Re: "consistent look and feel" && "WM independent"??

[Jim Pick <jim jimpick com>]

Russell Nelson <nelson@crynwr.com> writes:

> That's your usage pattern.  I am constantly flipping back and forth
> between workspaces, and raising and lowering windows.

Well I do that too.  But I want some "container" apps that are task
customizeable to help me minimize all the flipping and arranging I
do.  That doesn't require window manager integration.

We'll have a standard container API for sure - so any window manager
that wants to act as a container can do so (for really tight
integration).  Tom Tromey is working on X session management stuff
too, which will probably be integrated with the embedding system - so
many window managers that already do session management will probably
integrate nicely with Gnome without any changes.  I'm sure it could be
taken even further than that.

But Gnome should still work nicely even without any window manager
integration, since it ought to provide a set of containers configured
as applications as well.  That's the area I'm going to play around
with writing code for.

> If a window
> manager uses pie menus (and mine does), then I want my applications to
> also use pie menus.  http://www.crynwr.com/piewm for the wm I use.

That gets to adding themes and pie menus to Gtk.  It's not really a
window manager issue.  Of course, you probably do want your selected
Gtk theme to match your window manager - so a common configuration
interface would be a nice addition.
 
> Even if your usage pattern is typical, Gnome should still ``bless'' a
> window manager and ship it.  It's fine if others also work, but users
> should be handed a total solution, not a kit of parts.

I'm just concerned that people will think that the "official" window
manager is the only option and decide not to try Gnome because they
don't have to switch their favorite window manager.  KDE already has
this perception problem.

Besides, which one do we ship?  Scwm?  Enlightenment?  Piewm?

I sort of like all the UI experimentation going on in the window
managers.  Forcing people to accept a particular look & feel isn't
going to fly very well.  It's much better to publish a well documented
set of APIs for integrating all the popular window managers (including
KDE) with Gnome, and helping them to do that.

The Linux distributions such as Red Hat and Debian will give their
users a choice of window managers, and they will still be able to use
Gnome in any of them.  Of course, there will probably be some window
managers that work nicer with Gnome than others.

I can't imagine any Linux distribution who is planning on shipping
Gnome by itself, with only one window manager to choose from.  KDE
seem to want a total KDE-branded system/desktop/distribution - but
that's them.

Cheers,

 - Jim

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