Idea: Don't show non-maximised window titles in the top panel

Hi, I was sent some patches to add this very feature :-).

It's definitely a good idea, plus I think that in the situation where the maximised window isn't the focus window, it would help to remove the active "tab" background from behind the title text as it can be distracting.

I haven't completely removed the window title for active windows which are floating (as I think that should be constant), but I've removed the "tab" decoration from behind the title so it doesn't look like the title belongs to the maximised window behind the floating window.

I don't think we should ignore floating windows because the window-picker-applet still shows the active icon, and then things get confusing if it doesn't show the active window's title text as it does for other windows. Also, floating windows are not always dialogs which won't be around most of the time, totem, pidgin, skype are all floating by default on unr.

{Is this|can this be made} configurable on a per-window-class basis in the same way as maximus? I'd really love to retain window-picker-applet titles on my undecorated rdesktop windows sized as desktop minus the panel.

Version info:
ASUS EeePC 901
Ubuntu Intrepid
array.org kernel (2.6.27-7-eeepc #1 SMP Fri Oct 31 11:36:36 MDT 2008 i686 GNU/Linux)
window-picker-applet: synaptic shows 0.4.5~ppa1, about box reports 0.1
rdesktop: synaptic shows 1.6.0-2ubuntu1, version string says 1.6.0

To reproduce:
1. Start "rdesktop -Dg 1024x576+0+24 some.windows.computer".

Expected:
* window-picker-applet displays the icon in the left area (along with other top-level window icons) and the title of the rdesktop window ("rdesktop - some.windows.computer")

Observed:
* window-picker-applet displays just the icon and no title

Looked through the code. When the active window is found not to be maximized, it marks the title widget as inacitve (which removes the tab-like appearance) and then hides its hbox containing the title icon, label and close button altogether.

Proposing a patch that skips the hiding, which has the effect that for non-maximized windows the title is drawn flat.

Here’s a screenshot of window-picker-applet with a maximized (above) and normal (below) Firefox.

I like Yuri's idea. I was very confused as to why the title randomly went blank on certain windows, and I assumed this was a bug. It especially doesn't make sense if Maximus is not set to hide window decorations, as is the default. I definitely think having a blank title for non-maximised windows is a mistake, as it suddenly changes the behaviour of the window-picker applet inexplicably.