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Glx-Dock / Cairo-Dock List of forums Ideas | Propositions Bring it back! Visibility options (only applies to unstable repo upgrade)
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Ideas | Propositions

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] Bring it back! Visibility options (only applies to unstable repo upgrade)
Page : 1 2 3
onyxwolf English 51 fabounet [Read]
30 May 2010 à 19:58

forestwalker, Wednesday 19 May 2010 à 14:21


Subscription date : 19 May 2010
Messages : 36
matttbe :
No, it's just to know if your bug with semi-transparent mode is due to your drivers (or a bug with OpenGL backend) or not ;)

You've got the point There must be some ATi bug... (With all the others with this new fglrx driver).
With Cairo all features work well (I still can't adjust the level of transparency ).
The behavior is as follow:
  • the fade mode acts as "move down" except that after the dock disappeared it comes back as transparent
  • the semi-transparent mode acts as "move down". Exactly :/


(In addition the clock applet always flips upside down and the dock sometimes flickers :/

But if "keep bellow" mode is back, it's better I guess :)

+1 vote

onyxwolf, Wednesday 19 May 2010 à 17:36


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
I find illogical to not want the dock to hide, and be ok with the dock being hidden by the windows.
in both case, your dock is not visible


Not entirely true when it was available and I was on my laptop more often than not my active window would only cover the top half of my dock leaving full and immediate access to the dock and very bottom of the active window at the same time. Semi-transparent is close but not the same. I don't want to see my dock when my window is over it, but I do when it is not, and that means any part of it. I can't even have my empathy chat window in the very corner (it doesn't even touch the dock when I'm on my full monitor) without hiding the dock.

Its pretty frustrating, especially when the perfect functionality was there, and taken away!

If you can make the multi-main dock visibility to be truly separate (only the dock covered by the active window hides vs all docks hiding, and fix the auto-hide option on the 2nd + docks), and the docks only hide when something touches that dock (not just intrudes on the same side of the main dock), then I could accept it as a replacement (but would still do so under protest).

But if "keep bellow" mode is back, it's better I guess :)


+1 vote

onyxwolf, Wednesday 19 May 2010 à 18:57


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
One last point and then I think I will have made my argument in its entirety.

The keep below visibility / function might be what some new users are looking for. Or new users may have the same qualms / problems with the hiding functionality that forestwalker, and I have, but don't want to keep it above or reserve room for it. A new user often won't overlook visibility issues (like I did until keep below was perfected) and will just uninstall for a different dock / panel system. I do want to note that the call back functionality has improved GREATLY to what it had been, and thank you for that.

For my logical argument-- since you offer the keep above option isn't it logical that some people will want the opposing option? So basically if not keep above, then keep below (if not A, then -A, and the opposite of above is below-- you can't argue against that logic )!

An option as fundamental and logical as the keep below option is, it will make the difference on whether some users stick to cairo-dock or simply uninstall it. Isn't that the main goal? To keep new users?

If you recall, the reason I uninstalled AWN was as simple as not being able to configure the indicator, and I haven't looked back. We don't want others to do the same with Cairo-Dock, right?!?

onyxwolf, Wednesday 19 May 2010 à 20:05


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
adjust the level of transparency


+1 for that too!!!

And empathy is only giving the quotes to get my attention (something that would have caused the whole dock to pop up and tell me before).

forestwalker, Saturday 22 May 2010 à 14:29


Subscription date : 19 May 2010
Messages : 36
YES, yes, yes!!!

Thank You bringing back the "Keep da dock below" option
Thank You very much!

/me is happy now

fabounet, Saturday 22 May 2010 à 19:08


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
you were quite convincing, all of you
moreover this mode will be replaced by the new one by default when the config is updated from a 2.1.x version to a 2.2.x one, so I'm sure nobody will use it except if they explicitely chose this mode amongst the others.

also, the dock pops up whenever an icon is demanding attention, so if it's ennoying for anyone, they now have several alternatives

lylambda, Sunday 23 May 2010 à 00:02


Subscription date : 06 September 2009
Messages : 1635
I think give choice is the best. So congratulations Fab, for change your mind
Otherwise, after test, I like "hide dock when there are windows" so I adopted it .

onyxwolf, Sunday 23 May 2010 à 18:24


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
I'm very happy you changed your mind.
if it's ennoying for anyone, they now have several alternatives


Like I always say variety is the spice of life, and no dock is more configurable, thats why new users who are like me will love CD! At least one of the MANY reasons...

forestwalker, Saturday 29 May 2010 à 18:41


Subscription date : 19 May 2010
Messages : 36
Finally the flickering/dock hide issues are solved: they were ATi catalyst specific errors (prior to 10.4).
Now (with the new 10.5 proprietary driver) the semi-transparent mode and the fade out are both working fine.

Also the keep-the-dock below got it's competitor semi-transparent is almost as good as it...

if only a transparency-level adjustor can be found somewhere...

fabounet, Sunday 30 May 2010 à 00:43


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
ah, good news !

if only a transparency-level adjustor can be found somewhere...

I find quite disturbing to be able to see the dock without being able to click on it, that's why I made it very transparent.

forestwalker, Sunday 30 May 2010 à 16:15


Subscription date : 19 May 2010
Messages : 36
fabounet :
I find quite disturbing to be able to see the dock without being able to click on it, that's why I made it very transparent.

I agree with you fabounet, but maybe it would be a bit more user-friendly to be able to adjust the level. For me it would be quite enough a minimal transparency (eg. 80%) just to see, that the dock is hidden.

On the other hand (or besides the above), the configuration is quite complex so I can imagine a firefox-like about:config stuff for über-tweakers (in case that there are constants and/or variables that could be 'fine-tune' but there's no place/time/etc. to implement them into the config panel - maybe that could be a test-area for the config values -> the most successful ones could emerge to the config panel )...

(sorry for the more or less pointelss brainstorming, I hope you find someting useful...

fabounet, Sunday 30 May 2010 à 19:58


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
well it's possible to add the parameter in the config and not in the panel.
the risk is that some themes will have parameters that can't be changed by "normal" users.
another solution would be to patch the sources

Ideas | Propositions

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] Bring it back! Visibility options (only applies to unstable repo upgrade)
Page : 1 2 3
onyxwolf English 51 fabounet [Read]
30 May 2010 à 19:58


Glx-Dock / Cairo-Dock List of forums Ideas | Propositions Bring it back! Visibility options (only applies to unstable repo upgrade) Top

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