Latte Dock development news

I would like to thank everyone for its love concercing Latte and kde community for its big acceptance. It is no secret that for the last two years I am the single and only Latte developer. For me it is just my fun project that I also share to the community. If anyone wants to participate by contributing code and patches for review can do so easily through kde phabricator page . I also want to thank of course the kde translators and its team that contribute translations to Latte weekly.

In previous month users had asked when Latte v0.10.~ will become the stable version. So as it appears I do not have time to make this possible until this summer so as a first step it will be delayed for Christmas 2020 and if it is not ready then it will be delayed even more. Of course and I do not want to burn out and I want to keep other aspects of my life healthy.

Why don't you release Latte new major stable versions more often?

Releasing stable versions it means also that you have to maintain them. When a stable version is released then for the next six months a bug fix release is published almost monthly or earlier. After the first six months then the bug fix releases are not that often and contain only critical and very important fixes.

Why Latte v0.10 is so different?

I have scheduled for v0.10 some major changes and improvements that make too much sense in order to delayed any further. These changes are not too easy to implement because they require updating Latte Layouts foundations so they must be tested properly and must be presented to users in an easy way.

Layouts and Preferences window

It is updated in order to be more stable, consistent and more meaningful for users.

- layouts editor -

- preferences -

Layout Details window

A new window will be introduced that will be accesible from Layouts Editor. You will be able to change all layout settings easily and of course there will be in that window a Docks/Panels list that you could use to update Screen assignment/ Screen Edge placement and access easily the specific Settings window for that dock panel.

Layout Templates

Currently extracted layout files contain also the user specified applet settings, so you must be careful a lot because the layout files can contain also sensitive data such as your google account that you are using in an applet or personal information etc. when you publish them on the Internet. A new concept will be introduced that will be called Layout Templates . You will be able to extract, import and publish your layouts  without containing any user-specified applet settings by default. They will contain only your applets placement and dock/panels placement and settings. You could also use these templates in order to add new Layouts in your Layout editor easily.

Dock/Panel Templates

Like Layout Templates the same thing will be possible with docks and panels. You could have a Template for specific dock and panel and you could use it to add new panels and docks based on that template. That template will not contain of course any user specified applet settings by default.

Layouts and Dock/Panels Interoperability

All Layouts / Layout Templates / Dock,Panel Templates will be able to be exchanged through Copy/Cut Paste paradigm and Latte will give you options for these actions when the Paste action takes place.

Example 1 : when you copy a layout into the Layout Templates list, Latte will ask you if you want to keep the user specified applet settings, by default it will choose No.

Example 2 : when you copy a dock/panel into a specific Layout Template or Dock/Panel Template, Latte again will ask you if you want to keep the user specified applet settings, by default it will choose No.

Easy to understand UI for all above possibilities

All previous options of course and it is a dream and very important to provide. So it will take as much time is needed in order to be provided correctly to the user. In most cases for user interaction the Copy/Cut Paste paradigm will be used that is well established and educated already to vast majority of the users.