Panel changes for 4.4

Hi all,

Sorry for the cross-post, I wasn't sure everyone would be on xfce4-dev.

As most of you may know, I'm planning to make some drastic changes to 
the panel for Xfce 4.4. In fact the changes are so big that you could 
speak of a redesign. To make sure that this design will work well also 
for plugin writers (especially for them even), I'm hoping to get some 
feedback on my initial thoughts about the subject.

I decided to use the excellent Xfce wiki facility for that -- I don't 
even know who provides this for us, but thanks for that -- so anyone can 
add comments.

Please, if you can spare some time, have a look at 
http://www.myoo.de/xfce/index.php/Panel_Design and let me know what you 
think, either here, or personal mail or on the wiki.

Since none of this has actually been coded yet feel free to shoot it 
down completely and suggest alternative designs ;-)

I'm most interested in suggestions for the plugin API; the 
implementation is of secondary concern.

Thanks,
	Jasper