Let's forget 'active icons area'. The notification area, which JWM refers to as "Dock", may contain icons and these icons may be clickable, but this is not a requirement. I run a script in the notification area that keeps track of the battery status. Looks like the clock, no icon and definitely not clickable,stemsee wrote:How then does 'active icons area' differ to the desktop?
Simply speaking: Desktop and notification area are owned by the window manager. The WM runs programs either windowed on the desktop or windowless in the notification area.