Thumbnail plugin

[stjepan]

This is a plugin which shows a thumbnail of the window when the cursor is over a button in the taskbar.

Screenshot:
http://pix.nofrag.com/b0/7a/051d45e25bfffed09eeb9b00e383t.jpg (http://pix.nofrag.com/b0/7a/051d45e25bfffed09eeb9b00e383.html)

Download: http://www.anykeysoftware.co.uk/compiz/plugins/thumbnail-20070123.tar.gz

[Who]

Have you considered making this a 'dock' plugin?

I was thinking that minimised windows could get icons in the dock (until David does whatever he may do to the core to get thumbnails of minimised windows) and currently open windows get actual thumbnails - then we can get rid of the window list :)

What do you think?

[stjepan]

I don't think icons would be useful because they're already on the buttons.

There are 3 ways to get thumbnails of minimized windows:
1. save pixmap before minimizing - "dead" preview
2. don't minimize but just move window off-screen - resource hungry
3. continuosly update contents when showing a thumbnail - cpu hungry and laggy

I think the best is just to show nothing.

[Who]

I was thinking of totally replacing the gnome window list with the dock plugin I was suggesting - I.E I remove my bottom panel and the dock plugin draws a window with thumbnails of all my windows on it - this screenshot from the old miniwin/dock plugin is quite exciting (the nautilus window group is expanded):

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5525/1331/1600/dock.png

but if I do want to completely replace the window list then minimised windows would need to be shown - otherwise they have essentially disappeared - that is why I suggested icons.

[stjepan]

This is not the point of this plugin. It just shows thumbnails when the cursor is over a button in taskbar. Also if all thumbnails would be shown, they would take too much space on the screen.

[Who]

Shame,

How far different do you think a dock plugin is from your thumbnail plugin? is anyone else interested in trying a dock style thing? - I really don't have the skill or the time to develop the skill!

Who

[stjepan]

What exactly do you want? Thumbnails of minimized windows? Non-hiding thumbnails?

[delphinen]

cool plugin, thanks

[iznogood]

Shame,

How far different do you think a dock plugin is from your thumbnail plugin? is anyone else interested in trying a dock style thing? - I really don't have the skill or the time to develop the skill!

Who

kxdocker offers a way to add your own rendering engine, so you can use this one without implementing everything from scratch

[gnumdk]

Don't work under kde here...

[lagorgy]

compiled the plugin, installed the schema and doesnt work here :( am i missing something?

[Keeguon]

patching libwnck?

[mikedee]

Could you use this property to work out when the mouse is at a certain position when over the taskbar?

http://standards.freedesktop.org/wm-spec/1.4/ar01s05.html#id2527818

As far as I know _NET_WM_ICON_GEOMETRY will tell you where the windows icon is. You can read these values whenever a window is mapped/created and then work out when the mouse is over each icon, you can use enter notify to work out when they are over the taskbar, maybe you can just recalculate the positions when they enter.

I am sure I saw a similar plugin to this in the old compiz-quinn days but I couldnt find it again, so I think it should be possible without modifying libwnck.

Unfortunate KDE user :(

[flargen]

I made debs of libwnck for Ubuntu Edgy patched for use with the thumbnail plugin. They ARE proper debs, not checkinstall. I just patched the Ubuntu source.

http://mogoshare.com/333749

Thanks stjepan, this plugin is really good.

[Who]

I am sure I saw a similar plugin to this in the old compiz-quinn days but I couldnt find it again, so I think it should be possible without modifying libwnck.


What do you remember the plugin doing? I don't really remember anything like it except dock and minwin, which I know you know about and have code for...

I still have code kicking around from the last few compiz-quinn builds if you want to direct me towards digging - but I guess if it was in the standard set of plugins you'd have found it in whatever code you must have :)

@stjepan: I should have been clearer - I think the ideas I was talking about should really belong in a separate plugin - I just thought I'd ask you because you seem to be doing things very close to what needs to be done for a nice dock :)

Haven't tried this plugin (despite the noise here :) but it looks cool!

Who

[mikedee]

What do you remember the plugin doing? I don't really remember anything like it except dock and minwin, which I know you know about and have code for...

I still have code kicking around from the last few compiz-quinn builds if you want to direct me towards digging - but I guess if it was in the standard set of plugins you'd have found it in whatever code you must have :)

The plugin did exactly this :)

Its OK though, I think stjepan should be able to get it working with any WM and without a modified libwnck ;)

[nzjrs]

Unmodified libwnck?

