Re: cygwin XFree86 as windows window manager ?

[Pavel Roskin <pavel_roskin at geocities dot com>]

Hello!

> I used to think that one of the things that made X so much better than
> windows was that window management was done in a seperate layer (the
> windom manager), so it could be totally customized, and that Windows
> didn't have this.

Agreed.

> Then one day I came across litestep (www.litestep.net).  Windows
> (95/98/NT) uses a desktop shell.  That happens to be one of the functions
> of explorer.exe -- that's what handles the icons on your desktop, your
> task bar, etc.

... but it doesn't manage windows. Windows are managed on a lower level.

> Litestep is styled after X type GUIs.  litestep.exe is used to replace
> explorer.exe as your desktop shell.  It's neat.  But the significant part
> here is that it can be done, has been done, and the source code is
> available under the GPL.

But it knows nothing about the X11 protocol.

> On the cygwin/xfree page, it states "One of the desired feature is;
> integration of X Desktop with Windows Desktop, so X and Win32 can share
> same desktop."  I'm guessing you mean allowing explorer to handle the X
> client windows ?

Explorer doesn't handle client windows.

> I have a more fun idea.
> What would it take to use cygwin/XFree86 as my desktop shell under windows ?

Almost nothing. Instruct you window manager to run Windows programs when
you click on certain buttons or select certain items in the menu.
Everything else will be done by the system.

However, automated creating of icons in the way how WindowMaker does may
be very hard.

Regards,
Pavel Roskin