Re: Decorations (again)

[Dominik Vogt <dominik vogt fvwm org>]

On Tue, Nov 16, 1999 at 05:03:13PM +0000, pdw@ferret.lmh.ox.ac.uk wrote:
> 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...

Hm, the same reasoning applies to window geometry.  Only a few applications
do remember a specific position although every application might benefit
from it.  The usual way to get an app. at a certain position is to use
X resources.  Because of this most window managers can't remember
application positions.  I'm not sure what we can/should do about that.
I think if a layer hint is necessary it should be possible to set it
as an X resource and on the command line too (if we want consistency).
The most flexible way is the command line (otherwise all my xterms would
end up on the top layer, for example).

Bye

Dominik ^_^

-- 
Dominik Vogt, Agilent Technologies, Dept. BVS
Herrenberger Str.130, 71034 Boeblingen, Germany
phone: 07031/464-4596, fax: 07031/464-3883, dominik_vogt@agilent.com