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That is one cool example.

Though, it doesn't use the XEmbed, it uses compositing, xrender and xdamage extensions. So, unlike XEmbed, the thing you see transformed (rotated...) is not the /real/ window.

As I've already mentioned, compositing could be a valid solution for making full-featured plasma widgets out of applications. The first problem is what to do when there is no compositing enabled.

The problem with implementation is passing the key/mouse/whatever events to the real window, and there would also be focusing issues (focussing is also a problem with XEmbed).

So, in a nutshell, this is something that could eventually be made, but it would involve a lot of hacks, and I don't think it would ever /feel/ right...

However, how often do we really need to rotate things?

Anyway, ability to put any app "into" activity would be great. even if it would be a window with z-index of 1 without window decoration and excluded from taskbar...

@Lukas
I agree, most of the time you don't rotate the application (nor applet) but the problem is that if it is a feature of all plasmoids (as it currently is) it must be a feature of all plasmoids... (there were discussions about these things)

I was all excited with my original idea and now I'm thinking more and more that it wasn't such a good idea after all.

I think the best idea is to just associate an App with an activity and save it's kwin settings to have always start in a particular desktop location and set it to be behind other windows. Maybe we could even make it show with the other plasma widgets when they are brought forward on the dashboard.

It is a valid idea, just very hard to do. The effect you'd get with kwin is the same as using XEmbed. So, the best solution would be to improve (or finish) the current XEmbed plasmoid...

Plasma::Applet::setRotationEnabled(bool)
Plasma::Applet::setResizingEnabled(bool)
Plasma::Applet::setMovingEnabled(bool)

I think such functions shouldn't be a problem...
But XEmbed-Plasmoid needs another feature: After reboot the app isn't embedded anymore.

It wouldn't be hard to add such functions (although setMovingEnabled is not something I'd even consider to have...). To be honest, I can't remember how that discussion ended, and why it wasn't added at that time.

Yes, XEmbed-Plasmoid is mostly a POC. It can really be useful, but only if someone decides to finish it...