Compiz Application Switcher (ALT-Tab) does just use high res icons when provided by .desktop file

Screenshot showing the bad resolution of the icon rendered with 256px.

This is not a compiz bug.

My understanding is that unity/bamf get their icon from the .desktop file and not the WM_ICON property. I've subscribed unity to get more info on that.

Thanks for the quick response Sam.

Yes it seems that something in the stack reads only from the .desktop file. However for applications such as a java application which is downloaded in place and not coming from the repos I think the .desktop file is not viable.

gtk_window_set_icon_list() supports multiple resolutions, so the best one should be used for the switcher.

@Sam: Is the code for the default switcher at http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~compiz-team/compiz/0.9.9/files/head:/plugins/switcher ? Or what is used here?

Depends.

If you're using unity, the switcher is in unity itself and uses the
same code as the launcher to render the icons. See
unity/launcher/BamfLauncherIcon.cpp

If you're using compiz without unity, it would be staticswitcher,
which is really just using the same code from compiztoolbox
(compiz/plugins/compiztoolbox/src/compiztoolbox.cpp)

On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 6:13 AM, Felix Möller <email address hidden> wrote:
> @Sam: Is the code for the default switcher at
> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~compiz-
> team/compiz/0.9.9/files/head:/plugins/switcher ? Or what is used here?
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Compiz
> Maintainers, which is subscribed to compiz in Ubuntu.
> Matching subscriptions: Compiz Maintainers ubuntu compiz
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1104511
>
> Title:
> Compiz Application Switcher (ALT-Tab) does just use high res icons
> when provided by .desktop file
>
> Status in Compiz:
> Invalid
> Status in Unity:
> New
> Status in “compiz” package in Ubuntu:
> Invalid
>
> Bug description:
> I am trying to set a high resolution for a Java based application
> (https://www.willuhn.de/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1310).
>
> This application uses SWT which uses the GTK function
> gtk_window_set_icon() to set an icon for the application.
>
> However, no matter of the resolution I pass there the ALT-Tab switcher
> uses a bad icon.
>
> This has been reported as well for Python
> (http://askubuntu.com/questions/90845/pygtk-application-icon-blurred-
> in-unity) and reported in the forums
> (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2053292).
>
> I tried to get more insights at http://askubuntu.com/questions/245875
> /how-do-i-get-high-resolution-icons-in-unity-for-my-application-
> without-a-deskto.
>
> The following Java code shows the problem:
> import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
> import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.GC;
> import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Image;
> import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display;
> import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Shell;
>
> public class Test {
> public static void main(String[] args) {
> Display display = new Display();
>
> final int SIZE = 256;
> Image large = new Image(display, SIZE, SIZE);
> GC gc = new GC(large);
> gc.setBackground(display.getSystemColor(SWT.COLOR_RED));
> gc.fillArc(0, 0, SIZE, SIZE, 45, 270);
> gc.dispose();
>
> Shell shell = new Shell(display);
> shell.setImages(new Image[] { large });
>
> shell.open();
>
> while (!shell.isDisposed()) {
> if (!display.readAndDispatch())
> display.sleep();
> }
>
> large.dispose();
> display.dispose();
> }
> }
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
> Package: compiz 1:0.9.9~daily13.01.21-0ubuntu1
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-1.5-generic 3.8.0-rc4
> Uname: Linux 3.8.0-1-generic x86_64
> .tmp.unity.support.test.0:
>
> ApportVersion: 2.8-0ubuntu2
> Architecture: amd64
> CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
> CompositorRunning: compiz
> Date: Thu Jan 24 23:10:03 2013
> DistUpgraded: 2013-...

Looking at the source I think the unity class has been renamed:

revno: 2806 [merge]
author: Tim Penhey <email address hidden>
committer: Tarmac
branch nick: unity
timestamp: Fri 2012-10-05 07:05:34 -0400
message:
  Rename BamfLauncherIcon to ApplicationLauncherIcon.. Fixes: . Approved by Nick Dedekind, Thomi Richards.

Scrolling through the source it looks as if in line 937 the icon size is hard coded:
void ApplicationLauncherIcon::UpdateIconGeometries(std::vector<nux::Point3> center)
{
  nux::Geometry geo;
  geo.width = 48;
  geo.height = 48;

  for (auto& window : app_->GetWindows())
  {

however, i do not understand enough of the code to continue there.

This is fixed in saucy.