Sv: Window Manager configuration utilities

["Kenneth Christiansen" <kenneth ripen dk>]

Hi, I was the one that came up with the proposal once. The idea was not to let the
wm's be configured the same way, but to provide capplets (control center applets)
for the gnome control center, that looked pretty alike and worked pretty alike.

I'm currently working together with Knut Neumann on solving this issue. I 
currently revolves about creating capplets for enlightenment, since it's the
wm that most people use with gnome. After this we'll probably create capplets
for icewm and wmaker. 

What we noticed developing the capplets for e (we are not finished yet) is
that the hardest part was to communicate with the wm.

We have created (or mostly Knut created) a library for communicating with
the ipc in enlightenment (libeipc). This is almost finished now, and working
well so it shouldn't be much of a problem to create the remaining capplets.

But when we have to move on with one of the other wm's will can't reuse the
library, and will have to create new ones for the different wm's

If the way the wm's communicate with a control app could in any way be 
generalised it would be a great help for us.

Say for instance that we agree that we'll use ipc, and then agree on some
names for the different commands, it would actually be possible to have
only one version of each capplet that will check which commands the 
wm support and then generate the gui.

If we are going to further discuss this I propose that we ask my friend 
Knut Neumann to join the list.

Kenneth Christíqua


>Something that came up on gnome-list a little while ago was the need to
>standardise window manager configuration utilities.  In a truly
>integrated desktop environment, you should be able to change window
>manager options such as focus policy, window cycling behaviour, or
>whatever the particular wm chooses to make optional by clicking on the
>menu, going to settings and hitting window manager (or similar) not by
>hunting around trying to find that particular window manager's
>configuration utility, written usings Any Old Toolkit (tm).
>
>IMHO, part of a new wm-spec should specify how a window manager presents
>its configuration. It was suggested that the way forward would be for
>the window manager to provide a Gnome Control Centre applet.
>
>I am not sufficiently familiar with Gnome internals to say how this is
>best implemented, or best specified as a requirement.
>
>I also think that compliant window managers should provide their on-line
>help in a standard, specified form.  The above disclaimer applies for
>this too...
>
>Any comments?
>
>yours,
>
>Paul
>
>
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