Panel

From SkyOS

Contents 1 Panel position and looks 1.1 Comments/Further Refinements? 2 more new features and problematic areas 2.1 same name windows

Panel position and looks

I like my taskbar to span the entire width of the screen in Windows/Linux, although having it centralized and able to shrink/grow as required is very nice aesthetically.

My only gripe is that, as the SkyOS panel resizes, the menu moves further along the screen.

A solution I proposed on the forum a while back was something very simple - have the menu button in the centre of the screen (fixed point), have any panel applets on the left of the button and any tasks to the right. Only move the main menu button if one side of the screen runs out of room.

I made a mock-up to this effect:

Comments/Further Refinements?

related: allow Panel to be docked to sides or corners.

what happens when there are too many applications for Panel to show in one line?

• should the application-list part of panel just scroll when the mouse is at the edge of the screen?
• should the application symbols start to shorten their name or show just their icon?
• should the application symbols zoom-out and look smaller, so a second line could fit in?
• other innovations?

more new features and problematic areas

same name windows

when we have a few windows with the same name, there is no way to distinguish them easily. the only way I know right now is to simply click each one and guess by that. that's no good. you can try by opening a few firefox windows or software store.

we can learn a thing or two from ZetaOS/BeOS world: [1]
note on the top right side, there is the opened deskbar, that shows all open windows. those that are on a different workspace get a flying symbol. a hidden window also has a greyed color to indicate that.

we should have a visual indication for everything.

to solve the distinguishing problem:

maybe add numbers to the titles (or corner of the window) to match numbers in the panel app-opening-list?
maybe when moving the mouse over the name in the list, the window will show itself, by a border around the whole window, or something similar.

please add a mockup of how you imagine this feature, or comment about it.