Re: Removing wm/pager interaction

["Michael Rogers" <mrogers cs ucl ac uk>]

> |> (1) the widget set used by the pager should match that used by the
> |> thing swallowing it
> |
> |It makes just as much sense for the tasklist buttons to match the window 
> |decorations as it does for the tasklist buttons to match the other applets.
> 
> I totally disagree -- the pager/tasklist should match the look of the
> `panel'. It's not a window border!

No, but it allows you to manipulate a window just like the window border does - it's a 
proxy for the window border when the window border isn't accessible.

Anyway I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one. :)
 
> |> (2) if the user changes window managers, it shouldn't affect the
> |> behaviour of the pager (since from their viewpoint, the pager is part
> |> of the desktop environment, not of the window manager)
> |
> |I don't think that's necessarily true. My point of view is that the pager 
> |manages windows, so it is part of the window manager. The basic jobs it does 
> |(moving, selecting, resizing and closing windows) are all jobs done by the 
> |window manager and not by any other part of the desktop environment.
> 
> You're looking at this from the point of view of a window manager
> hacker. To somehow who knows nothing about the underlying mechanisms, I
> think the pager would appear as part of the desktop. But I guess this
> is subjective.

I can see your point. But to a novice user, the window manager looks like part of the 
desktop as well. Once a user has enough of a clue to start thinking about changing window 
managers, he/she probably has enough of a clue to understand that the pager is part of the 
window manager (or not).

> (by orientation I meant that the pager might want to display itself
> differently in a vertical panel to in a horizontal panel; I'm not sure
> if that's necessarily true or not, but it can't tell just from the size
> of the window)

I suppose not, if the pager window is approximately square. But if it's square, what is the 
window manager going to do differently for a vertical panel? And if it's long and thin (eg 
a taskbar), the size that the panel makes the window should tell the wm the orientation.

But just in case, perhaps the panel should set a property on the swallowed window to 
indicate the panel's orientation? Then the wm can listen for PropertyNotify events in case 
the panel changes orientation.


Michael