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[wmx] Why I use wmx

Michael ROGERS - Tue Apr 20 22:01:57 1999

>I am not alone! heh...
>
>my problem with the source is that I am unfortunately not as versed as I
>would like to be in c++... ripping apart the source is kinda hairy
>then...

The reason I'm attempting this Gnome version of wm2 is to practise my C++...
even though my college is only teaching Java now (!?).

>But if it can be agreed that this is a worthwile contribution to the wmx
>source pool, then I imagine I can find the motivation to implement it.
>(self motivation somewhat lacking today) 

 Although initially I didn't see the point of your suggestion, the more I think
about it the more it makes sense. I don't really read the titlebars of windows 
to find out which one to switch to, I just look at the contents of the window. 
Maybe you should leave a 1-pixel border around the frameless windows so they 
don't look completely "lost"?
 If you #ifdef the changes, there won't be any performance loss for people who
don't want this feature. Any chance you could ad it to wm2 as well as wmx?

>the gnome compliance stuff circulating on the list lately is a neat idea,

Thanks!

>though I doubt that I would personally use it more than once ever... even
>then merely out of curiosity rather than necessity. 

Oh well. At least I'll use it.

>I can't imagine what
>benefits that gnome compliance would offer beyond channel switching. and
>the current method is more than adequate (IMHO -again I spout my
>righteousness, feel free to topple me from my all-holy alter)

Excuse me hijacking this thread to go on about my Gnome compliance project :>

 There are a few annoying things about using wm2 with Gnome. Most have to do
with the file manager (gmc). gmc creates icons on the desktop using little
undecorated windows. wm2 doesn't recognise Motif window hints, so it gives the
icons frames and titlebars. Ugly. Also, Gnome has a system for proxying root
window clicks so that the wm can pass them on to other apps if it doesn't
want them - for example gmc uses right clicks on the root window to call up a 
root menu. wm2 doesn't use right clicks for anything very useful. This just 
needs a quick hack to Buttons.C to remove the "flipping" behaviour and a 
couple of lines added to Manager.C to set up a proxy window, but I haven't got 
it working yet. My Xlib programming book is on its way...

 The other problem is session management. I want Gnomified wm2 to use the
Gnome session to store window states (position, size, layer, hidden/unhidden)
so that when you exit a Gnome session and come back in your apps restart in
the right place.

 Channel switching is outside the scope of my project for the moment - I've
decided to use wm2 as a base rather than wmx because the code is simpler.
Making the Gnome pager work with wmx channels looks like a big job - too big
for me anyway.

 I think it should be possible to use GTK+, the windowing toolkit used by most
(if not all) Gnome apps, to draw the window list. This would have the 
advantage of giving the wm2 menu and the Gnome menus the same "look and feel"
(they would share fonts and background colours). I don't think this would 
require any extra memory, because Gnome loads the GTK+ libraries for its own 
menus anyway. However, I don't know that this is true. Can anyone tell me?

 There's also the argument "if it ain't broke don't fix it", and I don't know
if consistent look and feel is an important enough issue to justify rewriting
perfectly good menu code.

 I use wm2 because it appeals to my sense of tidiness. It hardly has any 
unnecessary features and it hardly lacks any necessary features. Its looks are
stylish rather than fashionable.

 If I was using plain X, wm2 would probably be the ideal wm, but to make it 
useful in Gnome I need to add a little bit of fat, perhaps too much to make 
Gnomified wm2 a true heir to wm2/wmx.


 - Michael Rogers


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