Your must-have Shell extensions that don't exist yet

[Copper Bezel]

I apologize if this is a duplicate topic, but I couldn't find anything.

I can honestly see Gnome Shell's extension base surpassing Compiz in terms of both productivity and glitz. As things slow down and stop breaking so much, I imagine we'll be seeing a much larger number of available extensions. After sanderd17 showed off a new Trailfocus-style extension, I'm more convinced than ever. So what would be your top hypothetical Shell extensions?

Here are mine:

gnome-shell-extensions-i-have-a-keyboard-dammit - Navigate the shell with the keyboard.

I'm aware of the windows navigator extension, but it's fiddly beyond reason. At default, the shell is largely deaf to keyboard commands of any kind. In the Overview, I'd like to see Up Arrow and Down Arrow (by themselves) switch workspaces and Tab and Grave cycle forward and backward in the window list.

Alt+Tab is inconsistent with the way the rest of the shell works, but it's also a needless addition when the rest of the UI is driven from the Overview. It would be preferable to be able to navigate the shell the same way whether by mouse or by keyboard.

Enter and the arrow keys would also work as expected in the Shell's notifications and the like. At present, they're simply ignored.

gnome-shell-extensions-animations-add-on - Expand existing window animations for a seamless UI experience.

Nothing fancy, but I'd like to see a few more, and more consistent, animations for windows. (The Shell's own animations can be configured through its theming.) At present, windows come into being in a very pretty fade, but vanish suddenly when closed. Then there's a pretty minimize animation that's not even used in the default experience and could well have been used for closing, too. I'd like to see fade animations for quitting windows, as well as when switching tasks between overlapping windows.

gnome-shell-extensions-synapse - Replace this bloody worthless search with Synapse, because it's awesome.

Okay, maybe not really, but I'd like to see the Shell search replaced with something like Synapse. Synapse can run shell commands, search recent places and documents, search Wikipedia or Google, and even control media players all in one place, without ever touching the mouse or trackpad, and it does all of it lightning-fast. Unity's search is very similar, with almost all of the same features, really taking advantage of what Zeitgeist offers.

The Gimme extension for Shell doesn't come remotely close, and Shell's current search feature is just a (painfully slow, but that may be unique to my setup) filter for the applications menu with a couple of clickable-but-not-keyable buttons added for Wikipedia and Google. (Reasonably, the search already has you typing. It shouldn't require the mouse.)

gnome-shell-extensions-animations-transparent-menus - Make application and right-click menus slightly transparent.
Because, dammit.

What do you want to see happen in the wild and ever-expanding new world of Gnome Shell extensions?

[Perfect Storm]

Not a-must. But I like to a Desura Extension.
That's why I'm going to dip my nose in Javascript and .css - would be cool to make my own extensions.

[cbowman57]

I miss the fpmurphy righthotcorner extension.

Not an extension but I just map synapse to my menu key.

[IWantFroyo]

gnome-shell-extensions-dock-actually-goes-to-the-corners-of-the-flipping-screen

[Copper Bezel]

Tee-hee. = D

Not an extension but I just map synapse to my menu key.

Good call - I just think it'd be neat if Shell could have an integrated search with similar capabilities.

I'm okay with the left hotcorner for a couple of reasons. One is that I've always had Scale there to begin with. = ) But one thing I couldn't get used to under Shell was the right-hand close button, so I moved it to the left, and I'm used to using drag or scroll gestures in place of scrollbars, so I guess I've accepted the Ubuntu philosophy of letting the cursor rest on the left. But yeah, I can definitely see how a right-hand hot corner would be a nifty addition otherwise.

It is too bad so many of these extensions are breaking like this, but with any luck, that will slow down as Shell matures.

[Copper Bezel]

Not to bump, but I realized I forgot an obvious one:

gnome-shell-extensions-unity-quicklist

That's why I'm going to dip my nose in Javascript and .css - would be cool to make my own extensions.

Yeah, it does seem like a lower bar for entry than to do Compiz plugins with Python or something, so I'm tempted to find out what's actually involved in writing them, too.

Not a-must. But I like to a Desura Extension.

Interesting - what would it do? I don't know much about Desura. Extensions for specific apps and services could be really interesting, depending on how they're handled.

[Perfect Storm]

Desura is a 'steam'-ish like app that runs natively in Linux. It offers indie games as well as free games. (also available for Windows).

I game a lot, and I have around 25 games in Desura. As for a gamer I think it would be cool to 'move' Desura tray icon up in Gnome Shell bar, next to audio, bluetooth and network.
Other than that, I think Desura tray are handling the game selection poorly and I would see some nice and cool way (may be some flashy as well) extension for it.

[JDShu]

I apologize if this is a duplicate topic, but I couldn't find anything.
gnome-shell-extensions-i-have-a-keyboard-dammit - Navigate the shell with the keyboard.

Forget extensions, this needs to be default behavior.

[tomasijeaux]

I'd really love to have grid of 4 workspaces like in unity. I'd like to switch between workspaces not only vertically but horizontally as well. That's a thing I don't like about gnome shell at most. Hopefully I won't have to wait for such an extension too long

[sanderd17]

Forget extensions, this needs to be default behavior.

yes, that right, just as browsing with the arrow keys through your search results.

gnome-shell-extensions-synapse - Replace this bloody worthless search with Synapse, because it's awesome.

Okay, maybe not really, but I'd like to see the Shell search replaced with something like Synapse. Synapse can run shell commands, search recent places and documents, search Wikipedia or Google, and even control media players all in one place, without ever touching the mouse or trackpad, and it does all of it lightning-fast. Unity's search is very similar, with almost all of the same features, really taking advantage of what Zeitgeist offers.

The Gimme extension for Shell doesn't come remotely close, and Shell's current search feature is just a (painfully slow, but that may be unique to my setup) filter for the applications menu with a couple of clickable-but-not-keyable buttons added for Wikipedia and Google. (Reasonably, the search already has you typing. It shouldn't require the mouse.)

Have you tried the zeitgeist extensions? One is called gimmie in Arch, and it changes the default search by ordening your search results by the most-used first. and it also creates a new tab.

I don't know exactly where I found it, but if you're interested, I'm willing to check it out.

gnome-shell-extensions-animations-transparent-menus - Make application and right-click menus slightly transparent.
Because, dammit.

This will never be an extension, this is a GTK+ theme feature. So you will only have it by using another GTK+ theme.