Re: Work in Progress: draft 1.9a

[Tim Janik <timj gtk org>]

On Sun, 4 Jul 1999, Dominik Vogt wrote:

> > wants to switch to another virtual desktop, it can send a
> > _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP client message to the root window (type
> > _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP, format 32, l[0]=<new index> )
> > 
> > _NET_DESKTOP_NAMES
> > 
> > The names of all virtual desktops. Text Property. Can be changed by
> > anyone (by pager for example, when renaming desktops).
> > 
> > [Should WM update this when modifying desktop count?]
> > [What does this mean with respect to Unicode if anything?]
> 
> I think it is very dangerous to encourage *every* application to use
> these hints (_NET_DESKTOP_GEOMETRY to _NET_DESKTOP_NAMES). I would be
> mouch more comfortable if we define that these hints are reserved for
> use by pagers only. Perhaps a pager should even be forced to register
> as a pager by setting a _NET_IS_PAGER_APPLICATION hint?

this would be nice, the old and the new gnome-pager implementation both
set a _GNOME_PAGER_ACTIVE property on the root window, and at least
enlightement uses it to decide whether to show icons of iconified windows
or not (i.e. it does *not* show the icons if a pager is present).
it could also be used to optimize traffic, e.g. by specifying that a
window manager doesn't need to honour _NET_CLIENT_LIST_STACKING as long
as there's no pager present.

> > _NET_WORKAREA CARDINAL[][4]/32
> > 
> > Readonly property set by WM upon calculating the work area for each
> > desktop.
> > Contains the left,right,top,bottom coordinates for each desktop.
> > Work area is used for maximizing windows and by the desktop to place
> > desktop icons appropriatelly.
> 
> What is a 'work area' in comparison to the viewport?

in short, a "work area" is the currently visible portion of a desktop
that is larger than the physical screen size. excerpt from the fvwm2
man page:

THE VIRTUAL DESKTOP
       Fvwm2  provides  multiple  virtual  desktops for users who
       wish to use them.  The screen is a viewport onto a desktop
       which  may  be  larger  than the screen.  Several distinct
       desktops can be accessed (concept: one  desktop  for  each
       project,  or  one  desktop for each application, when view
       applications are distinct).  Since  each  desktop  can  be
       larger than the physical screen, divided into m by n pages
       which are each the size of the  physical  screen,  windows
       which  are  larger  than  the  screen  or  large groups of
       related windows can easily be viewed.

i.e. the "work area" refered to above is a desktop "page" in fvwm terminology.

i do think however, that we should make _NET_WORKAREA an array of
left,right,top,bottom coordinates, since smoe window managers have
a concept of independant work areas per desktop.
also, pagers need information on what the current area of currently
hidden desktops is, to display thumbnails of those desktops correctly.

> > A window manager honors _NET_WM_HINTS whenever a withdrawn window
> > requests to be mapped.  When being in another state (iconified or
> > mapped), the client can request a change by sending a _NET_WM_HINTS
> > client message to the root window.  (window is the respective window,
> > type _NET_WM_HINTS, format 32, l[0]=<mask>, l[1]=<new values for masked
> > bits> )
> 
> Hm, how can you distinguish between 'I don't care' (bit set to zero) and
> 'Don't do it' (bit set to zero)?

through the mask (l[0]), it identifies those bits that you are interested in,
and the new values for those bits are specified in l[1].

> Bye
> 
> Dominik ^_^
> 

---
ciaoTJ