I think this sort of functinality belongs in libwnck, then it can move into upstream GNOME etc.

[stjepan]

With patched libwnck there's better integration and cooperation with it.
My plugin just reads _WIN_SHOW_THUMBNAIL property.

Quinn has promised she will make a patch for KDE ...
I don't use KDE so I haven't made a patch for it. Take a look at my libwnck patch, it's very simple.

[stjepan]

KDE support is added now.

[wfarr]

Unmodified libwnck?

I think this sort of functinality belongs in libwnck, then it can move into upstream GNOME etc.

The problem however being that it is not at all like Compiz to be patching junk left and right to get certain plugins to work.

The functionality should be added upstream _first_.

[stjepan]

Will this go into compiz-extra?

[mikedee]

Will this go into compiz-extra?

Not if it relies on modifying external libraries ;)

Please update it to not need patched wnck or kicker. It is totally unnecessary.

[stjepan]

I'm working on a version which doesn't need patched libwnck/kdebase.

[stjepan]

Here's a new version....

NEWS:
* no need to patch libwnck/kdebase anymore!!
* cleaned up code
* added option to set time before showing the thumbnail

Can it go in compiz-extra now? :)

[mikedee]

Can it go in compiz-extra now? :)

Awww... go on then.... I dont think its my decision though ;)

Gandalfin packages it, so you will have to ask him, once we have it all in git it will be much easier for everyone.

[mikedee]

BTW, the windows are strangely decorated with this plugin and kwd. It is not the fault of this plugin because I get the same effect on the switcher, must be a kwd problem.

[stjepan]

New version fixes some bugs and is out.

[lagorgy]

New version fixes some bugs and is out.

i came up with an idea for ur plugin

i was using a webcam with a friend through amsn, i needed to review a document and see the webcam at the same time, i needed to use openoffice fullscreen to see the document so i thought well ill use thumbnail plugin so i can see him while i read, but as soon as i moved the cursor away, of course, the thumbnail disappeared,

so the point is :P, can u add an option so people can ¨stick¨ a thumbnail? would be useful for cases like mine, of watch a movie while surfing the web....

[lowfi]

This is a great plugin, thanks very much. If now someone adds a Flip3d option to switcher, then all of the new Aero Glass features are in place, before Vista is officialy released. :lol:

Btw, there is a typo in the longDesc of mipmap. ("potsible").

so the point is :P, can u add an option so people can ¨stick¨ a thumbnail? would be useful for cases like mine, of watch a movie while surfing the web....

Sound like a good idea, but you could just set the web cam window sticky and it'd be the same (even better cause your're not confined to a fixed position and size).

[Who]

so the point is :P, can u add an option so people can ¨stick¨ a thumbnail? would be useful for cases like mine, of watch a movie while surfing the web....

I'd like to be able to move my thumbnails around, but I think that is really a separate plugin, miniwin, perhaps :)

[stjepan]

New version is here. There's nothing new, except the old "patching-system" is back.

Mikedee, can you upload this somewhere?

[stjepan]

New version with some fixes is released.
Mikedee, pls upload somewhere....

[mikedee]

http://www.anykeysoftware.co.uk/compiz/plugins/thumbnail-20070121.tar.gz

There you go :)

[stjepan]

Mikedee, will you put this in compiz-extra?

[mikedee]

Mikedee, will you put this in compiz-extra?

Its not up to me :( I just handle the individual plugins..


BTW - You should look at lines 694-699, they could probably be deleted, they look like an excessive copy/paste from scale. All those lines do is set some local variables and then exit.

Also it looks like you are calling XInternAtom(dpy, _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK", 0) on every thumbShowThumb. This could be optimised so that the atom is stored at the start.

[stjepan]

Fixed.
I have also added a beryl port and README.

Please upload :)

[mikedee]

http://www.anykeysoftware.co.uk/compiz/plugins/thumbnail-20070121.tar.gz

[stjepan]

New version with some little fixes in Beryl version is released.
'sticky' option is removed as it's useless because thumbnails are of type dock.

Please re-upload (20070123) :D
Aren't you tired of uploading? :)

[mikedee]

Aren't you tired of uploading? :)

Uploading is a thing of the past with sshfs ;)

http://www.anykeysoftware.co.uk/compiz/plugins/thumbnail-20070123.tar.gz

[iznogood]

stjepan hi,

i just post here because i try to avoid making uneeded noise on compiz mailing list.
Recently i read a few posts about you asking david to include your plugin on the main repository although he said that the input transformation code would be needed to make it work correctly and this is not ready yet. Also onestone from beryl jumped in and said how it would be better if we "hacked" our way in compiz to make it work...

