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From: dshr@eng.sun.COM (David Rosenthal)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: XWarpPointer revisited.....
Message-ID: <9101212345.AA03235@devnull.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 21 Jan 91 23:30:46 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 41

Martin Brunecky writes:

>     The "popup non-obscuring" or "popup at screen-center" etc, however,
>     require pointer motion (either by the user or by the application).
>     My suggestion for this scenario was that there are situations where
>     warping the pointer by the application *may* be appropriate, and
>     may not disturb the direct manipulation paradigm any more than the
>     popup itself does.
> 
The important words here are "warping the pointer by the application" not
just "warping the pointer".  Tom LaStrange points out:
> 
> Actually, OPEN LOOK applications and window managers can provide this exact 
> behavior.  This is accomplished through the private OL Client/WM protocol
> and it is actually the window manager that does the warpping.
> 
This provides the behaviour you want *without* the problems caused by
the application warping the pointer.  The ICCCM does not restrict 
warping the pointer by the window manager.

Note that the behaviour being discussed is part of the overall look and feel
that should be consistent between applications.  Inconsistent behaviour in
this area would be worse than consistent behaviour that you didn't like.
This isn't an area that the application programmer should be writing
at all - use what your toolkit gives you and if you don't like it beat
up on your toolkit supplier.  So,  the rules are:

-	If you are writing an application and find yourself tempted to warp
	the pointer,  take a long walk or a cold shower.  The feeling will
	pass and in the long term you'll feel much better for not doing it.
	
-	If you are writing a toolkit and find yourself tempted to warp the
	pointer,  try and resist.  If you fail,  make sure you abide by the
	ICCCM rules and restrict yourself to things like scrollbars.  If you
	want to warp into popups,  use a private protocol with the WM like
	OPEN LOOK.
	
-	If you are writing a window manager and find yourself tempted to warp
	the pointer,  go right ahead and indulge yourself.
	
	David.