Re: GNOME Window Manager

[textshell t-online de]

Hi all,

Just to give my thougths on this topic.


First of all, yes a bit more integration would be very good for good.
But no, I think it's right for the WM to support keybindings. I can't
see why we should do some complicated interprocess-communiation magic to
support the keybingings a WM needs. I think conceptually some key combos
just are part of the WM, window switching, an KDE/Apple like windows
killer[1], Close window, etc. Certainly one can make a lot of nonsense
with the WM key bindings, but i think the system is much robuster if
these basic functions especially the window-killer is in the WM and it
wouldn't just magically fail, if some magic desktop process dies. IMHO
gnome only really depands on gnome-session to work, I've seen desktop
environs that fall apart if some process dies, we wouldn't like that.

I agree that for our not computer-geek users the distinction WM/Desktop
is intransparent, so we must either educate them(hard), or make a better
UI(easier, but not trival). Basicly I think we must provide these users
with another "view" of the control-center. Not much of the stuff is
sorted by the process it controls, but to be intuitiv we need to make
diffent categories.
I don't know how that's done best, but i imagine that the WM can just
place controls for his options on the appropriate capplet. We would have
a lot place-holders (like in bonobo menus) where thay can place stuff.
The other option would to have some standard option that the user cares
about that are placed in the right places in the capplets and the WM
somehow gets these values and uses them. It could provide a file that
lists all supported options so the others are hidden.

We might need some concept how to resolve conflicts for settings that
both the WM and Gnome provide. E.g. desktop background or such. The user
might run the WM in all his logins and expect the WM settings to be used
everywhere, or s/he might expect gnome is one thing and then only the
Gnome settings should be used.

Well I better stop here the mail is way to long....

Anyway just one point, it's good to help the new users, but they are
eventually dieing out, when Gnome is more common, and the power user
should feel home in Gnome, too


	martin






[1] not in stock sawfish, but it's lisp...