Re: Some Thoughts/Rewrite of specs

[sopwith redhat com (Elliot Lee)]

On 8 Jun 1999 17:54:33 -0400, Michael ROGERS <M.Rogers@cs.ucl.ac.uk> wrote:

>>The panel should provide information when autohide is on for example,
>>so that the wm could resize the maximized window when the panel is hidden.

The panel doesn't need to provide any information - all you need is a
window manager that listens with SubstructureNotifyMask to see size
changes of windows on the desktop. It's just that most window manager
authors haven't seen fit to implement things this way.

> Maybe we could set a property on the root window, _GNOME_DESKTOP_DIMENSIONS 
>or something, which would consist of four integers representing the origin,
>width and height of the rectangular area in the center of the desktop not 
>inhabited by panels, docks, dragbars etc. 
>
>I'm sure there's a better way to explain that.  :)
>
> The panel and the window manager could update this property for each
>other's benefit. For example, at startup, the window manager might create a
>dragbar at the top of the screen, and it would set
>_GNOME_DESKTOP_DIMENSIONS to describe the area not covered by the dragbar. 
>When the panel started, it would check _GNOME_DESKTOP_DIMENSIONS to make sure 
>the panel didn't cover the dragbar. It would then update the property to 
>reflect the position of the panel(s). If you wanted to maximise a window, the 
>window manager would simply set the origin, width and height of the window to 
>the value of _GNOME_DEKSTOP_DIMENSIONS.

This approach is too simplistic - using the window layers that the present
spec has works fine, and allows for more complex situations.

I think it would be a good idea to get window manager authors involved.
It's a good thing to describe what end-user features you think are
missing, but describing how those features are to be implemented needs a
consensus of the majority of people who will be implementing them (yours
truly excluded).

Hope this helps,
-- Elliot
"how smy riting? male dmefqd@fqptmf.com"