Ok,
so I tried kdocker first. I found that when I applied it to Exaile, it created a double icon. Then when I tried it with various other programs, I could not set the icon -- there was just a blank space in the dock. I seem to have the worst luck with anything in the repo beginning with the letter "k" (as in kde).
Checking out Openbox now. This link is helpful:
http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:XFCE/Openbox though I don't quite understand what I'm doing. It seems like I am using OB as my wm but in conjunction with other programs, such as xfce-panel. Is this correct? If so, how do I change the font size (for instance)? Suddenly fonts are small.
EDIT: Nevermind the font question. Just realized that I only downloaded openbox but not obconf.
EDIT: Gonna mark this SOLVED since I technically got it to work, but it really isn't an ideal solution for me.
As I said earlier, kdocker seemed like a simple solution and I was sad when it didn't function properly. I downloaded Openbox and Obconf and ran the command:
so that xfce would use Openbox for window management but still deploy its other functions such as tray, desktop icons, wallpaper, etc. Two turn-offs were that -- in addition to a less attractive window theme (presumably the exchange for its light weight, snappy functionality and flexible configurability) -- (1) the mouse-wheel wouldn't scroll properly from one desktop to the next but instead skipped around qite a bit, and (2) the transition from desktop to desktop when moving a window beyond the screen edge was pretty poor. I've gotten used to the smooth, seamless behavior of Xfce4.
Another issue was autostart....which was my reason for needing this. The autostart file is in /etc/xdg/openbox.....so I copied it to ~/.config/openbox (and made it executable) as suggested in a how-to. I entered [exaile &] as the start-up command. When I restarted it didn't open; only the Xfce autostart file executed. So I logged out and logged back in choosing "Openbox" for the session. THEN it read the autostart.sh file....but now it lacked all of the things provided by Xfce, such as tray, wallpaper, desktop icons, etc. So before figuring out the command that would make exaile start in the tray or on a separate desktop, I would first have to figure out how to get Openbox to read its own autostart.sh file while being used as wm during an xfce session.
Lotta work. Easier to just launch exaile manually for now. Still, if I'm missing something and you have suggestions please let me know.
By the way, Exaile + Icecast + Streamripper =
-Dennis