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From: mouse@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re:  Parent window
Message-ID: <9012201915.AA22949@Larry.McRCIM.McGill.EDU>
Date: 20 Dec 90 19:15:41 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 29

> From within my client program I would like to be able to pop my
> 'parent window' forward.  (By 'parent window' I mean the xterm window
> that the user used to start my program).

First, there may not be any such window.  The program may have been
started from the user's .xinitrc or .xsession, by a window manager menu
entry, via rsh, from a dumb terminal, from a non-xterm terminal window,
etc, etc.

Second, you may not be able to in any case; the window manager can deny
the request.

Third, even if the window exists and it is successfully uniconized and
brought forward, it may not be visible even then (think tvtwm with the
"parent window" off in some other part of the desktop).

> This would allow me to use stderr and stdout for writing error
> messages.

The only way to ensure that something printed to stdout or stderr is
visible is to arrange it yourself, by putting it in a window somewhere
in your application.  (Okay, so even that doesn't ensure it; the app
could be invisible for any of various reasons.  But it's as close as
you can reasonably come.)

					der Mouse

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