Re: Problems with gnome window hints

[Tom Tromey <tromey cygnus com>]

>>>>> "Felix" == Felix Bellaby <felix@pooh.u-net.com> writes:

[ race between panel and E startup ]

Felix> There is an alternative available based on using the session
Felix> manager.

I don't really agree...

Felix> All that needs to be done to cover the case when the WM starts
Felix> after the clients is for the WM to set the properties that
Felix> identify its existance to the clients onto the root window and
Felix> then issue a SmcRequestSaveYourself with global=TRUE to the
Felix> session manager.  This will get them all to register their
Felix> properties and away you go.

Felix> This is very slightly losing in that some clients may be asked
Felix> to process one more save yourself than is strictly necessary
Felix> but what the hell... (:

The problem with this isn't the extra processing (which I agree is not
worth worrying about), but rather the fact that a save occurs at all.

Users should have control over when session manager saves.  Forcing a
save to make some unrelated feature work is the wrong thing to do.

For instance, we might want to support a mode where the user can set
up a session, save it, and then turn off automatic session saving at
logout.  Linking wm startup to session saving would break such a
feature.

In sum, I think implementing this feature this way would violate good
GUI design.  We would be exposing some nasty implementation detail in
a way visible to (and perplexing to) the user.

Tom