Re: [Usability] window manager configuration

[George <jirka 5z com>]

On Fri, Dec 07, 2001 at 03:56:25AM -0500, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> It's better to add a _GNOME_WINDOW_TYPE_AUTOHIDE_PANEL extension to
> the spec than to reinterpret the existing spec. (The spec allows a
> window to have a list of types, for this reason.)

I didn't notice that it's a list.  DOH!  I found a better doc, I must have
been reading some old version where there was just a short desc or some such.
OK, so I added the above, so ...

> > In any case I don't think it makes sense to make this configurable.  In 1.4
> > we have a gazillion options in the panel for levels and maximize cover stuff,
> > and it's just a mess.  I think we should pick one behaviour (it must be one
> > which doesn't lead to annoying behaviour:) and stick with it.
> 
> My basic opinion is that stays on top is right for the panel, but that
> as you say it relies heavily on the WM doing the right thing in order
> to come out nicely. For people who don't want to lose screen real
> estate, autohide is a good solution. If it's still popular to flame us
> once all that is working right, then we can add a raise-on-mouseover
> option.
> 
> After trying both on-top and raise-on-mouseover in Metacity, I don't
> really like raise-on-mouseover because I'm always "losing" the panel,
> and because it causes a flickery/unstable sensation. The on top would
> have been good if I'd implemented proper maximize behavior and so
> on. So I want to prototype the proper maximize behavior and then go
> back to stays on top, and see how that is.

If the windowmanager supports it completely then panels at the same level
behave almost like panels that are always on top.  Because most of the time
the panels aren't blocked by windows.  The default in 1.2 was always on
bottom, which retrospectively was on so much crack, it's not even funny.
But the idea was that the windowmanager would mostly keep windows out of
the way and you could overlap if you really wanted to.

George

-- 
George <jirka 5z com>
   Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority,
   it is time to reform.
                       -- Mark Twain