Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!samsung!olivea!uunet!mcsun!ukc!pyrltd!tetrauk!rick
From: rick@tetrauk.UUCP (Rick Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: WM_TRANSIENT_FOR hint
Message-ID: <1145@tetrauk.UUCP>
Date: 29 Apr 91 09:01:35 GMT
Reply-To: rick@tetrauk.UUCP (Rick Jones)
Organization: Tetra Ltd., Maidenhead, UK
Lines: 35

I would like to know how consistently different window managers treat windows
created with the WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property (i.e. using the
XSetTransientForHint() function).  I am currently using the Motif WM, and the
behaviour of these windows is exactly right for the application I am building.
It does the following:

a.	Honours PPosition & PSize hints absolutely
b.	Does not display title bar buttons
c.	Allows the window to be moved and resized, but not zoomed of iconified
d.	Hides the window when the parent is iconified
e.	Preserves stacking order -
		the window cannot be placed under its logical parent

The stacking behaviour is preserved to multiple levels, so a transient window
can have transient sub-windows, etc.  All are hidden when the overall
non-transient parent is iconified.  This allows the application to present the
visual metaphor of a pile of forms on the desk, but with a constrained logical
relationship between them so that the user cannot shuffle them into an
incoherent muddle (this is important to the concept of the application I am
building).

My question is: do all WMs provide this behaviour for transient windows?  It
would be much better if I can leave the logic of this to the WM, but can I rely
on it if I don't know what WM the user will be running?  The only alternative
would be to support all this within one large application window, but I don't
really want to do that.

Is there any standard reference on what a WM should do with these sort of
things, or is it all just "implemetation defined"?

-- 
Rick Jones, Tetra Ltd.  Maidenhead, Berks, UK
rick@tetrauk.uucp

Any fool can provide a solution - the problem is to understand the problem