psifidotos: Latte Dock v0.10~

Hello everyone,

in the following you can read July development news from Latte Dock v0.10~ git version. ^{[~, stands for rapid development, in your distro package repos is mentioned as git version]}

Contents;

1. New Auto Hide Sidebar visibility mode

Thanks to Martijn Vogelaar a new visibility mode for sidebars is supported. The new mode triggers Latte panel showing/hiding through the Latte Sidebar Button applet and global shortcuts but at the same time if the panel does not contain mouse for a period of time (can be set from Show timer) then it auto hides itself.

Visibility modes in general have updated their organization in order to be grouped much better. Currently they look like:

- visibility modes organization -

2. Background with All Corners

Users can now force background corners at all cases. I suppose this could be helpful if someone wants to replicate ChromeOS layout or play with different appearance styles.

- chromeos layout possibilities -

- all corners option in background -

3. Memory Consumption

A lot of improvements have been implemented in that regard. All Edit Mode windows (Canvas window, Main Settings with Behavior/Apperarance/Effects, Secondary small window) are now created only first time called and afterwards are reused for ALL Views (docks/panels) when requested. Because of this you are going to notice a very big memory usage drop when editing your panels and docks compared to any previous Latte version.

Even more, Indicators Config UIs found at Effects page are also following the new rule (create only once and reuse afterwards). In the past, indicators config uis were recreated its time a View was requesting editing. Because of that change I notice very stable memory usage that does not increase/decrease all the time when showing editing windows.

I think that the best way to calculate Latte memory consumption in v0.10~ is the following. Create your panels and docks the way you like them and change their properties and appearance to your liking. Close Latte afterwards and restart it. Start using your docks and panels by triggering popups, parabolic effect etc. Afterwards notice your memory usage but make sure that you have not triggered any docks/panels editing.

4. Layout Details Window

I am pretty proud of the new Layout Details window found in Layout Editor. With the new window you can add icons and backgrounds to your layouts in very nice and user friendly manner.

- layout details window / choose background color -

5. Layout Background Badges

- background badges -

When playing with Layouts in the editor it is nice to distinguish your different layouts fast and easy. Icons, colors and backgrounds are helping with this. Background badges take up the task and they are identified with the following priority:

   a. Layout icon is always preferred if it has been set by the user
   b. Layout assigned Plasma Activities icons are used if there is no layout icon
   c. Canvas Background is used there is no layout icon and that layout is not assigned to any activities

That was possible because layouts in the Editor are provided through QTableModel that has made the implementation pretty concrete and future proof.

6. Noteworthy Fixes

When a layout was deleted from Layouts Editor there were cases that could break the layouts model data validity.
Loading/Unloading different layouts could create a crash pointing in plasma frameworks because some codepaths were trying to access applets() that had already been destroyed.
Enable Hide Timer for ZERO value [instant use]
Enable dock/panel hiding only after any slide-in event has finished
Fix Panel/Dock types enforcement through Editing windows
Live Editing mode at all times even when "Rearranging and Configuring Applets". Latte is auto-adjusting dock and panel modes based on different user preferences immediately after such changes occur.
fix vertical system trays appearance for Plasma >= 5.19
Support XCB::SHAPE in order to define which dock areas are accepting mouse input and for all the rest input is forwarded to underlying windows [case of client sided background shadows used in docks].
Support GTK_FRAME_EXTENTS in order to define which dock areas are actually really used from docks and ignore all the rest. This way the compositor is informed about docks real geometry and locates underlying application windows accordingly [case of client sided background shadows that must be ignored from window manager].

7. Estimated Time of Arrival

There is none. Latte v0.10 will be ready, when it is ready. That may take up even one more year. I am developing Latte as my fun project and I want to keep it that way. If you think it is too far, do not hesitate, come, join and help...

8. Donations

Personally I do not think donations are necessary. Easier thing you can do is to just install from KDE Store the Latte related widgets, they work just fine even with plasma panels. KDE Store provides me some monthly beers because of this. Funny thing in that Latte Separator that I developed in a day provides me most of the beers and Latte Dock that I develop plenty of hours daily for the last three years provides me almost none.. :) I mention it as a funny fact, please do not take it differently.

In a case, if you still want to donate you can use the following:

You can find Latte at Liberapay ,

or you can split your donation between my active projects in kde store.

psifidotos

Σελίδες

Sunday 2 August 2020

Latte Dock v0.10~ | July Update