Re: MUST or SHOULD in window gravity?

[jg pa dec com (Jim Gettys)]

> 
> Window Manager SHOULD honor application's ConfigureWindow request and place
> window in requested ( x, y ) unless there is a good reason not to, in which
> case
> window may be moved into a different location ( x1, y2 ).
> 
> Window Manger MUST use new window position according to gravity rules and
> place
> client window/frame decorations accordingly.
> 
> There are no valid reasons for not obeying gravity rules. Any attempt to do
> so
> must be outlawed by this specs. Otherwise it will not be possible to build
> the kind of desktop that both KDE and GNOME striving to.
> 

You have general purpose desktop on the brain.  People use window systems
in other environments too...

You are overspecifying.  It should be possible for other window managers
that DO NOT intend to support Gnome or KDE to comply with the MUSTs of
the specification.  People MUST be able to use gnome/KDE applications in
specilized environments to which general desktop compliance isn't desirable.

In an embedded system, for example, I may not want/need title bars at all.
Think of a nuclear power plant, where you want to guarantee an application
is always visible on a display, as it shows whether the plant is about
to melt down: you really don't want to have to find it among a messy desktop:
the window manager had better be able to enforce this policy, which is
NOT the policy most window managers would implement.

So you need to write the verbiage to distinguish these two cases: the
general purpose, human driven desktop case, and the specialized usage case.

But I believe SHOULD and MUST in fact are all you need, and that this will
just complicate the spec.

MUST means things break.  SHOULD means that you'd better implement this
unless you have some very good reason not to...  MAY is used for optional
facilities.

					- Jim

--
Jim Gettys
Technology and Corporate Development
Compaq Computer Corporation
jg pa dec com