Comment 10 for bug 12608

i think the answer to the stretched icon issue is not to difficult:

1) divide screen into grid divided by the default width/height of icons
2) order icons in whatever natural order you choose (alpha, date, etc.)
3) use a greedy placement algorithm such that:
 - icon is placed in the farthest-left, then farthest-top empty grid square, anchored by it's top-left corner
 - icon claims as non-empty any grid squares it overlaps
 - repeat with next icon

obviously replace top-left with the text layout locale pref for right-left langs.