6:02 PM
It looks like a new "locally integrated menu" will make it into Unity, starting with version 5.6.0. There's basically no information about the new locally integrated menubar, except for two
bug reports which link to some custom Unity, Compiz, Metacity and Light Themes branches so to see "LIM" in action, I've compiled all these branches and here's the result:
As you can see, the "locally integrated menubar" can be displayed on the panel (for maximized windows) as well as in the window decoration (unmaximized windows). But it's not displayed on both in the same time.
Using the current code, locally integrated menubar is disabled by default, but it can be enabled via Dconf-editor (com > canonical > indicator > appmenu > menu-mode: locally-integrated).
In my test, the menu worked only partially: the window decoration implementation works great in Unity 2D, but there's no menu on the panel. In Unity 3D, the locally integrated menu shows up for both maximized and unmaximized windows, but the window decoration menu only works for unfocused windows most of the time - that's why I took the first screenshot above in Unity 2D.
Also, since Metacity is used, the menu can be moved around the titlebar. Right now there's a bug though and moving it to the right makes the window decoration crash, but it can be moved to the left/right of the window buttons (while the buttons are on the left):
There's no easy way to install the locally integrated menubar for now. To test it, you'll have to compile the LIM branches for
Metacity,
Unity,
Compiz and
Light Themes.
What do you think? Do you prefer the global menu, HUD or LIM?
» read more....
7:08 AM
If you want to try out the new Appmenu Runner (HUD-like functionality for KDE) in Kubuntu, here's how to install it from source. The instructions below have been tested on both Kubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and 12.04 Precise Pangolin, using KDE 4.8 (see how to install the latest KDE 4.8 in Kubuntu 11.10,
HERE).
Before proceeding, please note that
in my test, Appmenu Runner only worked if the menu wasn't displayed in the application window - I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to work or if it's a bug.
So for now (?), you'll have to either add "Window Menubar" to a panel or install Oxygen Appmenu, or else Appmenu for KRunner won't work:Ok, now let's start the Appmenu Runner installation in Kubuntu 11.10 / 12.04:
1. Install the required dependencies:sudo apt-get install libdbusmenu-qt-dev kdelibs5-dev appmenu-qt cmake pkg-config pkg-kde-tools libqt4-dev build-essential git-core
2. Get the Appmenu KRunner plugin source:cd
git clone git://anongit.kde.org/scratch/afiestas/appmenu.git
3. Now let's compile it:cd appmenu
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix`
make
sudo make install
Once installed, log out and log back in. You should now have a new KRunner plugin called "Appmenu action launcher" (it should be enabled by default):
To use it, select an application, press ALT + F2 and type the menu action you want to perform.
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6:59 PM
A while back, Alex Fiestas has implemented something very similar to
HUD, Unity's new smart menu, for KDE. The initial implementation only worked for KDE applications and only if the menu was shown in the application window.
After seeing HUD in action, he was motivated to continue his project, so he implemented this into KRunner.The new AppMenu Runner implementation uses the same technology as HUD, so it works with GTK and Qt applications too and Alejandro hopes it will be available in KDE Plasma Workspace 4.9 "if the Plasma teams like it".
Here's a video recorded by Alex, in which he talks about the new AppMenu Runner as well as the initial implementation:
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1:14 AM
Oxygen Appmenu is an Oxygen style for Kwin that displays the application menu as a button in the titlebar and works with Qt and GTK applications as well as Firefox or Thunderbird:
The menu comes with
different styles: 'menu' (first screenshot in the post), an icon or the application name:
Install Oxygen Appmenu
Important: according to its KDE-Look page, Oxygen Appmenu "works, but has some 'no compositing' issues".
Update: the PPA below now requires KDE 4.8, to install it, see: KDE 4.8 Released, Install It In Kubuntu 11.10Oxygen Appmenu needs Appmenu-Qt and Qt patched to work with Appmenu-Qt. These are already available in the Ubuntu repositories, so
to install it in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, you can use a PPA (the same PPA used in the
Icon Tasks post):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnumdk/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install kwin-style-oxygen-appmenu appmenu-qt
Arch Linux users can install Oxygen Appmenu via
AUR.
For
other Linux distributions, get the Oxygen Appmenu source via
KDE-Look.
Once installed, open System Settings and under Workspace Appearance > Window Decorations, select "Oxygen Appmenu", then log out and log back in.
Here, you can also choose between different menu styles, configure its background color and so on, by clicking "Configure decoration":
Thanks to Georgi Karavasilev for the tip!
» read more....
