Re: Pending EWMH additions

[Gregory Merchan <merchan phys lsu edu>]

On Wed, Jul 10, 2002 at 08:38:18AM +0200, Matthias Clasen wrote:
> > FVWM and MWM are the only programs which come close to proper handling
> > of a manager selection. FVWM 2.5.2 has a FIXME for the multiple target.
> > MWM may handle the manager selection alright, but fails to handle the
> > VERSION target required of it as a window manager.
> 
> I just recently noted that Metacity also handles the manager selection.
> At least the handshaking with fvwm worked, don't know about MULTIPLE
> or VERSION support. 

Ah, indeed; as of 2002-06-08. Borrowed from FVWM. :-)
(Including attribution and the same FIXME for MULTIPLE handling.)


> > I've written to X.org for information about getting the ICCCM fixed.
> > They have not replied.
> 
> Whats the problem in the ICCCM ?

The MULTIPLE target is the foremost problem; nobody handles it and I'm
not sure it's possible to do so. There is partial handling; I think
complete handling may be impossible because there is no limit on length
or nesting of the request. Also, nobody requests it; yet it is a required
target for all selection owners.

There are some updates which need to be made too, such as UTF8_STRING.
That we even need EWMH is a sign that it's out of date.

Some of the assumptions made do not work with most UIs developed after
Win3.x and also a few that came before it. I may produce a list at some
other time.


> > Rather than leaving it as insider information, the EWMH should explicitly
> > relax the expectation of ICCCM 2.0 compliance. The same is true for the
> > other XDG specifications.
> 
> Sorry, I can't follow you here. Leaving what as insider information ?

That nobody really expects full ICCCM 2.0 compliance is insider information.

  From: http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/wm-spec/

  1.4. Prerequisites for adoption of this specification
    Window Managers and Clients which aim to fulfil this specification
    MUST adhere to the ICCCM on which this specification builds. If this
    specification explicitly modifies the ICCCM Window Managers and Clients
    MUST fulfil these modifications.

I'd list the exceptions in Section 2 and rename the section - something like
"Variations from ICCCM 2.0".


Cheers,
Greg Merchan