Re: MDI on X11

[Greg Badros <gjb cs washington edu>]

Russell Nelson <nelson@crynwr.com> writes:

> Greg Badros writes:
>  > I think it makes more sense to have WMs that are just better at grouping
>  > windows together, perhaps in an extra frame.
> 
> How about _WIN_MDI_PARENT?  An X client program would set that in a
> managed window to give a hint to the X server which window it's been
> created by.  The window manager could use that information to move all
> the child windows when the parent is moved, or iconize all the windows
> when the parent is iconized.
> 
> Or not.  It's the X way.

There already are window groups and window group leaders-- we support
them in Scwm and do exactly what you suggest (optionally, of course--
it's also the Scwm way!).

The application may need to specify more information about the window's
use to tell the wm enough to do the right thing (e.g., the
_NET_WM_RIPOFF_FOR would be enough of a hint to know to treat those
windows separately from the other grouped windows).  

In summary, I'm not sure that separating out grouping with the intention
of better supporting MDI is the right thing, but instead we should
augment the existed window group stuff with (orthogonal) information
about a window's use to tell a WM more so that if it wants to use an MDI 
framework for managing grouped windows it can do so nicely.

Greg