Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Windowmanager (Re: Alternative Sequencer User Interface)
From: drclaw_AT_dogsolitude.org
Date: Tue Apr 13 2004 - 21:04:51 EEST
On Tue, Apr 13, 2004 at 06:14:37PM +0200, Thorsten Wilms wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 13, 2004 at 05:01:39PM +0200, Tim Orford wrote:
> >
> > i agree that this is fairly essential functionality.
> >
> > but i think there is an argument that windows should be managed by
> > the window manager:-)
Actually, something that's kinda nice is that I think in the opera web
browser you can configure it to use either one monolithic window for
everything (the original behavior), or use the wm for windowing. I
think it's nice to give the user these choices.
> Oh, and WMs usualy don't manage loading/saving setups (Screens
> in Blender). And you can't change which app is displayed
> in a window ...
There are some programs that "remember" where all your windows were, but
if you shut down the app and start it back up (yay for dev software!),
you're pretty much out of luck.
> I think Blender's style is much more clear (where sections start/end).
> Also note that it provides no means to undock anything. A simplifying
> limitation, which has not shown to be a problem.
> And the KDE and Gnome docking systems will be designed to work inside
> the scope of _one_ app.
I agree with being able to completely fullscreen one little bit for a
short period of time to make a minor tweak. I prefer the blender
interface to many others I've used (Lightwave, at least a few years ago,
gave me a headache with its very inflexible 2x2 matix).
> > the screenshot you refer to shows separate windows running under the Ion
> > window manager which provides most if not all the features you mentioned.
> > Perhaps having these services provided by the wm makes certain things harder,
> > but it seems to be the most versatile; all apps benefit, and the user
> > has more choice and more consistency.
>
> Ion ... if I remember corectly it can't handle dialog windows gracefuly!?
> However, it's certainly not for every one, and I'm disappointed, because
> this means your app has lots of little windows
Hrm, I guess the only thing that bothers me about the Ion
approach, is how to get the wm to organize the windows in a useful
manner on the screen (similar sorts of windows next to each other). In
order to get these sorts of things working in one big monolithic window,
everything is taken care of by the main program, but when a window
manager is involved, I'm concerned that too much effort on the part of
the user will be expended trying to get the two to play nice together
and in the end there will be a whole bunch of little config file hacks
that would be completely unneccessary if the wm and the app were able to
communicate better. Of course, it would be nice if things just worked
like this so you could have a whole bunch of useful windows from
different programs on the same screen in a unified fasion...
- Mike
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