Actually XLib does provide control over layering windows, input focus, z-order, virtual desktops. It's the window manager (KWin, Compiz, Metacity, IceWM, and so on) which handles this.
As such, with some tookits and window manager combinations it's not possible to do certain things without special code to work around specific combinations of both. For example, when writing a Gtk2 application with Compiz it's not possible to alter the z-order of your application, ie bringing it to the foreground and/or activating it. XLib won't help you with this. But the good news is that most all window managers expose window management functionality through a common protocol: NetWM For example the _NET_WM_STATE message can be used to reorder the stack of application windows above or below one another (bringing your application to the top). It can be used to make your window sticky (to appear in the same place in all workspaces). The _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW can be used to find application window with input focus. It can also be used to give input focus to another application window. These are all thing which XLib doesn't cover, and areas where Lazarus and some toolkits/window managers struggle with parity. That is, without a common protocol like NetWM. Anyhow, if anyone is still interested, I've written a Free Pascal unit to interface with the NetWM protocol. So far I've tested it with Gtk2 on Compix with the following functionality: Show/hide desktop [x] works Switch workspace [x] works Sticky/unsticky a window [x] works Move window to a different workspace [x] works Cycle various application z-orders [x] works I will implement a few more functions and then post the unit to github. I'd like to get application activation, bypassing window animations, and a few other features working. When posted if people with different window managers (KDE's KWin) want to test it, that would be great.
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