Placing on desktops (was: Theme patriation)
- From: Thomas Thurman <tthurman gnome org>
- To: gtk-devel-list gnome org
- Subject: Placing on desktops (was: Theme patriation)
- Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:11:34 -0400
Christoph and Allin raise the question of the placement of an
application's windows on the same desktop every time the application
starts. This is known as "window matching", and there is currently no
good way to do it. The subject turns out to be on-topic for this list.
What people want is for "the same" window to appear in the same place.
There is no clear answer to what "the same" means. Obviously it's not
really the same window, because the application closed in between and
perhaps it's not even the same X session. So we need to use some
attribute of the window to decide whether it's "the same".
The ICCCM does provide a property called WM_CLASS which is supposed to
be used for this (see 4.1.2.5). Many applications don't set it and
those which do don't set it consistently enough for it to be used in
this way reliably. This is why Devil's Pie and gdevilspie require you to
tweak WM_CLASS matching rules by hand. (There's also the matter of
separation of concerns; Devil's Pie does work which a separate process
can do for those who want it, so it seems less sensible to keep it in
the window manager.)
The trouble is that knowing the semantics of a given window is not
something the WM is best equipped to do. The app is the only one
which knows what its windows are for, and which of them should be
restored to which positions, and I feel this is a job which would most
appropriately be given to the toolkit.
peace
Thomas
--
Thomas Thurman, tthurman at gnome, http://blogs.gnome.org/tthurman
The only thing you might successfully put in the lamp is a fresh pair of batteries.
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