Re: Applications and layers

[Billy Biggs <vektor dumbterm net>]

Havoc Pennington (hp redhat com):

> On Mon, Jun 09, 2003 at 01:10:26PM -0500, Billy Biggs wrote:
> > [...] Also, how do you mark gkrellm as DOCK?
> 
> gkrellm is weird in all kinds of ways other than wanting to be on top,
> e.g. it has no window decorations and moves itself rather than being
> moved by the WM and so forth.

  So why would you use DOCK and not ABOVE?

> to mark as DOCK you do as it says in the spec (_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE or
> whatever hint)

  I guess I meant more practically.  How do you set this hint, do you
use another program to send it, or did you edit the gkrellm source code?
I honestly don't know how hints work besides the code I have used from
other applications, so if there's a way to use like xprop or something
to send this, it would be great since I can post that as a work around
to those who ask for this feature until I decide how to do it.

> > Your intent seems fair, but I worry that the spec is being too open
> > about how these attributes are at least intended to be used.  I
> > think more guidance can be given at least about what my
> > responsibilities are as an application.  For example, "am I
> > responsible for providing the always-on-top feature if users request
> > it for my application?"
> 
> Well, I would be open to documenting that stuff, but I think there
> probably isn't enough consensus among WM and application authors.

  Ok.  I don't know how best to proceed then.  I think it might be fun
to do an I-D style of document on 'suggestions on standards for names
and behaviors of application and window manager interactions' and try
and go through a bunch of revisions.

  -Billy