Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!decwrl!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!SHAMASH.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU!mouse
From: mouse@SHAMASH.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU (der Mouse)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: DECW$WINMGR Weirdness
Message-ID: <9006300519.AA00352@shamash.McRCIM.McGill.EDU>
Date: 30 Jun 90 05:19:38 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 25

>>> The problem is that the DEC window manager places a full-screen,
>>> pseudo-root window over the real root window.
>> There is another solution.  You could check for the existence of the
>> DEC window manager psuedo-root and then use it in your programs.
> This problem also exists for swm users when the Virtual Desktop is
> enabled.  With our next release (very soon now), you will find a C
> fragment in /usr/lib/X11/swm/vdt.c that will return the actual root
> window or the Virtual Desktop window if swm is running and the vdt is
> enabled.

I think the point is more that the application shouldn't *have* to go
through this sort of contortion just to do something with the root
window.  Sure, it can be written to handle swm and DEC's wm today, but
tomorrow some new wm will come out that does things slightly
differently and a large number of people will see the application break
when really it is not the application that's broken at all.

I now find myself curious.  A question for those who feel it necessary
to use root blanket windows like this: why?  What do you get this way
that you can't get without breaking programs like xsetroot?

					der Mouse

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