Replace GWorkspace

[dszidi]

NOTE: This is not so much a ticket but more of a brain dump regarding how to deal with workspace issues we're encountering

GWorkspace is not really suitable for what we're trying to achieve in DUBstep.

Problems

• Not interested in the shelf
• Dock does not work how we want it to
• Dock placement does not allow placement along the bottom
• Showing a desktop background promotes the image to top level window which effectively hides all the other windows
• It does not include an app switcher
• There are no contextual menus (right click)
• The top menu bar does not include a way to add applets like a clock or wifi etc
• It's too big. It does a lot of things well but generally it would be a lot better if it was broken up into smaller more manageable pieces

I think the last item in the list is arguably the most important of the bunch.

What we really need for a workspace:

• A standalone top menu panel that implements NSStatusBar and related classes
• A standalone Dock app the registers apps as they are launched and stopped
• A standalone File Manager
• A standalone Window Manager

If we had all of the above as standalone items not only would it be easier to manage, but it would be in line with what modern wayland window managers expect. All of them have a facility built into them to accommodate standalone panels, launchers and background images if they are standalone apps. Having a single giant application that does a ton of things causes problems because the window manager doesn't know how to interact with it all.

[dszidi]

Just leaving some notes for later reference...

After some investigation I suspect that the main reason to keep everything under one unified workspace application is to avoid using NSDistributedNoticiationCenter. With everything under a single project we can use regular NSNotificationCenter which is likely more performant? Need to verify this theory