Re: Work in Progress: draft 1.9a

[Dominik Vogt <dominik vogt fvwm org>]

On Tue, Jul 06, 1999 at 07:29:22PM +0100, M.Rogers@cs.ucl.ac.uk wrote:
> >> > I would go further and say that the application should not request any state
> >> > beyond visible/iconified/hidden. The rest is up to the user.
> >> > 
> >> 
> >> I agree. 
> >
> >The user requests these things through the application. For example a "startup
> >maximize" option in a preference dialog.
> 
> We should try to standardise this type of behaviour, ie it should be handled
> by the window manager or by the desktop environment. For example, E allows
> you to remember a window size for each application. That makes more sense 
> than adding a "remember window state" dialog to every application.
> 
> >Again: we are talking hints here. If a window manager is broken in that
> >respect, people will simply not use it. Except those who just run Netscape and
> >a bunch of xterms, but that's surely not the kind of users we are talking about
> >here.
> >
> >I'm really getting tired of this kind of fundamental discussion. The percentage
> >of users, especially new Linux users, using KDE or Gnome should be enough of a
> >proof.
> 
> It proves that people want an environment with standardised behaviour. 
> Allowing every app to have 360 degrees of freedom is not going to lead to 
> standardised behaviour.

Yes, absolutely. Users want two things:

 - A standardized default where you don't have to learn the same thing
   again and again.
 - The flexibility to control the behaviour of desktop environment *and*
   the WM *and* the application in case they dislike a particular 'feature'.
   I'm sure very few people care about allowing an application to do whatever
   they see fit.

Bye

Dominik ^_^

-- 
Dominik Vogt, Hewlett-Packard GmbH, Dept. BVS
Herrenberger Str.130, 71034 Boeblingen, Germany
phone: 07031/14-4596, fax: 07031/14-3883, dominik_vogt@hp.com