Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!stan!ninja!toml From: toml@ninja.Solbourne.COM (Tom LaStrange) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: DECW$WINMGR Weirdness Message-ID: <1990Jul2.150127.5540@Solbourne.COM> Date: 2 Jul 90 15:01:27 GMT References: <9006300519.AA00352@shamash.McRCIM.McGill.EDU> Sender: news@Solbourne.COM Reply-To: toml@solbourne.com Organization: Solbourne Computer, Inc. Lines: 43 |> >>> 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 You can get a large pannable "root" window. The problem is that the ICCCM doesn't address the problem, it even admits that further work needs to be done. I know work on virtual root window extensions was being done around R3 but I don't know anything about what was good/bad about the implementation. I know it's simplistic, but something that would help is something like a WM_ROOT property placed on client windows that would tell the window who its logical root window is. This type of property would make multiple "rooms" pardigms much easier to implement because each room could then be a seperate X window. Thoughts? -- Tom LaStrange Solbourne Computer Inc. ARPA: toml@Solbourne.COM 1900 Pike Rd. UUCP: ...!{boulder,sun}!stan!toml Longmont, CO 80501