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Re: [packages] gtk+, glib, imlib


Nicholas Wourms wrote:
That's true, *sigh*, I know what you mean.  Tho I can't quite understand
what this driving desire for a rootless X server is all about?  To my
death, I'll never understand why people like the explorer window manager
over the X alternatives.  I mean c'mon people, Windows Explorer as a
window manager sucks.  Why would you want it to manage your X
applications?  I don't know about most people, but I like the current way
X works, in fact I like the full screen even better.  In fact I wish there
was a way to do the opposite of running X in rootless mode.  If there were
only a way to get windows binaries to pop up inside X, then I could just
ditch this crummy explorer windows manager and use X full time.  In fact,
on Darwin, I hate the window manager for Aqua.  I'd much prefer to run
kde3 any day then to run that OpenSTEP look-alike.

Windows Explorer isn't a window manager. Windows Explorer is the file manager. It also runs the taskbar, start menu, and desktop. All the movement of windows is handled by the operating systemr. In X, the window managers mainly handle the frames and moving the windows. Various ones do menus, taskbars, desktops, but many leave those to other processes.

BTW, it should be possible to run an external window manager in rootless mode. There are two ways to do rootless mode. One is to have an internal window manager in the X server so that Windows handles the movement and sends events to the X server. The second way has an external window manager. In both cases, each top-level X window is mapped to a Windows window instead of one big window like now. In external mode, the windows are bordless since the external window manager draws the frame and converts mouse events into movement. The external mode probably is easier to write only the wrapping code is needed.

- Ian

--
Ian Burrell
iburrell@znark.com
http://www.znark.com/


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