Version: (using KDE 4.2.90) Installed from: Ubuntu Packages In KDE 4.3 beta it seems that every plasmoid uses it's own algorithm for determining it's size and placement, which leads to gross inconsistency and a horrible-looking panel. See screenshot.
Created attachment 34496 [details] Screenshot illustrating problem It can be seen that plasmoids: 1) Take up as much space as they can (Battery Monitor, Analogue Clock) 2) Limit themselves to 64x64 pixels, middle aligned (Device Notifier, Quickaccess) 3) Limit themselves to 64x64 pixels, left aligned (Network Manager) 2) Limit themselves to 32x32 pixels, middle aligned (Lancelot, seen with Kmenu icon at bottom) Note that this is not a hand-selected list to emphasize the problem, these are the same plasmoids that I've had configured since movingto KDE 4.x. One could only imagine the mess one could make were he to hand-pick the worst-behaving plasmoids!
Although I probably sound like a broken record, the real solution to this issue is to implement bug 187767, which would solve at least five other bugs as well.
network manager and lancelot should not be handling their own icons like that, the rest is like that for various reasons. addressing your concerns just creates other problems ("the icons are too big!", "the clock uses harly any of the space!") there's a wishlist for a more advanced panel containment that allows you to align things into grids.. that might make more sense for your desire.
> there's a wishlist for a more advanced panel containment that allows > you to align things into grids. Is that Bug 187767? If so, then I would suggest that this bug be dependent on that bug, instead of WONTFIX, as the problem still occurs. Your call, though, Aaron!
Item #1 and #2 appear to be correct. Item #3 and #4 (the secone "2") are clearly bugs. I note that the maximum size for icons on the Panel might be something that could be added to SystemSettings::Appearance::Icons::Advanced. OH! I see that it is already there, it just doesn't work. Doesn't work! would be another bug? I see no need for another containment. For Icons, centered and limited to the maximum size set for them in SystemSettings. The Analog Clock and Battery Monitor are not icons so maximizing is the correct behavior unless the widgets have an option for setting the maximum size.
"I note that the maximum size for icons on the Panel might be something that could be added to SystemSettings::Appearance::Icons::Advanced. OH! I see that it is already there, it just doesn't work. Doesn't work! would be another bug?" Has this been fixed, I'm not yet using KDE 4.x on a daily basis. It's performance on my machine at work (using 4.3) is quite sluggish since I got Nepomuk working... TIA, -Jerry