Both are equally acceptable from the point of view of
> the Desktop Entry specification, and whether you prefer KDE's design or
> GNOME's design should be a factor in whether you choose to use KDE or
> GNOME or something else.)
>
>     smcv
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