Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!husc6!purdue!bu-cs!bzs
From: bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Tiling window managers (long, theoretical post)
Message-ID: <22982@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 28 May 88 17:45:55 GMT
References: <8805272034.AA10477@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
Organization: Boston U. Comp. Sci.
Lines: 21
In-reply-to: Sean.Levy@EDRC.CMU.EDU's message of 27 May 88 20:34:37 GMT


Actually, I was a little short-sighted in my question/comment on
tiled window managers.

There's two issues (at least hypothetically), general desktop and as
an application tool. My somewhat negative reaction was to tiling on
the desktop. I've used applications that did the same thing within
their own, coordinated world (eg. Composer on the Mac is more or less
tiling) and it is a fairly natural thing, probably owing to the fact
that the purpose of the windows being moved/sized is known about
somewhat by the manager. The style seems to weaken the less the
manager knows about the purpose of the windows (eg. having an xterm
become a thin stripe down the length of the side of the screen is
pretty useless and arbitrary if some output comes to it, something I
remember cwm doing.)

So the issue at least splits down that line, general desktop utility
versus an application tool to help the user manage multiple related
windows such as pallettes or meters.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University