On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 04:01:09PM -0000, Bjartur Thorlacius wrote: > Dwm creates a dock (status bar) of its own and manages unlike any other x > window. Dwm is configured to use a menu that, rather than being managed > like any other x window, requests exemption from window management. By > your logic, if dmenu is not best "rendered like any other x window" than > dmenu is broken, and so is the status bar.
Your logic is inconsistent. The status bar and dwm are not 'managed unlike any other x window' because they are not managed at all. This is, in my opinion, a superior alternative to overengineering a ridiculous set of specifications to accomplish the simple things that dmenu and the status bar provide. ewmh is flawed because it presumes a specific interface paradigm. it provides nothing that dmenu or the status bar need that cannot be provided with override-redirect. I'll agree dwm would be improved with a simple way to access a list of tags and which clients are mapped to them, but I don't think that has anything to do with adhering to a mostly-inapplicable x window specification. > A design decision moot by the very menu that dwm is configured for by > default and maintained along with. Remove override-redirect from dmenu, > and I'll believe this is a question of design. Again, your logic is bad. dmenu's use of override-redirect is a big part of why dmenu is so popular beyond dwm usage. Even the haskell guys over at xmonad and the indescribable goons who make and use awesomewm -- both groups use dmenu, because its simplicity and reliability is pretty unassailable. Best of all, this list doesn't have to hear whining about how dmenu isn't showing up right in <insert non-ewmh, non-icccm window manager>. It, to coin a phrase, Just Works.