26

I've seen similar ideas like this, but nothing exactly like this. Forgive me if it's been done a thousand times before. But I don't have time to read the 100s of posts about similar ideas. Sadly, I'm not a coder, but hopefully one of you may see the usefulness of a plasmoid like this and make it happen.

What it would look like...
Like a tabbed interface which could be docked on any edge of my screen, similar to a task bar or multiple stacked task bars (tabs). You could give these tabs (drawers) names, and they would be containers for user-defined applications. Similar to a folder view, but actually more like an editable menu. (Think along the lines of the GNOME drawer applet combined with KDE's folder view plasmoid)

The interface...
Basically, the tabs could be placed on any edge of the screen. Perhaps even on top of (or within) a taskbar? They would be stackable (side by side). You could actually pull the drawer out like a drawer (giving the user the ability to only open it partially) or a 'quick open' that would open the drawer as far as it could open to the opposite side of the display, and have a scroll bar or be draggable (resizeable) to show as much content as possible.

Usefulness...
Even though what we (already) have is nice, sometimes, a fresh, new and innovative interface that is really sharp and intuitive could become more useful (or even practical). This is a really neat idea for tablet integration. My original idea kind of spawned from a similar android interface. This idea combines the usefulness of the taskbar with the customization ability of the kickoff menu, but integrates it seamlessly with an interface that would look like the plasma theme of the desktop. Kind of like the folder view plasmoid, but more animated and 'life-like', comparable to a real drawer you can open and close.

I hope somebody catches on this idea and could make it a reality. If you have any questions about the end-design, I'd be more that willing to try to illustrate it better for you. Thanks.

-Ax

I'd suggest you to make a mock-up for this - understanding pictures is much easier than understanding text.

In KDE 4.6 you have a plasmoid where you can stack plasmoids on top of each other or having them in tabbed pages. If this could just be made sticked to a corner of a screen and being autohidden the work was just done.
Maybe you can put it into a panel and have this auto hide. I�ll try it.

Unfortunately you cannot add a Tabbing Group/Stacking Group to a panel

If I understand this idea correctly, it sounds similar to the Slicker project in the old KDE 3 times. It was supposed to be a kicker replacement using stackable cards on the screen edges.

Design Mockups

Screenshots:

Do you mean something like this? http://vimeo.com/16881181