Re: getting desktop size

[Maciej Stachowiak <mstachow alum mit edu>]

George wrote:
> 
> On Sun, Feb 14, 1999 at 03:12:28PM -0500, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
> > > not to mention that I can imagine a case where the WM wants to tell the other
> > > processes that they should put their things in a specific rectangle, not just
> > > away from all the dock windows ...
> >
> > Why should the WM tell them that?
> 
> what if it uses override redirect windows ... what if it is some sort of area
> the WM will use but is not using currently ... it can jsut tell the panel to
> avoid that area ...

I don't think that is an important concern. After all, any of the screen edges are
areas the panel could potnetially use, and we don't expect apps to stay out of
those as a result. Apps should be prepared to react dynamically to non-dock available
area changing.

> or it could be some decoration of the window manager that
> the panel should stay away from ...

Then the WM should have put the appropriate dock hint on it.

> 
> basically the WM knows where it puts it's things and can therefore define
> what is the "desktop" are which desktop apps can use for it's
> icons/panels/etc...

It doesn't know where random override-redirect windows are, so that can't be
a complete solution anyway. Also, if multiple panel-like apps are using these
hints, they need to avoid other dock-layer apps but not themselves, so a single
desktop area hint will not help them anyway, they need to do calculations and
checks themselves anyway.

> > Not really. The processes that care just select on the appropriate events, which
> > the server is generating anyway. I really think we should stay away gratuitously
> > adding new hints just as conveniences. In my strongly held opinion, _WIN_ hints
> > should be added only to communicate information that the app or WM can't currently
> > get. Keeping things simple is good because it makes implementing the hints in
> > new window managers simpler. If Gnome wants to stay true to its goals of window
> > manager independence, we should keep the threshold of implementing the extra hints
> > as low as possible.
> 
> it can still be independent ... this is not a hint without which it will not
> work ... it's a "HINT" ... not a "POLICY" ... if a window manager doesn't
> implement it ... fine ... if it does, it can get the panel avoiding it's
> docks and stuff like that ...
> 
> I don't think the panel can guess exactly what the WM is doing so it's not
> something that the panel knows already ...

The panel can tell where all the windows are and which have a dock-layer hint.
As I understand it, all this hint is saying is what area is not covered by such 
windows. If there are any windos that make a given area "unusable" for whatever
purpose, those windows should have an appropriate hint on them.

 - Maciej