Re: xclock -borderwidth 0?

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

john cs york ac uk writes:

> Is there any explanation in any of the Gnome documentation of why Unix
> commands like `xclock -borderwidth 0' don't result in a command
> window without a window border? (Is this instead a matter of the window
> manager in use? I've tried Enlightenment, Sawfish, Twm and Window Maker.)
> A user here has an old self-written program that he wants to appear without
> a border, for unintelligible reasons of his own. He complains that
> `-borderwidth 0' used to work on the SGI Indy Magic desktop he used to
> use before being switched to Linux and Gnome. (He is still using Gnome
> 1.4, but hopes to switch to 2.0 shortly.) I've searched the Gnome
> documentation without success.

The core X idea of window borders is an old concept that dates
from the era when it was too expensive for window managers to
draw borders on windows. (Or at least, when people weren't sure
if they would.)

So, X has a feature where windows can specify a border that
the window manager draws in a different color from the main
window.

99% of all windows will have a border width of 0, since the app
assumes the window manager will draw something. For the 1% that
do have a border width set, modern window managers will simply
ignore that seting.

There probably was some magic going on either in the window 
manager or the toolkit to turn a -borderwith 0 option into
a window without a window manager frame, but I can't really
guess what that magic woudl be.

Regards,
                                        Owen