Docky

Why was docky removed from the Do project?

Asked by Fazil

Why was the docky theme of Gnome Do moved to a separate project?
Will docky have integration with gnome do? So that it will work as it did earlier.
Will it be written in (C,C++) language other than C# to boost performance?

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Jason Smith
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Best Jason Smith (jassmith) said : 		#1

Docky is outgrowing GNOME Do for many reasons. Internally GNOME Do was starting to look like two programs loosely coupled by a common base of items. The hacks to make Docky work internally were getting worse and worse and things were just not maintainable in the long run. The decision to split off was not easy as we knew we would lose *some* functionality. Gnome Do integration will never be as tight as it was before, but it will return. However this is not targeted for the first release.

Docky is still a mono app, writing in C++ or C would do nothing to boost performance as all the performance issues are in the X server and not in Docky. We can update icon positions thousands of times a second, but we only get cursor position updates 20 times a second. Drawing can be slow too, which again is on the xserver. No point to go low level with restrictions like that. The few cases where we can actually boost performance with better Docky code, it tends to be about coding smarter algorithms, not just making their run time shorter for every loop through.

As for working as it did earlier. Oh my no, it will work much much much better :)

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Jack Deslippe (jdeslip) said : 		#2

Really looking forward to the day docky has gnome-do integration again.

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LordGiotto (lordgiotto) said : 		#3

The feature that makes Docky one of the most innovative program that i've ever used (unlike other dockbars) is his integration between a normal dockbar and a launcher program...
Please don't forget the gnome-do integration importance in your developing plan (or continue developing also docky for gnome-do) :P

Regards :)

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Jon Arnold (jonarnoldsemail) said : 		#4

I agree that integration is important. The 2-in-1-ness of Docky was why I switched from AWN. I hope it will return soon...

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Tyler R (trowe) said : 		#5

I have to agree with the above. Without Do, Docky loses it's appeal vs things like AWN. Time will tell, but I feel lost with this decision.

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David Rando (david-rando) said : 		#6

Yes, after reading this, i tested docky and it really feels smoother and better, but like the other users out there, i miss the gnome-do integration. It was really really useful to just super+space and type the app, add the icon from there and that stuff.

Hope to got it in the future.

And thanks guys for the work ;-)

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Jan Schürmann (visionfactory.net) said : 		#7

i fully agree with the comments above, i switched from AWN to Docky/GnomeDo BECAUSE it is only one app for two things and i don't have to run a dock AND GnomeDo.
without that there was no need to switch to docky except the smoother look of right-click menues and the speed.
please don't forget about the GnomeDo integration into Docky!

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Jason Smith (jassmith) said : 		#8

It is not forgotten, it is high up on my TODO list. It's just got a lot of things that have to happen first (dependancies for this kind of thing).

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kiroh (kiroh) said : 		#9

GnomeDo feature is fundamental for Docky, y hope the integration will come soon.
Docky is a great project!

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johnhamelink (johnhamelink) said : 		#10

GnomeDo integration was not the reason why I moved to docky from awn, it was its general look and feel that I preferred. I can, however, understand why GnomeDo users would find this a bit of a step backwards in terms of functionality, and I do agree with them for their sake, but for me personally, I have found that docky seems much smoother and faster, and so it is quite a big boon for me to get that extra lean-ness. While Gnome-do integration is important to many and must not be ignored, I think the seperation was in the end a good thing.

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Janosch Maier (phylu) said : 		#11

It was said that this functionallity would brought back in the 2.0 series. Is there any progress already?

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Fazil (fazillatheef) said : 		#12

Thanks Jason Smith, that solved my question.

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Fazil (fazillatheef) said : 		#13

Docky is way better than any other docks. The configuration of docky is simple and the best. And the concept of helpers is great. I think that needs more advertisement.

I am using a development version of docky that has stacks feature. And its quite stable. Never had any problems after working with it for last three weeks.

The only feature i would like to see is "auto hide while shutting down". And I think that should be configured in ubuntu. The compositing environment is closed before the dock. Because of that we see a black box while logging out or shutting down.

But there are so many things to be fixed in ubuntu. Like the text messages shown while the system is shutdown and booted up(even when there is plymoth based boot screen is working). And thats the case for systems that have complete open source drivers(intel based graphics cards).

Docky team really rockz.

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Pablo Olmos de Aguilera Corradini (pablox) said : 		#14

No doubt Docky is a great application (same goes for Gnome-Do of course), I still have to say that I feel a little frustrated about this issue.

The "killer app" for me was/is Gnome-Do; it gives a lot of features that any other launcher has and it's very elegant and sober (if you want to configure it that way). Docky was a great "add on", at least for me :P. Well, I believe I don't have other option to wait for a new integration between both apps. Until then, I'd have Do and Docky running...