Re: Removing wm/pager interaction

[Sasha_Vasko osca state mo us]

John Harper writes:
>Michael Rogers writes:
>|As the recent discussion about handling multiple desktops in AfterStep
>|revealed, wm/pager interaction is very hard to get right without
restricting
>|any existing window managers. As far as I know, the Gnome pager and its
>
>I like the simplicity of your draft, but I think it just makes the
>problem worse. If you remove the pager hints it won't stop people using
>them (or something similar). So what might happen then is that we'll
>have a standard for a few trivial interactions, plus maybe a few ad hoc

I would have to agree here. Virtual Desktop functionality is very important
part of window management, yet is is not covered by any existing specs.
Complete absence of any virtual desktop specification in ICCCM alone makes
you go nuts and start crashing furniture. Some sort of at least
minimalistic
standardization in this area is definately called for.

>
>IMHO it would be better to at least _have_ a standard for this, even if
>the standard is slightly restrictive. There is nothing forcing wm's to
>implement this standard, and there is nothing stopping them from
>implementing their own pager with all the functionality that that
>window manager can support

Excuse me this is supposed to be Window Manager Compatibility specs,
not just Choosen Window Manager Comatibility specs. The only reason why
WM should not be able to complay with this specs is if any particular
subset of functionality does not exists in this WM. Cutting out window
managers by making specs too restrictive is not the right way to go.
If some aspect is too complicated for this specs - then remove it,
but, please, by no means do not restrict it.

The only part of virtual desktop handling that is too complicated, is
{INSERT/DELETE}_DESKTOP messages. There are numerous issues related to that
functionality, as I pointed out before, and it would take whole another
spec to clarify all of them. Leaving it as it is now will only create
confusion.


Cheers
Sasha