GTK window manager...

[Matthew Berg <wdomburg pce net>]

I'd like to thank everyone for their input and suggestions.  Rather than
clutter the list with a dozen different replies, I'll just post one
instead.:)

First point that seemed to be prevelant was that SCWM and FVWM are
working on GTK modules.  I definitely appreaciate this as a feature and
wish them the best of luck.  

But being able to be /configured/ for a GTK look and feel is a far cry
from a completely stripped down window manager.  In a very real way I
want a window manager that is less configurable than the current
offerings.  

How?

	1:	No theme support. This is handled quite nicely by
		GTK.
		
	2:	No root menu support. This will be provided by a 
		seperate program (preferably by the desktop component
		of GMC if they seperate it out, otherwise I will have
		to code it myself).

	3:	No app launchers. This is provided by the desktop 
		environment I choose.

	4:	No scripting. This is superfluous for a program that 
		will simply put windows on the screen and allow you to
		move them or unmap them, etc.

	5:	No k-rad special f/x or ludicrously configurable 
		options for window borders, etc.  If you want this, 
		there's enlightenment or SCWM, etc.

	6:	No iconification (though if people turn out to care,
		I'd put it in as a compile time option I suppose). 
		Personally, I think the idea of iconified apps is a
		waste of desktop space, and these things can be 
		handled better by external pieces much better.

What I want is *NOT* a general purpose window manager, but one that is
designed to work with a group of already existing components (i.e.
Gnome, in fact in my musings on what to call it GnoWM came to mind :) 

Second, as Havoc pointed out, GDK hides a lot of X.  That is a definite
obstacle, one that I figured would be a fairly large hassle before I
even posted to the list.    

I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get around it yet.  I may look
into threading or spawning an external process to handle events. 

Third, another point Havoc made, was that (from a community point of
view) there is no good reason to start with a fresh code base, for
several reasons.  I can see his point, but I do still disagree.

	1:	It /is/ to a good degree, for my own amusement and
		education

	2:	Extending isn't the point, it's cropping.  And 
		reading through what could be megabytes of source
		code deciding what is superfluous for my needs would
		take a lot of time in itself.

		Not to mention that unless someone can tell me how to
		use GTK as a rendering engine rather than using its
		native event loop, while still maintaining theme
		compatibility it would be as much work hacking an
		existing code base into what I want it to do.

	3:	IceWM and WM2 are extremely small, but there is room
		for even further shrinking of the code base.  By
		using an external library for window decorations, I've
		already eliminated a fair portion of code.

		Further reduction would be achieved by the above
		mentioned removal of a fair portion of features
		required by a stand-alone window manager.

		And of course, both are written in C++. *blech* (No
		offense of those of you who do like the language. :)

Matthew Berg