panel applets

[Liam Proven]

On 9 March 2012 03:43, M.R. <makrober at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 03/09/2012 03:22 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
>>
>> On 9 March 2012 02:09, M.R.<makrober at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>>
>>> I am testing Ubuntu 12.4 beta, with the idea of replacing 10.4
>>>
>>> How do I install panel applets, in particular the file search
>>> and the character palette?
>>
>>
>> You don't, I'm afraid.
>>
>> The top bar isn't a panel as such&  there is very little customisation
>>
>> available. GNOME 2 applets do not work.
>
>
> thanks for the info.
>
> How then do I replicate the functionality of the "character palette"
> applet in panel on 10.4?

Small point - it's 10.*04* and 12.04.

I don't think there is any. Personally, I enabled the compose key in
keyboard options under system preferences and I just guess key
combinations. It works very well & I can type àçcëntéd characters as
well as ones ðat aren't on my keyboard at all: ¢ ¥ Ł and so on. Mostly
the combinations are really intuitive:

a + ` = à
e + ' = é
u + " = ü
y + - = ¥
c + / = ¢
c + , = ç

... and so on.

>  Any chance something like that will be available
> by the time of regular release of 12.4?

I don't think so, no. It's a menu bar, not a panel, and I am not aware
of any panel applets that have been ported. Only the various new
indicators, e.g.:

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/05/my-weather-indicator-adds-sun-and-moon-info-feels-like-temp-and-more-in-latest-update/

Get Googling!

> (This one is very important to me, the others less so, I can wait
> for those be implemented).

I don't think they will be. GNOME 2 is dead. GNOME 3 is a lot less
customisable - it doesn't have a panel as such either. There is one in
Fallback Mode but it'a not customisable and GNOME 2 applets don't
work.

Sadly, this stuff is just history now. Well, unless the MATE desktop
takes off and gets a lot more support than it's getting. Personally I
don't think that's likely.

In the meantime, learn the compose key. It is actually a lot more convenient.

It's here:

Shutdown/settings menu | System preferences | Keyboard | Layout
settings | Options | Compose key position

I use AltGr myself, as I do on Windows with the Accent Composer applet:
http://www.accentcomposer.com/
This is a 32-bit Windows version of the DEC Compose Key tool from
Windows 3. Warren Kovac wrote it at my suggestion.

There's also AllChars for Windows but I find it a lot less useful:
http://allchars.zwolnet.com/

Finally, of course, there's the GNOME Character Map applet, but I find
that pretty useless. It shows me tens of thousands of characters in
alphabets I've never even heard of but doesn't let me find a degree
symbol. (Compose + o + o if you're wondering.)

I /strongly/ recommend you explore the compose key option. It was
there in GNOME 2 as well, but not easy to find (as it isn't now) so
people stumbled across the much clumsier character pallette panel
applet instead.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
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