Latte Dock v0.10~ | July Update

Hello everyone,

in the following you can read July development news from Latte Dock v0.10~ git version.

[~, stands for rapid development, in your distro package repos is mentioned as git version]

Contents;

• 1. New Auto Hide Sidebar visibility mode
• 2. Background with All Corners
• 3. Memory Consumption
• 4. Layout Details Window

• 5. Layout Background Badges

• 6. Noteworthy Fixes
• 7. Estimated Time of Arrival

• 8. Donations

1. New Auto Hide Sidebar visibility mode

Thanks to Martijn Vogelaar a new visibility mode for sidebars is supported. The new mode triggers Latte panel showing/hiding through the Latte Sidebar Button applet and global shortcuts but at the same time if the panel does not contain mouse for a period of time (can be set from Show timer) then it auto hides itself.

Visibility modes in general have updated their organization in order to be grouped much better. Currently they look like:

- visibility modes organization -

2. Background with All Corners

Users can now force background corners at all cases. I suppose this could be helpful if someone wants to replicate ChromeOS layout or play with different appearance styles.

- chromeos layout possibilities -

- all corners option in background -

3. Memory Consumption

A lot of improvements have been implemented in that regard. All Edit Mode windows (Canvas window, Main Settings with Behavior/Apperarance/Effects, Secondary small window) are now created only first time called and afterwards are reused for ALL Views (docks/panels) when requested. Because of this you are going to notice a very big memory usage drop when editing your panels and docks compared to any previous Latte version.

Even more, Indicators Config UIs found at Effects page are also following the new rule (create only once and reuse afterwards). In the past, indicators config uis were recreated its time a View was requesting editing. Because of that change I notice very stable memory usage that does not increase/decrease all the time when showing editing windows.

I think that the best way to calculate Latte memory consumption in v0.10~ is the following. Create your panels and docks the way you like them and change their properties and appearance to your liking. Close Latte afterwards and restart it. Start using your docks and panels by triggering popups, parabolic effect etc. Afterwards notice your memory usage but make sure that you have not triggered any docks/panels editing.

4. Layout Details Window

I am pretty proud of the new Layout Details window found in Layout Editor. With the new window you can add icons and backgrounds to your layouts in very nice and user friendly manner.

- layout details window / choose background color -

5. Layout Background Badges

- background badges -

When playing with Layouts in the editor it is nice to distinguish your different layouts fast and easy. Icons, colors and backgrounds are helping with this. Background badges take up the task and they are identified with the following priority:

  a. Layout icon is always preferred if it has been set by the user

b. Layout assigned Plasma Activities icons are used if there is no layout icon

c. Canvas Background is used there is no layout icon and that layout is not assigned to any activities

Personally I do not think donations are necessary. Easier thing you can do is to just install from KDE Store the Latte related widgets, they work just fine even with plasma panels. KDE Store provides me some monthly beers because of this. Funny thing in that Latte Separator that I developed in a day provides me most of the beers and Latte Dock that I develop plenty of hours daily for the last three years provides me almost none.. :) I mention it as a funny fact, please do not take it differently.

In a case, if you still want to donate you can use the following:

You can find Latte at Liberapay ,    

or you can split your donation between my active projects in kde store.