[openbox] GNOME clock window disappears off screen

[Anthony Thyssen]

On Mon, 04 Oct 2010 10:58:13 +0100
Neil Bird <neil at fnxweb.com> wrote:
| Around about 03/10/10 01:06, Anthony Thyssen typed ...
| > I have noticed this too, and also assumed it was a GNOME-Clock bug.
| > However once you have the pannel the way you want, next login it will
| > be placed correctly.
| 
|    That *was* the case, but I just set up evolution to be able to see my 
| google calendar.  I don't *use* evolution, but with that set up, the gnome 
| clock picks up calendar entries and displays them in the calendar popup.
| 
|    Unfortunately, it (necessarily) does the calendar lookup asynchronously, 
| so I get the calendar up in the right place (attached to the panel), then a 
| couple of seconds later (slow Net access) days with entries are emboldened 
| and a new section of the calendar is added called "appointments".
| 
|    This latter makes the window bigger and so it covers the applet/panel as 
| described.  Every time.
| 
|    I did find an inelegant work around, in that if I have any days in the 
| calendar with no entries near the start of the month, I can select them and 
| the appointments field goes away (as it's day-oriented).  That puts the 
| window back to the size it was when it opened, and I can close it.
| 
|    But I won't be able to see more than a few appointments, and it's a bit 
| of a faff.
| 

I think the big problem is that it was designed with the gnome clock
and calendar on a panel at the top of the screen.

1/  I assume that like me you moved it to the bottom of the display.

2/  You can't pop down that display except by the original panel button
that popped it up.  which is why when it covers that panel button it
becomes extremely annoying.

3/ xprop reports...
     WM_CLASS(STRING) = "clock-applet", "Clock-applet"
     WM_ICON_NAME(STRING) = "Calendar"
     WM_NAME(STRING) = "Calendar"

4/ Using that info... (with xwit or other window manager helper program)
Unmapping makes the calender disappear, but gnome clock still thinks it
is 'up', at least until you click the now visible button to pop it down.

5/ You can place it behind the panel using (but not behind other windows)
  xwit -lower -names Calendar
but using the panel button to pop down and back up will put it on top
again.

6/ It can move the window as well so...
   xwit -move 40 -24 -names Calendar
will get that window repositioned correctly (at least for my setup).
This position is preserved for the rest of the session.


The question is making something fix this automatically when it is
wrong (such as on window resize or mapping).



  Anthony Thyssen ( System Programmer )    <A.Thyssen at griffith.edu.au>
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   In seeking the unattainable, simplicity only gets in the way.
                                                   -- Alan J. Perlis
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   Anthony's Castle     http://www.cit.griffith.edu.au/~anthony/