On Tuesday 22 January 2002 14:21, Jamin W. Collins wrote:
> On Mon, 2002-01-21 at 23:44, Marius Nita wrote:
> > both of these "issues" are discussed in the xinerama howto at
> > linuxdoc.org.
>
> It should be noted that this "howto", which can be found here:
>
> http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Xinerama-HOWTO.html
>
> has no relation to the development of Xinerama. The views expressed
> within it are the opinions of the author and his contributors, not of
> the developers of Xinerama.
So? The Xinerama idea of creating a single logical screen out of multiple
simply does not work well for desktop usage. Unfortunately Xinerama is the
only way to achieve a good desktop when using two monitors; starting two X
servers is only one light gray box better than having two separate machines.
>From the HOWTO:
"As I mentioned above, a window manager does not need to be written to
support Xinerama. However there are certain enhancements which window manager
developers can do to make Xinerama users lives easier. Features which I
thought were desireable include:
* Intelligent placement of windows. Window managers should not place windows
in dead areas or across the borders of two heads. New windows should be
placed in the current desktop.
* Maximizing windows should maximize the window to the current head only.
* Window Movements should have edge resistance between heads (Much like they
have resistance to other windows).
* Dialogs and informative messages should not pop up Between Heads."
This is all correct. It doesn't matter what Xinerama authors or Bill Gates or
your grandmother might think about Xinerama usage. This HOWTO describes what
the sane approach for a desktop windowmanager is. I doubt that you have ever
actually worked with a Xinerama desktop on two monitors with a wm that
doesn't support it. I suggest you try it before you bitch about not putting
in obvious features.
This is what Sawfish - and similarly for KWin now, I believe - implemented
(again from the HOWTO):
" * Preventing Windows from being mapped across heads
* Preventing Windows from being mapped in dead spots
* Edge resistance moving between heads
* Centered and Random placement modes place windows on the current Head"
Again IMHO sane approaches. Of course the edge resistance shouldn't happen,
if a user has disabled it for real edges.
Please guys, review the patch. It's the right thing to do, the question is
only how to do it. If the patch has technical issues, these can be solved.
Bo.
--
Bo Thorsen | Praestevejen 4
Free software developer | 5290 Marslev
SuSE Labs | Denmark
