Shrinkable applets

[wash2]

Should be tested with pop-os/cosmic-applets#1108 & pop-os/cosmic-settings#1496

[jacobgkau]

This is the padding before:

This is after:

@pop-os/ux Does this look good?

It looks like this doesn't fix the dock icon hover/active background not matching padding between the left and right side, but that's not a regression:

Adding & moving applets around still works as expected. I noticed after I added an App Tray that the app icons have less padding than the system tray icons on the right side of the dock:

...but again, that's not a regression. I can click applets with the mouse cursor in the corner as long as the panel's not configured to have a gap between it and the screen edge, which matches the behavior from before.

[wash2]

The padding applied here is not going to override the current user config, so I guess also the padding in your dock config also needs to be manually set to 4, or removed.

[jacobgkau]

Here's what the padding looks like after removing ~/.config/cosmic (and setting the theme back to Light):

Compact:

Comfortable (default):

Spacious:

(The top panel's spacing is the same between Comfortable and Spacious, while the dock's spacing is not. The dock icons are still not centered within the dock.)

On a second system where I know I've never modified any config files manually, I see the dock's vertical spacing is not being updated to the new look when I switch the Interface Density settings. It looks like clicking "Reset to Default" on the Dock page does update the dock's padding to the new values, as does doing that on the Panel page, although there's not actually a GUI setting for the padding on those pages, so there's no visual indicator of why resetting is needed or what it did, which isn't great.

[wash2]

Ya, settings also needs an update for the reset to default button to work. I'll do that now so that it is easier to test the new config values.

[maria-komarova]

What I see looks good.
I guess there are two things missing:

• The empty space on the right of the dock that comes from the empty minimized windows applet needs to match the padding on the left of the dock (or not be there when there are no minimized windows).
• "The top panel's spacing is the same between Comfortable and Spacious, while the dock's spacing is not. " So we need to figure out the spacing for density settings there. We're using custom padding there, not variables so I guess that's why we're not having a difference? It's not the same difference when we use variables between the two modes. But from the numbers we have "+4" for each padding for spacious mode should provide the difference.
  @wash2 what do you think?

[wash2]

• "+4" for each padding for spacious mode should provide the difference.

I guess this would be the extra spacing for the dock and app tray then? I could apply the configured spacing to the app tray, and it should be in sync.

[maria-komarova]

I guess this would be the extra spacing for the dock and app tray then? I could apply the configured spacing to the app tray, and it should be in sync.

Maybe I misunderstood but I thought there was no difference between comfortable and spacious on the Panel. So this is where we might need additional spacing for the spacious mode on the applets?

[wash2]

Maybe I misunderstood but I thought there was no difference between comfortable and spacious on the Panel.

I don't believe there is right now, but the app tray didn't apply the adjusted spacing after these changes. It can just add spacing between the buttons, or increase padding by an amount equal to the spacing on the panel.

So this is where we might need additional spacing for the spacious mode on the applets?

Either extra padding or spacing is ok in my opinion, or just no difference is ok. I do need to make a change to settings in how it applies compactness changes to the dock config if padding should be used instead of spacing.

[maria-komarova]

Thanks for the clarification. I think we can stick with spacing and increase it a bit for the spacious mode. That way there will be no difference between comfortable and compact but we'll have increased spacing for the spacious mode. If we use @space_none.
I mean "space_none" is 0 for comfortable and compact but 4 for spacious so it will automatically increase if we stick to the spacing variables scale.

[wash2]

Ok, the settings branch should have the changes for the spacing now.

[jacobgkau]

This is what the three modes look like now after clicking "Reset to default" on the Dock, Panel, and Appearance pages (I guess there's no way to avoid people having to do that).

Compact:

Comfortable:

Spacious:

The spacing between app icons is now greater than it was before in the default "Comfortable" mode. It looks a little excessive to me, but if this is what UX wants, that's fine.

In the dock, it appears there's no difference in spacing between the app icons between compact/comfortable/spacious mode, but there is a difference in spacing between the first three icons (for the launcher/workspace/app menus). This doesn't visually make a whole lot of sense to me, as they all appear as icons in the dock. Is this intentional?

[maria-komarova]

The spacing between app icons is now greater than it was before in the default "Comfortable" mode. It looks a little excessive to me, but if this is what UX wants, that's fine.

It's difficult to me to tell the difference from the screenshots above, to see if the spacing is really excessive.

In the dock, it appears there's no difference in spacing between the app icons between compact/comfortable/spacious mode, but there is a difference in spacing between the first three icons (for the launcher/workspace/app menus). This doesn't visually make a whole lot of sense to me, as they all appear as icons in the dock. Is this intentional?

No, not intentional. We should match the spacing inside the applets with this between applets in the dock.

