Session management

[Felix Bellaby <felix pooh u-net com>]

Michael O'Reilly writes:
 > Is the gnome session management intended to save and restore window
 > geometry? If so, what mechinism is being used for this? I'm under the
 > impression that the window manger is responsible for the window
 > positioning, and it's difficult (impossible?) for an app to find it's
 > position without talking to the window manager?

Under the SM protocol, the geometries are the responsiblity of the WM. 

The apps are supposed to remember which windows they had mapped on
the screen (so that they can remap them when restarted) and the WM
remembers where all the windows were (so that it can move them back
to the right places when they are remapped).

I note that E has the first steps towards implementing its side of
this protocol in the cvs code but has yet to actually save the window 
positions.

Most gnome apps have not got very far along with their side of the
protocol. AFAIK, one of the requirements of this protocol (that the 
apps remain in an idle state while the WM records the window 
positions) remains almost impossible to implement properly using
the current gnome-libs.

If you want to see a semi-working version try out CDE on Digital UNIX.

Felix