Re: "What's this"

[Sasha_Vasko osca state mo us]

> Sasha_Vasko osca state mo us writes:
> >
> > So what is this exactly we are arguing about ? What is your
alternative?
> >
>
> My original thought on this was just a spec for putting the ? button
> in the WM decoration. That is, the client would set a hint "I support
> what's this" and the WM would send a message if the user clicked the
> what's this button. But the actual help is just within the app.

Hmm, is thtat really all that simple? I mean upon receiving such a message
app would have to grab pointer. But pointer may still be on titlebar -
which
is window Managers area of resposibility. Just as well user mayhave gone
and quickly clicked somewhere else, while "What's this" message was
traveling
from window manager to client app.

> The more ambitious idea is that clicking what's this works for the
> entire desktop. This would require a protocol similar to
> drag-and-drop, which would normally be implemented in toolkits (since
> the only people who no longer use toolkits are people writing window
> managers, pretty much, and even the newer WMs use a toolkit whenever
> they want to display dialogs and such).
>
> This would work similar to drag-and-drop; a client would enter what's
> this mode (grab pointer, change cursor); somehow notify other clients
> that the mode was entered so they could highlight targets; as you
> moved the pointer around, it would change to indicate whether you were
> on a target; when you then clicked on a target, the target would
> receive some sort of message and reply back to the whatsthis-mode
> owner app that it should release the grab and leave the mode.

well, that could be achieved by using same XDND with some custom Action
type
(AFAIK). BTW XDND does uses selection :)

> There is a problem with inconsistency between toolkits, but this same
> problem exists for all aspects of toolkit look-and-feel, and it can be
> solved via theme coordination in the same way we'll solve e.g. button
> appearance.

Heh, still idea of linking whole HTML widget into tiny clock app for the
sole
purpose of being able to display some short info strikes me as monstrous.


>
> Havoc
>

Sasha Vasko