Re: Window Manager compliance

["Michael Rogers" <bastard_machine hotmail com>]

>On Thu, May 20, 1999 at 07:43:41AM -0700, Michael Rogers wrote:
> > >On Thu, May 20, 1999 at 03:13:05AM -0700, Derek Simkowiak wrote:
> > 1) Some window managers don't handle setting the background (which is 
>why
> > Gnome has that capability in the first place).
>
>Some people like that in a WM. I don't see that as a problem, but
>as a feature.

*I* like that in a WM! I want my WM to be as small as possible. My point is 
that either Gnome or another program needs to provide this feature, but not 
both.

> > 2) A new user would (reasonably) expect the background to be configured 
>in
> > the same place that other desktop settings are configured.
>
>Which is entirely possible. You can start your WM's configuration
>program from the control-center.

Good point.

> > We need to move away from X-oriented window managers which duplicate 
>Gnome
> > functionality, towards Gnome-oriented window managers which are small 
>and
> > unobtrusive. This will happen, since new window managers are being 
>written
> > specifically with Gnome or KDE in mind, but it will happen more smoothly 
>if
> > the line between "window manager tasks" and "desktop tasks" is clearly
> > defined.
>I thought gnome explicitly wanted to be WM independant.

That's a nice idea, but in reality Gnome compliance demands deep changes to 
the way a window manager behaves. To comply, existing window managers have 
to be patched or rewritten. I'm simply suggesting that one of the many 
features which Gnome compliance should include is that the window manager 
should ignore the desktop background.

Non-compliant window managers can be used, of course, but some duplication 
of features occurs.


Michael Rogers


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