Re: Decorations (again)

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

On Tue, 16 Nov 1999, Dominik Vogt wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 16, 1999 at 12:48:26PM +0000, pdw@ferret.lmh.ox.ac.uk wrote:
> > On Tue, 16 Nov 1999, Dominik Vogt wrote:

> > I think it should be.  Suppose I want my CD player to always be on top,
> > everytime I start it.  There will an option in its preferences that allow
> > it to specify this on startup.  Similarly for Omni-present.  Otherwise the
> > WM has to remember the geometry and on-top status of every application it
> > has ever seen.  I know that Window Maker does something along these lines,
> > but it has always struck me as a bit of an ugly workaround...
> > 
> > Note, I am not talking about apps started under Session Management, where
> > it is undoubtedly the window manager's responsibility to remember such
> > things.
> 
> Why in the world would you like to have a different way to configure
> that for each and every application?  I you chose your WM carefully
> you can configure the layer everywhere with the same method.  Plus
> you will have to convince the author of the CD player to write such
> an option.  Surely we don't want to demand that every application has
> such an option to satisfy any user's need (e.g. I might want a certain
> xterm/rxvt/ater/eterm... on desktop level for console output; or perhaps
> an xclock/rclock/aclock/daliclock...; or why not xload/xosview/xmem/
> xcpustate...).  Do we really want that hundreds of applications have
> to be rewritten just to allow you to put it on top when this can be
> handled efficiently by the WM already?  A nice KDE/GNOME compliant WM
> that was specifically designed to integrate into the DE will have a
> configuration tool that allows you to make such settings without
> messing with the application.

OK, I take your point, and I think you're right.

However, there are apps that allow you to specify their startup geometry.
Perhaps the spec should suggest that remembering a start up geometry is
the job of the Window Manager and not the app?  I see the workspace and
layer as part of the geometry, so it seems inconsistent to allow some of
the geometry, but not all of it, to be app specified...

Paul