Bug 452798

Hi Peter.  
Product shows kmymoney; is that correct, or is this actually for something completely different?  
The first platform field could be Gentoo Packages or Compiled Sources, but likely doesn't really matter.
My main question is what you would want to see on the task bar.  I assume the hide/show is mainly to maximize space for the rest of the display except when you activate it.
However, if this is not for KMyMoney, let us know which product you intend this for, and we'll find someone who can change the product, if you still can't.

Hi Jack. No, this has nothing to do with KMyMoney. I couldn't change that at the time, but I've done so now. I hope I've picked the right component; I was looking for something like 'desktop'.

I don't want the content of the bar changed in the least - I just want to control when it unhides itself. I'm sure the auto-hide feature has lots of fancy logic to anticipate when I'm likely to need to see the bar; my method would bypass that to leave a simple visible/hidden toggle controlled by where the mouse pointer is on the screen: show the bar if the pointer is in its region, hide it otherwise.

Two reasons for this:
1.  As you said, to leave plenty of uncluttered screen space;
2.  I still prefer keyboard to mouse whenever it's possible (there were no mice in 1972). I can't remember ever starting or resuming a program by clicking an icon on the task bar; and I don't have icons on my desktop. To me, the bar is just a nuisance most of the time. It should stay out of sight until I call for it. That won't be often, provided that a keyboard short-cut still opens the task manager.

I hope that's clearer now.  :)

I wonder if the product should be plasmashell, with the component as panel.  Note you can't hide/show the task manager itself, just the whole panel it is part of (even if that is the only widget on that panel.)  I'll leave that choice to you - or I suppose it can wait  for the bug-wranglers to get to it.

I think we already have this: Right-click on an empty area of the panel > Enter Edit Mode > More Options > Visibility: Auto-hide

Does that not work for you?

Nate, would you please read what I wrote. I KNOW ABOUT AUTO-HIDE and it doesn't do what I'm asking for. It pops its head up even if I switch between machines with my KVM. I want it to STAY HIDDEN until *I* call for it.

Sorry to shout, but it's so frustrating when people don't read what's in front of them.

(In reply to Jack from comment #3)
> I wonder if the product should be plasmashell, with the component as panel. 

That seems right - thanks.

> Note you can't hide/show the task manager itself, just the whole panel it is
> part of (even if that is the only widget on that panel.)

Yes, that's exactly what I was trying to say. It's the panel popping up when I don't want it that I object to.

I read your words, and I understood them to mean that you want an auto-hide feature whereby the panel only appears when you deliberately move the mouse to a specific area of the screen. Is that correct?

(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #7)
> you want an auto-hide feature whereby the panel only appears when you deliberately move the mouse
> to a specific area of the screen. Is that correct?

Yes, exactly right. I don't mind it hiding itself - that's quite handy - but I don't want it to pop up and hide something when I haven't asked it to.

OK, well that's why I suggested using the auto-hide feature, since that's exactly what it does: it makes the panel hidden until you deliberately  move your cursor to a specific area of the screen.

If this doesn't work for you because an auto-hidden panel appears automatically at other times, that seems like a bug we should fix. Let's try to narrow down those circumstances under which an auto-hidden panel appears when you don't expect it to. You provided one already: "It pops its head up even if I switch between machines with my KVM." Can you clarify exactly what's going on here? How are you switching exactly? And when you switch and the panel appears, do you notice that one of the tasks on its Task Manager widget entered the "needs attention" state?

Are there any other circumstances under which an auto-hidden panel appears at a time you don't expect?

For me, an auto-hidden panel (containing a task manager widget) unhides when I switch applications with Alt-Tab.  (It does re-hide once I've chosen the new application.)  Personally, I don't find that a problem, but Peter might, and I can imagine an option like "Only unhide with direct mouse-over."

That's extremely odd, and it's and a bug, not a deliberate behavior. I cannot reproduce it on Wayland with current git master everything.

Do you have any window rules, non-default Task Manager settings, or non-default Task Switcher settings that could be causing this? What version of Plasma are you using?

On my Artix Linux laptop, with plasma 5.24.4 and task-manager 4.0, it's not actually the panel (on the bottom of the screen) that unhides, but what looks like just a task manager appearing on the left.  I don't think I have any non-default settings, but I'll check again.  I also need to check the behavior on my Gentoo desktop - in a few minutes.

Can you attach a screenshot of it?

I'll try.  I'm using xorg, in case it matters.

Created attachment 148285 [details]
Main auto-hide panel

This is my main auto-hide panel (on top of my Gentoo desktop).

Created attachment 148286 [details]
pop-up task manager with Alt-Tab

Pop-up task manager (on left edge) when using Alt-Tab.  I don't know if this is intentional or not, nor whether this is what Peter sees and objects to.

That thing on the side isn't a Plasma Panel, it's just the default Alt+Tab visualization. :) If you don't like it, you can change it in System Settings > Window Behavior > Task Switcher. I use "Large Icons", myself.

I have a feeling this isn't what Peter is talking about.

(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #9)
> OK, well that's why I suggested using the auto-hide feature, since that's
> exactly what it does: it makes the panel hidden until you deliberately  move
> your cursor to a specific area of the screen.
Oh, well then an auto-unhide feature has crept in somehow.
> If this doesn't work for you because an auto-hidden panel appears
> automatically at other times, that seems like a bug we should fix. Let's try
> to narrow down those circumstances under which an auto-hidden panel appears
> when you don't expect it to. You provided one already: "It pops its head up
> even if I switch between machines with my KVM." Can you clarify exactly
> what's going on here? How are you switching exactly?
I have four machines connected via an HDMI KVM switch. Two of them run Plasma displays. In this case, I have a display up from one machine, with no task bar visible. I press a button on the KVM switch, to connect the screen etc. to another machine, which also was not showing a task bar when I last looked at it, and the task bar appears on the second machine. I run the mouse over it to hide it again, then use the KVM  switch to go back to the first machine, and up comes the task bar. I can repeat this process ad nauseam.
> And when you switch and
> the panel appears, do you notice that one of the tasks on its Task Manager
> widget entered the "needs attention" state?
I don't know what that is, which may be because I have most notifications switched off in the System Settings and so I don't get such a state shown. Ah! Is what I'm seeing caused by that? I've switched notifications off, so the machine shows the task bar instead?
> Are there any other circumstances under which an auto-hidden panel appears
> at a time you don't expect?
In KMail, I make an 'archive' of all my mails every day. When the archiving finishes it opens a dialogue box to tell me so. The task bar appears then too, I assume on all desktops. I'll let you know if I think of another case.

> I don't know what that is, which may be because I have most notifications switched off in the System
> Settings and so I don't get such a state shown. Ah! Is what I'm seeing caused by that? I've switched
> notifications off, so the machine shows the task bar instead?
Could be! You probably want to do these things:
- System Settings > Notifications > uncheck both "Show in Task Manager" checkboxes
- Right-click on an empty area of the Task Manager > Configure... > Behavior page > uncheck "Unhide when a window wants attention"

Let me know if that fixes the issue for you.

> Let me know if that fixes the issue for you.
That seems to have worked, up to a point. Kmail didn't raise the task bar when it told me its archive was finished, but switching the KVM between machines still did.

Thank you Nate, and please accept my apology for my intemperance.

> switching the KVM between machines still did.
Aha, and that's Bug 448420. Marking as a duplicate of it.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 448420 ***