Re: Application modal transients windows

[Paul Warren <pdw ferret lmh ox ac uk>]

On Tue, 9 Nov 1999 raster@rasterman.com wrote:
> On  8 Nov, Marko Macek scribbled:
> ->  raster@rasterman.com wrote:
> ->  
> ->  > If the window manager gets a property notify for this property it
> ->  > shoudl re-read the property data contents and any visible icons
> ->  > displays for this window shoudl be then re-rendered and updated so the
> ->  > user can see the updated version.
> ->  > 
> ->  > Thsi property should only be set on top-level windows and not on group
> ->  > leader windows that are unmapped.
> ->  > 
> ->  > The window manager is free to res-cale the icons data to fit the
> ->  > available space for it to be displayed. it may re-color, rmap and
> ->  > dither the icosn too according to user preferences for color image
> ->  > rendering quality etc.
> ->  
> ->  I have a few comments (#1 most important):
> ->      1. scaled icons absolutely suck if small (getting nice 16x16 icons
> ->  from 32x32 or 64x64 is likely to produce ugly icons). Good icons are
> ->  pixel-perfect and scaling is not the way to get them.
> 
> then ythe apo shoudl provide the closest size to the icon size hint.
> 
> to be honest this is impractical.. wms have variable sizes for icon
> needs - for big icons on a dresktop, small icons in titlebars - maybe
> medium sized.... they all vary and some like the titlebar cant be fixed
> since they may depend on font size and other factors. so if a WM is to
> do it right most wms will have to scale anyway. agreed arbitarily
> scaled icons dont always look right - but no-one is goign to be willing
> to draw their icons in N diferent sizes just to please the WM or the
> user prefes so scaling has to be accepted as a way of dealing with this.

Why not allow the app to specify more than one icon, of any size?  The WM
can then scale whichever is the closest in size.  I think in practice, the
Desktop Environment will dictate the icon sizes to be used (eg. Gnome
already uses 16x16 mini icons), apps will provide these sizes, and any
WM intending to work with that DE will probably choose to stick with those
standard sizes to avoiding scaling too often.

Paul