Re: Spec Purpose and Definition

[Matthias Ettrich <ettrich troll no>]

On Wed, 23 Jun 1999, Michael ROGERS wrote:
> >> It seems to me that pager interaction makes up a large part of the
> >> complexity of the spec, for a small benefit. Many window managers already
> >
> >This was my thinking at first as well. However, a pager (or a taskbar ) doesn't
> >require much more than what any application requires anyway. Since all the
> >hints/states of a window are already advertised, all that is missing is a way
> >to access all managed windows. Functionality to change the state of windows
> >outside the wm is a basic requirement anyway (for example maximizing or 
> >activating a window ). So once the managed windows are made available to
> >modules, we get the pager for free.
> 
> Which other programs would wish to maximise or activate windows?

A big office-like application or IDE that offers a configuration option to
start up just like it was closed may want to set the maximize hint.

Activation is usefull for all sorts of notification applications. I may for
example have an postit like note application that may want to become active
when the alarm rings (which requires: switch to the desktop, raise, focus,
etc.). A simple "show plus raise" is not sufficient: the application may have
other windows on another desktop, so the wm might "show" them on that hidden
virtual desktop, which is pointless in that case.

Don't resctrict application programmers too much. At least not if the necessary
code in the wm is just the 3 lines necessary to catch the client message and
call the appropriate function.


Matthias


> 
> 
> Michael Rogers
> 
> 
> -- 
> To unsubscribe: mail wm-spec-list-request@gnome.org with "unsubscribe"
> as the Subject.