Re: [gtk-list] Re: window manager communication

[julian gosnell nomura co uk]

<RANT>

What is the problem here ?

There are two accepted standards :

ICCCM: http://tronche.com/gui/x/icccm/ - all WMs should adhere to this
 protocol.

Motif WM hints (only work with Motif [compliant] WMs) - therefore cannot be
 counted on.


I believe Gnome has adopted the Motif stuff in addition to ICCCM.

1). If you can't express what you want using these two protocols (and I would
 forget Motif's - since only a few WMs understand it). Then you are doing
 something that will probably not work with any possible WM. Not all WMs are
 reparenting, decoration based, with title bars etc (what if you're not running
 a WM at all?)

2). If you use ICCCM (WM_CLASS hint) and then abuse it (deliberately setting it
 wrongly) then you can expect your application to, at the best only work, as
 expected, with a very small set of WMs, at worst cause untested code to be
 called in the WM and crash it.


You should ask yourself :

Why is my application meddling in the WMs arena ?
How come all other X apps are happy not doing this.
Am I writing an X-friendly App - or forcing a square peg into a round hole ?

99.9...% of the time I find the answer is that I have not considered the whole
 problem - whereas the folks who wrote the ICCCM have.

If you still think you need extra behaviour, then you will have to come up with
 some custom protocol that your app and your WM can communicate via - but it
 won't be much use to anyone else !

</RANT>


Just my penny's worth,




Jules