Re: [Nautilus-list] Re: Nautilus vs. xpenguins

[Telsa Gwynne <hobbit aloss ukuu org uk>]

On Mon, Jun 04, 2001 at 08:30:16AM -0400 or thereabouts, Ben FrantzDale wrote:
> I've been thinking some about these root-window hacks. I think Nautilus
> covering the desktop seems like the RightWay for various reasons (One of
> many reasons is that this way icons with lots of transparent pixels are
> still easily clickable.) but I see the place for fun stuff like xsnow,
> xpenguins, and xearth. It seems like the best way for root-window hacks
> to coexist with nautilus would be some way for hacks to be written
> specifically with Nautilus in mind. 
> 
> I'm imagining a plugin system that would allow programs to draw on the
> Nautilus desktop directly. This would allow for antialiased xsnow, icons
> casting shadows on hacks and the like.
> 
> Perhaps this is a crazy idea but I havn't heard it suggested yet so I
> thought I'd chip in.

Not that crazy. It turns out that KDE2 also puts a window on the
root window, and so do several other programs. So the xpenguins author 
now has this on http://xpenguins.seul.org/

   Since version 2.1, xpenguins works with KDE 2, Nautilus and various
   other virtual window managers that put a big desktop window over the
   root window. It will not work with CDE.

2.1 came out last week. Presumably other programs could take the same 
approach as xpenguins?

Telsa