Cluttered taskbar on Mint 17.2 Cinnamon

[BosseB]

When I minimize Lazarus on my Mint 17.2 system (Cinnamon) and want to restore it I have to click every single task bar icon in the right sequence. Not fun.
I found a setting in Tool/Options/Environment/Window/"Show single button in taskbar" and I thought that this would fix the problem, but it does not...
Is there another setting that is a master over this?

[JD]

This is a known issue with Mint Cinnamon. The only way I was able to get round it was by removing the default taskbar applet/extension & downloading one that allows the grouping of taskbar windows by application - a Windows 7 style type of grouping.

You will find it in the Extensions setting and under Download more extensions. After populating the list with more extensions, choose the one with Windows 7 style grouping of windows, and then activate it.

That way all of Lazarus related windows are shown as one window in the taskbar.

Cheers,

JD

[Abelisto]

Cinnamon provides unusual behavior as I understand. Simple test with main and secondary form where secondary form have property ShowInTaskbar = stNever. Minimizing the main form also causes the minimizing of the secondary form, but restoring of the main form does not restores secondary form. So without exclusive code for Cinnamon the secondary form can not be restored in usual way. Sorry for my poor English 

Thats why I install and use MATE (XFCE works fine too).

[BosseB]

Thanks for the explanation. It seems to be outside of Lazarus control then...

I went to Mint because it is supposedly a good mix for development purposes. I run it in a VMWare virtual machine.
The reason is that I needed a Linux based IDE for my Raspberry Pi2 target development and there were issues on the target machine that I hoped would be non-present in a more wide-spread environment. Still not Windows.
These were gone here but now other issues pop up instead.

JD:
Regarding the workaround by changing "extension":
Is this a thing in Lazarus or Mint/Cinnamon? Exactly where could I change it?

Abelisto:
What is MATE and XFCE?

General about this forum:
I did not know about this forum's existence until I asked on the Embarcadero list.
So I am a newbie here.

Question:
Is there any way to get email alerts when someone replies to a thread you have created?
All other forums I subscribe to have this facility so I can know when to open the forum page and have a look...

[BosseB]

You will find it in the Extensions setting and under Download more extensions. After populating the list with more extensions, choose the one with Windows 7 style grouping of windows, and then activate it.

On my Mint 17.2 when I go to Extensions and click "Available on line" the list populates with a rather small number of items and none mentions the taskbar...
You do not happen to have the exact name?

[howardpc]

Is there any way to get email alerts when someone replies to a thread you have created?
All other forums I subscribe to have this facility so I can know when to open the forum page and have a look...

If you go to Profile in the forum menu, and then to Notifications (see the sidebar list on that page) you'll see a checkbox for "Turn notification on when you post or reply to a topic". There is also an option to have the reply content included in the notification email.

[BosseB]

If you go to Profile in the forum menu, and then to Notifications (see the sidebar list on that page) you'll see a checkbox for "Turn notification on when you post or reply to a topic". There is also an option to have the reply content included in the notification email.

Thanks, found it.
Now I just have to wait and see if it actually also works...

[JD]

You will find it in the Extensions setting and under Download more extensions. After populating the list with more extensions, choose the one with Windows 7 style grouping of windows, and then activate it.

On my Mint 17.2 when I go to Extensions and click "Available on line" the list populates with a rather small number of items and none mentions the taskbar...
You do not happen to have the exact name?

Welcome to Lazarus forums! I see your posts in the Embarcadero forums (under Winsock -> Indy) & I read the thread where you described your initial difficulties with installing Indy in Lazarus/FreePascal on Linux (having to compile the package twice because of IdStreamVCL).

Remy Lebeau is also on this Lazarus forum somewhere so you'll be covered anyway. Continue to use both forums and you'll get the best of ALL worlds.

The applet you need is called Window List with App Grouping.

a) Right click on the taskbar
b) Choose Add applets to the panel
c) Click the second tab called Available applets (online). Over 300 applets will be listed.
d) Look for Window List with App Grouping applet
e) Click its checkbox
f) Click the button called Install or update selected items
g) Go back to the first tab called Installed Applets
h) Select the Window List with App Grouping applet
i) Click on the Add to panel button (bottom left)

Now you'll see the icons of open applications (similar to windows 7) with numbers on them on the taskbar . The numbers indicate the number of open windows for the application.

After this I usually remove the default taskbar applet called Window List which is responsible for the clutter you observed from the taskbar. You can do this by right clicking on it in the Installed Applets list & then choosing Remove from panel.

To answer another one of your questions, MATE is another flavour of Linux Mint (XFCE is another one). Each uses a different Window Manager. I use them all but I prefer Cinnamon because of its special visual effects out of the box. The Lazarus issue is trivial in my opinion.

Cheers,

JD

[Abelisto]

Abelisto:
What is MATE and XFCE?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MATE_%28software%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xfce

[Windsurfer]

I never found this a problem before, but 'Window List with App Grouping' is great. Thanks for the tip.

[JD]

I never found this a problem before, but 'Window List with App Grouping' is great. Thanks for the tip.

You're welcome. I usually spend a lot of time tweaking my Linux distros (for special effects e.g Compiz, MacOSX type launcher etc) and I actually found it by chance.

JD

[BosseB]

Now you'll see the icons of open applications (similar to windows 7) with numbers on them on the taskbar . The numbers indicate the number of open windows for the application.

I did as described and when I started Lazarus I got a very small icon to the very right of the taskbar that expanded to a set of Lazarus shadow images when I hovered the mouse over it.

But I have a problem still:
If I minimize Lazarus the desktop clears and I can do other stuff.
Next I want to restore Lazarus but this is hit&miss in this case.
- I have to show the shadows of the windows and click each one to bring it back
- So this takes some clicking to do...
- If I miss and click an already restored shadow it will disappear instead

So instead of bringing back all of Lazarus I can only bring back one window at a time...

In Windows there is only one "button" on the taskbar when I have minimized Lazarus and it comes back in its entirety when I click that taskbar button.

On Raspbian Jessie minimizing causes all windows to disappear and a separate taskbar button is shown for each.
These control its individual window except for the one labelled Lazaus IDE, which brings back all windows when clicked.

On Mint 17.2 Cinnamon currently I have no such restore option. It seems to be depending on something not clear to me...
- Clicking Lazarus IDE brings back the main Lazarus window plus the Object inspector
- Close Lazarus, start it and minimize
- Clicking Lazarus IDE brings back the main Lazarus window only
Once I have even seen all Lazaus windows being restored
There seems to be some randomness in this...

Maybe I should ditch this Mint 17.2 Cinnamon altogether and go for a MATE system instead (if it behaves better in this respect)?

[JD]

Maybe I should ditch this Mint 17.2 Cinnamon altogether and go for a MATE system instead (if it behaves better in this respect)?

It does take getting used to BUT I can assure you that MATE does not behave like this. I've tried Lazarus on Mint MATE & Mint XFCE too. MATE is based on Gnome 2, an older desktop environment & it handles Lazarus windows better.

See this article for a brief comparison
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/gnome-based-desktop-environments-explained-mate-vs-gnome-shell-vs-unity-vs-cinnamon/

JD

[Windsurfer]

I see what you mean. I have always used the Workspace Switcher applet, with several desktops. That way I can run a different application in each workspace.

[JD]

I see what you mean. I have always used the Workspace Switcher applet, with several desktops. That way I can run a different application in each workspace.

I use it too. Very useful when you want to hide your work from prying eyes. 

JD