Preventing window overlap in GTK

Question

I\'ve got a Python/Linux application that displays bits of info I need in a GTK window. For the purposes of this discussion, it should behave exactly like a dock - exists o

Answer 1

Use _NET_WM_STRUT and _NET_WM_STRUT_PARTIAL (for backwards compatibility) properties to reserve space at the edge of X Window System desktop.

With PyGtk you can set these properties like so, assuming self.window is an instance of gtk.Window:

self.window.get_toplevel().show() # must call show() before property_change()
self.window.get_toplevel().window.property_change("_NET_WM_STRUT", 
    "CARDINAL", 32, gtk.gdk.PROP_MODE_REPLACE, [0, 0, 0, bottom_width]) 

Clarification on the data parameter [0, 0, 0, bottom_width] in above:

This parameter specifies the width of reserved space at each border of the desktop screen in order: [left, right, top, bottom]. So [0, 0, 0, 50] would reserve 50 pixels at the bottom of the desktop screen for your widget.

Here is a simple working example:

import gtk

class PyGtkWidgetDockExample:
    def __init__(self):
        self.window = gtk.Window(gtk.WINDOW_TOPLEVEL)
        self.window.set_default_size(100, gtk.gdk.screen_height())
        self.window.move(gtk.gdk.screen_width()-100, 0)
        self.window.set_type_hint(gtk.gdk.WINDOW_TYPE_HINT_DOCK)        
        self.window.show()          
        self.window.window.property_change("_NET_WM_STRUT", "CARDINAL", 32, 
            gtk.gdk.PROP_MODE_REPLACE, [0, 100, 0, 0])               

app = PyGtkWidgetDockExample()
gtk.main()