Re: [Usability] desktop/workspaces terminology issue

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

Michael Rogers <mrogers mth kcl ac uk> writes:
> On Thu, Oct 18, 2001 at 09:51:44PM -0400, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> > The distinction between a viewport and a desktop barely
> > makes sense to me, and I've written a window manager.
> 
> As I understand it, the viewport is the area of the active workspace that's 
> currently visible. The window manager might allow you to 'slide' the 
> viewport around the workspace, or it might divide the workspace into 
> discrete 'pages'. In either case, viewports are distinct from workspaces 
> because window co-ordinates are relative to the workspace, not the 
> viewport (unless the window sets _NET_WM_STATE_STICKY).

Sure, but the point is - it's too complicated. Imagine end-user
documentation that says "window coordinates are relative to the
workspace not the viewport" ;-)

As Calum has pointed out, just workspaces by themselves are already
too complex for many users.

I'm not taking a position on whether a single workspace concept should
be implemented by what the WM spec calls viewports or what it calls
desktops. That's just a WM implementation detail.

Havoc