What is the relationship between Docky and Plank?

Asked by Lee Hyde

I note that the Docky Core team are the maintainers of Plank, so I wonder whether someone could elaborate as to the relationship between Docky and Plank and the future of the two projects. Specifically, is Plank envisioned as a (eventual) replacement for Docky, or rather a simpler version to be maintained alongside Docky?

Kind Regards,

Lee Hyde.

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Robert Dyer
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Best Robert Dyer (psybers) said :
#1

Plank is the 'core' of what a dock should be. It is an extensible library. Docky 3 will be built on top of it.

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Lee Hyde (anubeon) said :
#2

Thanks Robert Dyer, that solved my question.

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Lee Hyde (anubeon) said :
#3

Quick follow up question (sorry):

Does that mean that Docky3 represents a complete or partial re-write w.r.t. Docky2.x? Either way, nice to see some collaboration between the elementary and Docky folks (I'm a fan of both camps work).

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Robert Dyer (psybers) said :
#4

Yes and no. Docky 3 is a 'port' to Vala (from C#). So yes, the code is different but a lot of the general algorithms will remain the same. For a good chunk of Plank's drawing code for example, I mostly copied from Docky and just rewrote it in Vala. I have also already ported the Clock and Trash docklets, more or less.

A lot of the underlying architecture is different though, so it isn't a direct port but I am definitely re-using as much code/algorithms as possible.

Also we aren't really collaborating w/ Elementary. At least no more than we were before. Dan Fore is our graphic designer (and always has been) and is on that project, but we are not associated with Elementary nor working with them in any way. They just happen to like our dock and use it. ;-)