Re: override_redirect of X Window System

[Mike Hearn <mike@theoretic.com>]

On Wed, 2003-09-24 at 19:17, Jan D. wrote:
> And that is what I said.

I'm confused then. Why is it relevant? I don't think the functionality
in that bug lets apps place themselves above the panel, I think it's
there so users can move them  there.

> The good things about standards is that there are so many to choose 
> from :-)

Not here :) There is only one protocol for fullscreening apps that I'm
aware of.

> Seriously, there are WMs that where created before EWMH existed.  One
> is CDE, which is used a lot.  Others in use still, are fvwm 1.x, olvwm,
> mwm and KDE 1.x.

Sure, but so what? There are people who still use Netscape 1, does that
mean we shouldn't use anything not available in that version on the web?

> If we add a solution to Emacs that says "call this function to get
> fullscreen" and then it does not work on peoples WMs, I think we are
> going to see bug reports.  

If it's done using override-redirect it will generate more. Believe me,
this is the technique we use currently in Wine, and it breaks pretty
much everything (z-ordering, panels etc). There's a reason that protocol
was developed, and it's because it's badly needed.

> And if there is one response I don't like
> w.r.t. things that doesn't work, it is "please change your
> unrelated app/version/OS... to something else".

Hacks for ancient/buggy WMs don't belong in emacs. If somebody insists
on using software that doesn't keep up with the times, then they should
be prepared to sacrifice some features.

> Exposing XSendEvent can be potentially useful for more things than
> fullscreen.  For example, expand vertically and/or horizontally that
> are also in EWMH.

That's true, but XSendEvent as an API is rather cumbersome, not to
mention large. I'm not sure it makes sense to try and expose so much of
Xlib in elisp.

thanks -mike