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Three feature requests for wlr/taskbar: homogeneous filling, show desktop button, and scroll wheel minimize/restore #5071

@linux36524

Description

@linux36524

1:

Title: Feature request: Make taskbar buttons automatically fill available space (homogeneous distribution)

Content:

Currently, the wlr/taskbar module only uses the minimum width required by button content (text or icon). I would like an option to make taskbar buttons automatically fill the entire available space in the bar.

Expected behavior:

When there is 1 window: the single taskbar button expands to fill the entire taskbar area

When there are multiple windows: all buttons evenly share the available space (homogeneous distribution)

Proposed solution: Add configuration options like:
"homogeneous": true,
"expand": true

CSS properties like -GtkWidget-hexpand: true and -GtkWidget-halign: fill do not work reliably for wlr/taskbar buttons. They still only take minimum width based on content.

Please consider adding this feature. Thank you.

2:

Title: Feature request: Add Show Desktop button/module

Content:

I would like a button or module that can minimize all windows and show the desktop, similar to the Show Desktop feature in other desktop environments.

Expected behavior:

Single click: minimizes all open windows to show the desktop

Second click: restores all previously minimized windows

This is a common productivity feature present in most desktop environments (Windows, GNOME, KDE, Xfce). Currently there is no built-in way to do this in Waybar.

Possible implementation: a new module like "showdesktop" with configurable format and on-click action. Example:
"showdesktop": {
"format": "🖥️",
"tooltip": "Show Desktop",
"on-click": "minimize-all"
}

Please consider adding this feature. Thank you.

3:

Title: Feature request: Scroll wheel support on taskbar for minimize and restore

Content:

I would like to use the mouse scroll wheel on taskbar buttons to minimize and restore windows.

Expected behavior:

Scroll UP on a taskbar button: minimizes the corresponding window

Scroll DOWN on a taskbar button: restores the window

This allows users to quickly hide a window by scrolling up on its taskbar entry, and restore it by scrolling down. It's faster than clicking the minimize button.

Current state: wlr/taskbar supports on-scroll-up and on-scroll-down but they are limited to custom scripts. Please add built-in actions like "minimize" and "unminimize" directly in the taskbar module.

Example configuration:
"wlr/taskbar": {
"on-scroll-up": "minimize",
"on-scroll-down": "unminimize"
}

Please consider adding this feature. Thank you.

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