StaysOnTop (was Re: applied patch)

[Michael ROGERS <M Rogers cs ucl ac uk>]

>> Why have things like Skip(Taskbar|Pager), but not StaysOnTop?  The argument 
>> against StaysOnTop has always been that it doesn't belong client side, and 
>> should be done through window manager configuration.  This is quite 
>> frustrating, I agree, but why include thinks like sticky and 
>> on-all-desktops if we don't include StaysOnTop (the next logical step).

I didn't think "sticky" or "appears on all desktops" were intended to be set 
by clients - I thought they were part of the wm<->pager interface, firstly to 
allow the pager to predict the wm's behaviour (so the pager knows whether to 
show the panel on all desktops in its miniature representation, for example), 
and secondly to allow the user to toggle these properties either through the 
window border or through the pager/taskbar.

If these hints are part of the wm<->pager interface, StaysOnTop makes as 
much sense as Sticky (as long as window managers can indicate through 
_NET_SUPPORTED that they don't want to support the hint). But if the hints 
are meant to be set by the client, StaysOnTop is just asking for trouble. 
How can a client know whether its window should stay on top without any 
awareness of which other clients are running? That's a user decision, and 
the best place for the user to express that choice (for reasons of 
consistency and completeness) is through the window manager.

JMHO.

Michael