Re: SV: [Nautilus-list] Desktop window

[Seth Nickell <snickell stanford edu>]

> 2) It avoids having to create a bunch of shaped windows, one for each
>    desktop icon. Doing this is bad for performance.

I don't think this can be claimed because the net effect of the Nautilus
approach is *lower* performance. The reason many people complain is that
having Nautilus manage the desktop results in horkedness moving windows.
So much so that a few people around here aren't willing to run it. While
there may be a theoretical load the X-server from using lots of little
shaped windows, it seems to perform better on the whole than our current
approach.

> 6) It allows Nautilus to easily add a right-click menu to the desktop.

This seems like a very minor point since numerous programs (gmc,
sawfish, enlightenment, etc etc) do this quite successfully.
 
> For reasons of this sort, most modern file managers for X are being
> designed with the model of using their own desktop window instead of
> using the root window.

I'm interested in which ones, because Nautilus is the only one I've seen
that creates annoying effects when you move windows. Is this because we
can't redraw fast enough? Actually...this seems to be a systematic
problem with X...application windows seem to redraw very slowly.
Whatever.

-Seth