Re: desktop layout patch

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

"Matthias Clasen" <Matthias Clasen poet de> writes:
> 
> 1) I don't think we should introduce the term "workspace switcher" here. 
> The rest of the spec
>     speaks consistently about "pagers".
>

Agree. 
 
> 2) If we end up adding this, the introduction has to be fixed. It still 
> says:

Yes.
  
> 3) There should be some hint about what wms are expected to do with the 
> layout information
>     (electric borders, straddling windows, etc)

I would write this:

  _NET_DESKTOP_LAYOUT indicates how the pager is presenting
  desktops to the user. The window manager may choose to ignore 
  this information, or may choose to implement features that 
  depend on the desktop layout, such as arrow-key-based navigation.
 
Rationale: _NET_DESKTOP_LAYOUT is just giving the WM information about
the pager. The WM need not do anything with the info. The pager need
not set the hint, if it is a menu-based pager or something. But if the
pager is showing a mini-image of each desktop, it has to arrange them
somehow, and it may as well give the WM information on that
arrangement, in case it matters. For Metacity and KWin it does matter.
 
> 4) How should wms behave if _NET_DESKTOP_LAYOUT is not present ? Suppress 
> electric
>     borders, become layout master themselves, or what ?

This is left undefined, it's up to the window manager.

Havoc