Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!mordor!sri-spam!sri-unix!quintus!pds
From: pds@quintus.UUCP (Peter Schachte)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: A general problem with the X toolkit and window managers
Message-ID: <909@sandino.quintus.UUCP>
Date: 28 Apr 88 00:15:00 GMT
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA
Lines: 19

I think I see a general problem with the X toolkit vis-a-vis window
managers, and I wonder if anyone has any ideas about this, or can tell
me why this isn't a problem.  If I create an X window (whose parent is
root), the window manager can jump in and put on title bars, close
widgets, and whatever it wants, in order to create the desired look and
feel.  This is good.  However, if my program puts a scrollbar in that
window, the code to implement the scrollbar is part of my program's
executable, so the window manager can't do anything to implement it's
look and feel for scrollbars.  Whoever's toolkit I use when compiling
my program supplies the look and feel to my scrollbar, and no matter
what window manager I run, the scrollbar will look the same.  This
seems to defeat the idea of allowing users to choose their window
manager.  Wouldn't it make more sense for the implementation of the
widgets in the toolkit to live in the window manager?

Or am I completely confused?
-- 
-Peter Schachte
pds@quintus.uucp
...!sun!quintus!pds