[jacobgkau]

Found a bug. This is the default ("Comfortable") look with this branch:

This is after changing to Compact:

But if I change back to Comfortable, the dock remains with its "Compact" spacing:

I have to go to the Dock page and click "Reset to Defaults" to get the dock to update back to the Comfortable spacing, even though I never changed any settings on the Dock page. (Same goes for the panel.)

[maria-komarova]

Good to merge on my side after the bug fixes.

[wash2]

Thanks for the clarification. I think we can stick with spacing and increase it a bit for the spacious mode. That way there will be no difference between comfortable and compact but we'll have increased spacing for the spacious mode. If we use @space_none. I mean "space_none" is 0 for comfortable and compact but 4 for spacious so it will automatically increase if we stick to the spacing variables scale.

@jacobgkau I believe that the behavior you are seeing in settings is correct, but I do need to install new defaults set to 0 so that it doesn't start with the wrong value.

[jacobgkau]

I have the following versions installed now:

• cosmic-panel: 6082070
• cosmic-applets: 3daff12
• cosmic-settings: 67213c0

Switching from Comfortable to Compact doesn't seem to do anything to the dock or panel. It sounds like that's expected.

Switching from Comfortable to Spacious on the Appearance page works, but presents me with Reset to default buttons on the Panel and Dock pages. Clicking them puts the panel & dock back to the Comfortable spacing even though I still have Spacious selected. This should not be happening. Is there a way to tell the Panel and Dock pages what the correct default is depending on what the density setting on the Appearance page is set to?

[wash2]

Switching from Comfortable to Spacious on the Appearance page works, but presents me with Reset to default buttons on the Panel and Dock pages. Clicking them puts the panel & dock back to the Comfortable spacing even though I still have Spacious selected. This should not be happening.

Thanks for catching that. I had implemented handling for this for the full reset, but not the per-dock / panel reset. I'lll fix that, and I'll see if I can make it so that the buttons don't appear when they shouldn't too.

[wash2]

Ok, I believe the latest commit in settings fixes the remaining reset issues.

[jacobgkau]

Still getting the Reset to default button on the Dock page that resets the dock back to the Comfortable spacing when I have it set to Spacious. (This is with cosmic-panel 70c0ef9, cosmic-settings 91c817c, and cosmic-applets 3daff12.)

[jacobgkau]

With the latest dock padding updates, it also looks like I have a similar issue with the roundness style-- switching to Square reduces the padding, but the dock page presents me with Reset to default, and clicking on that adds the padding back until I switch to one of the round options and then back to Square again.

[wash2]

With the latest dock padding updates, it also looks like I have a similar issue with the roundness style-- switching to Square reduces the padding, but the dock page presents me with Reset to default, and clicking on that adds the padding back until I switch to one of the round options and then back to Square again.

Ok, it was missing an update to the defaults on_enter for the dock page, so those should be fixed now, sorry that this has taken so many iterations to get right.

[jacobgkau]

I'm seeing the dock default to having rounder corners if I remove ~/.config/cosmic/com.system76.CosmicPanel.Dock/. I have an initial Reset to default button in Settings that updates it to the newer less-rounded corners. Is there another place the default needs to be updated? I'm assuming removing the config files should end up with the same thing as resetting to default. (This is with cosmic-applets 187cb6e, cosmic-panel 70c0ef9, and cosmic-settings b4ad5a4.)

[wash2]

Ya, an installed config file too

[jacobgkau]

It looks like if I switch from Comfortable to one of the other options and then click Reset to default, the reset works, but the selected option incorrectly stays at whatever was selected (it's not refreshed or updated to reflect the defaults that were loaded). However, it looks like that's not a regression; it also happens on b49f1d4 (current master) and e2bb9ad (current release) of cosmic-settings, and on another machine without the shrinkable-applets branch of anything added. I can open a COSMIC Settings issue for that separately if it's not fixed as part of the shrinkable-applets branch.

The Appearance page seems to always be showing a Reset to default button when it's launched, even after e.g. removing the config files before launch or clicking the button and immediately re-launching. That also does not seem to be a regression.

Those two things aside, everything else seems to be working as expected now. I'm not getting spurious Reset to default buttons on the Dock or Panel pages when making changes only on the Appearance page. Resetting after changing other settings on those pages resets to the correct values. All combinations of interface density & style are working as expected. The Appearance page is able to reset to the correct defaults, visual issue with the selected settings notwithstanding.

From what I understand, we'll need to merge this PR first, then pop-os/cosmic-settings#1496 and pop-os/cosmic-applets#1108 will need to be updated to reflect that they aren't depending on a branch anymore?

[wash2]

From what I understand, we'll need to merge this PR first, then pop-os/cosmic-settings#1496 and pop-os/cosmic-applets#1108 will need to be updated to reflect that they aren't depending on a branch anymore?

Yes, and a libcosmic change for the applets as well.