There is no (or i can't find) a configuration for the maximum width of the "task list". If i start several applications, the panel grows to universe (i have a "normal width" panel (not "full with")) i heard from IRC that the "task list" was switch from/to libwnck-something, maybe there is something broker..!?
AFAIU, the tasklist plugin is merely a wrapping of the WnckTasklist object. As stated by the documentation, there is no method in there to set a maximum width : http://library.gnome.org/devel/libwnck/stable/WnckTasklist.html Maybe it is simpler in this case to implement a maximum width for the panel itself, rather than for the tasklist plugin. Note that there could also be some other sources of width growing, like the notification area for example.
This new behaviour causes serious and multiple usability issues. When the panel grows to fill the screen width then I cannot mouse wheel over the desktop to change workspaces....there is no longer any desktop in view! If I instead try to mouse wheel over the pager applet it is in a different place on each workspace (according to number of applications on each space) and so instead of a quick and fluent change from workspace 1 to workspace 3, only the first change works because the pager is no longer underneath the mouse pointer! I have to do: mouse wheel over>find and navigate to applet>repeat>repeat. It has become a tedious and unwanted whack-a-mole game. It's similar with panel launchers. Their position relative to the end of the panel may be the same but their position on the screen is ever changing! It's the on-screen position which actually matters when you need to *do* something with the mouse, *not* the position relative to the now mobile panel end point. Quickly using launchers in Xfce 4.4 has given way to an exercise in visual stuttering. This change in the panel has really killed all the speed and usefulness of mouse wheel scroll over in window management in Xfce/Xfwm, as well as being a visual failure. Movement naturally catches eye *and is compelling* so having an element of the desktop change position every time a window is moved/opened/closed or workspace is changed is a horrible, persistent, distracting nuisance. OK rant nearly over...quite therapeutic :-) I like pretty much everything else and appreciate the enhancements but that panel has got to be nailed down if the user wants it to be. Please don't imitate metacity and gnome-panel. Xfwm and Xfce are already superior.
Yup, I'm seeing this too now that I've just updated from 4.4 to 4.6.1 on my AMD64 boxes. It's rather annoying; the reason why I *have* a panel that's not the full screen width is so that I can access stuff on the desktop to either side of it. :) The tasklist just crowds it all out; it keeps growing indefinitely. This bug seems related to bug #5194 and possibly bug #5213 , where even one item uses the whole tasklist, possibly increasing its size unnessarily. Especially compared to 4.4, when each entry in the task list had the same initial width, or shrunk as more applications were opened.
I just wanted to add that I agree that this new behavior is a problem. If I could have only one thing fixed/changed in XFCE4.6, it would be this. I'm running XFCE4.6.1-1 on x86_64.
I do not like the new behavior too. bug 5194 has a patch (attachment 2290 ) which makes it possible to specify the maximal width of the tasklist. I'm looking forward to get back the old behavior, thanks.
The patch from bug 5194 is ideal and solves the problem entirely.
I confirm in older version of Xfce, it was possible to set the maximum width of the tasklist. I would like this behavior to come back in 4.6. Currently I had it hardcoded the same way as the patch in bug #5194. So it should just get included or else add an item in "Customize Panel" where you can see Full Width / Normal Width and add a Fixed Width item, which would allow everyone to choose the mode.
Created attachment 2580 Add fixed width option in preferences dialog. Here is my proposed fix, it requires a string change in master so I need permission before this gets committed. Basically allows 4 different panel behaviors: Full width panel: - Fixed length disabled: Small (200px or so) buttons. - Fixed length active and pixels > screen size: Full expanding buttons. Normal width panel: - Fixed length disabled: Growing panel. - Fixed length active: The old fixed width (also bug #5194). I might also add a hidden setting to tread the width as the minimum size, then you can create the behavior described in bug #5213, or as it basically is now...
*** Bug 5194 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Ok applied the patch.