Well i wanted to post on the list but i want to avoid creating another flame there (and here too), but i find all this persistency not necessary.I thing that everyone should have taken a lesson from blur plugin, we all saw how nice this works and i do not thing we need to force our way on something that is clearly not supported yet

I also thing that compiz (and beryl too) have many plugins - effects and a few more would not really make a difference, at least not as much as in the early days. Personally i thing that desklets and dockbars are more importand at the moment that a few more effects especially hackish ones. I thing that we have many plugins and most people do not use them all at the same time, its also importand not to overflow the desktop with effects, it would not be very useful.

The choice belongs to the end user but you must also respect our opinions, opinions from people who want linux desktop to be something more than effects, to be useful and the effects to blend nicely with the desktop and not overflow it(just look at Mac)

I can undestand your excitement about your plugin but hacking compiz to make it run i thing is wrong and so is this persistency on david to include it on main repository. After all this is why we have compiz-extra

Just thing of what i said calmly, i just like compiz as it is and also i can wait a few months for input transformation. I do not consider thumbnail of minimized windows such a big deal after all...Compiz core is much more importand

iznogood

[stjepan]

Very nice post, thank you.

I thing that we have many plugins and most people do not use them all at the same time, its also importand not to overflow the desktop with effects, it would not be very useful.

The choice belongs to the end user but you must also respect our opinions, opinions from people who want linux desktop to be something more than effects, to be useful and the effects to blend nicely with the desktop and not overflow it(just look at Mac)

Aren't thumbnails useful?

btw, you need s/thing/think :)

[iznogood]

Aren't thumbnails useful?


They are VERY useful, and i must say i was very impressed with your plugin, i also use it on my desktop and its very impressive :D

But we must not rush ourselves into anything. Imagine you go into Linus and say "Hey i just wrote this nice driver, but i have to make some changes into the memory subsystem to make it work, what do you say??". Well i bet that he would not even bother to answer that...

David is listening and responding to all requests, suggestions better than most project managers but we must not try to take advantage of his good will. After all the core is his and he can decide what to do with it, and we all agree that he is doing a fantastic job. I believe that in about 6 months the desktop will be at least as good as anything out there, it just needs a bit more time, so lets give it to it.

Also i don't think that you (or anybody including me) would like it if i try to press on some matters on your plugin that you wouldn't agree :wink:

Anyway lets give dave some time, he does a good job.What do you say??

iz

[jespera]

Aren't thumbnails useful?


They are VERY useful, and i must say i was very impressed with your plugin, i also use it on my desktop and its very impressive :D


Just to provide at least one case in which the thumbnails proved surprisingly useful to me:

I was writing some document and had a few evince windows displaying pdf-files. The main window was maximized. At one point I wanted to display one of the evince windows. I moved the mouse to the window list and the thumbnails were almost good enough to distinguish the pdfs. By accident I zoomed in on the thumbnails and behold: the thumbnail was also zoomed so that I could actually clearly read/see the contents.

Were nice and actually useful to me.

Cheers

[iznogood]

Aren't thumbnails useful?


They are VERY useful, and i must say i was very impressed with your plugin, i also use it on my desktop and its very impressive :D


Just to provide at least one case in which the thumbnails proved surprisingly useful to me:

I was writing some document and had a few evince windows displaying pdf-files. The main window was maximized. At one point I wanted to display one of the evince windows. I moved the mouse to the window list and the thumbnails were almost good enough to distinguish the pdfs. By accident I zoomed in on the thumbnails and behold: the thumbnail was also zoomed so that I could actually clearly read/see the contents.

Were nice and actually useful to me.

Cheers

i consider thumbnails one of the most important plugins and with huge potential. Maybe stjepan should consider coding it in such a way that maybe it can be invoked - used from outside compiz too.This way thumbnails could be generated on demand (for dockbars maybe?)

[cbudden]

Hi.
I've installed the thumbnail plugin to my .compiz directory, installed gconf keys and added it to the list of activated plugins, but i am getting no thumbnails. What is wrong?

Thanks

chris

[stjepan]

Unfortunately, I have no time to keep developing the plugin anymore. Feel free to take the plugin in your hands and improve it.