Re: _NET_SHOWING_DESKTOP, per workspace vs. global

[Elijah P Newren <newren math utah edu>]

On Tue, 2004-08-10 at 14:12 +0200, Lubos Lunak wrote:

>  In KDE the show desktop button affects only the current virtual desktop and 
> switching it simply unsets the show desktop state (well it would if there 
> wasn't a bug).
> 
> >
> > Havoc did suggest that perhaps having _NET_SHOWING_DESKTOP be an array
> > would be a little cleaner.  That makes sense to me, but I'm lazy.
> 
>  AFAIK there are implementations which check exact size of properties and bail 
> out if it doesn't match, so I'm afraid this can't be done, and extending 
> properties needs to be done by replacing them with new ones :(. Too bad the 
> spec lacks some comment saying that additional data should be ignored if 
> there's any.

i.e. "Elijah doesn't have to do any more work; the current metacity
patch is fine."

I like that.  :-)

> > Anyway, see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=142198 for the
> > details.
> 
>  I have a different problem with this property. There are 3 things that can 
> happen if you have the show desktop state turned on, and you start new 
> application. They are very well described at 
> http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-usability&m=108274247022218&w=2 . No matter what 
> you choose, somebody complains :(. KDE used to do 2), now it does 3), GNOME 
> seems to do 1). And as you can see in the mail, there's always somebody who 
> doesn't like that. Moreover as I read the vague description in the spec, 3) 
> is actually not fully compliant with it.

I don't like any of the three, really.  I guess it boils down to the
fact that some users want to minimize all the applications and start
using different ones (while on the same desktop), while others want a
quick way to access their desktop icons or menu without losing their
previous state.  I have no solution, but I do have an alternate choice
which may be no better than any of the other three:

(4) Don't leave the showing desktop state unless the user manually does
so.  If the user tries to launch a window, don't show it but instead set
the _NET_WM_STATE_DEMANDS_ATTENTION hint.  If the user tries to restore
a window from the taskbar, pop up a dialog telling the user they need to
leave show desktop state.  Perhaps offer a button on that dialog to do
it for them.

Of course, this choice is merely an attempt to educate the user about
what would be inconsistent for the window manager and other users in
general.  And this doesn't satisfy the users who want a quick "minimize
all" action (though perhaps that should be separate anyway?).

*shrug*

>  Do you have perhaps have something similar in your bugzilla or somewhere? I 
> really don't know what to do with this damn button :(.

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92335 looks like the main one.

-- 
Elijah P Newren <newren math utah edu>