Running regular X11 apps

[david at lang.hm]

On Fri, 27 Jun 2008, Marco Pesenti Gritti wrote:

> On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 11:12 AM,  <david at lang.hm> wrote:
>> I'm looking for the cheap wins first ;-)
>>
>> when people talk about different desktops, doesn't this also imply different
>> window managers for each one? if this is the case, then it should be fairly
>> simple to define a window manager that defaults to opening the app
>> fullscreen and has minimal (or non-existant) decorations on the window.
>
> Nope, there would still be a single window manager.
>
>> this wouldn't require changing any code on any apps, just selecting the
>> right window manager for that desktop (if the app never opens secondary
>> windows it doesn't need any decorations, if it does, it may need some or all
>> of the traditional decorations)
>
> There are ways we can implement different behavior for different
> windows (for example the maximus approach could be extended to do so).
> The problem is, how do we know which windows should be displayed
> fullscreen (say the firefox or the gedit one) and which not (the
> gimp)? afaik there is no window hint which could help us there...

I don't know of any hints that would provide a concete answer, but i can 
think of several things off the top of my head that could be used as 
heristics.

among them

what is the name of the program (lookup)

what size is the requested window (if it's a 80x25 screen or larger 
maximize it, if it's small don't)

is this the first window that's being opened for this program (if so 
maximize)

what is the parent of this program (if the parent is our program launcher 
maximize). this may be combined with the 'first window' logic

is this the first window that's being opened on this desktop (if so 
maximize)

I am not remembering at the moment, but do programs ever ask for a window 
and not specify it's size? (if so it's probably the main window of the 
program, maximize it)

while no heristics are perfect, I think ones can be figured out that are 
very good, and if you have a lookup table to let you specify things (and 
can use the frame button to pull up a menu to let you override the 
defaults and make an entry for this program) It may be good enough to be 
useable.

David Lang