Re: [Nautilus-list] Desktop window

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs eazel com>]

"Blad, John Erling" <john erling blad aftenposten no> writes:

> 
> >1) It allows drawing the icons and text anti-aliased.
> 
> Nice but if you screw a major part of the users then you should done
> it somewhat different.
>

I don't think our solution requires "screwing the users". Can you name
a specific problem with our approach? I know redraw performance is
sometimes bad when Nautilus blocks, but I'm convinced we can resolve
that without changing the fundamental approach.
 
> >2) It avoids having to create a bunch of shaped windows, one for each
> >   desktop icon. Doing this is bad for performance.
> 
> This is highly dependant of the X-server and the hardware. There is some
> tools in most X distros you canb use to check this out. On a WinTel you
> will get very fast redraws even if the client have to cache a lot of info
> (backstore) while on remote displays you will gain a lot by usiing pixmaps
> and windows (structures that describes the actual windows). The reason
> for this is that this information is stored in the server.

I'm pretty convinced that having a bunch of shaped windows will always
be bad for performance. X servers store shaped windows very
inefficiently.

> >3) It allows sharing more code with the normal icon view. Doing things
> >   the shaped window way would require a completely separate
> >   implementation.
> 
> Not an issue.

It certainly is for us, as the people who have to implement and
maintain the code.

> >4) It allows focusing the desktop.
> 
> I can't see why a filemanager should have the responsibility for this.
> 

It should because we want the same keyboard shortcuts to work on the
destop as in a file manager window, when they make sense.

> >5) It allows Nautilus to use a better visual for drawing the
> >   background than the default, if there are multiple visuals and the
> >   default is not the best.
> 
> It is usually a reason why the user has choosen to use some visual over
> another. The most common reason for this is **GAMES**. Add to this the
> simple fact that most X-servers can't run two visuals at the same time..
> 
> Seems to me you will have a lot of angry users out there.
> 
> I know a little about this because I have implemented a lib for fast
> redraws of map-like graphics on a X-server. When you try to implement
> something like that with a constraint to run on *any* hardware and run
> *fast* you can't just choose any visual you like.
> 
> If you have to force a spesific visual I can't see Nautilus as *the*
> file manager.

Nautilus doesn't force a specific visual. It uses what gdk-pixbuf
considers the "best" available visual on a given server. This does not
affect other programs. It does not force the X server into an
irreversible mode, any more than other X programs do. Please relax.

 - Maciej