diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'twin/wm-spec/x24.html')
| -rw-r--r-- | twin/wm-spec/x24.html | 496 |
1 files changed, 496 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/twin/wm-spec/x24.html b/twin/wm-spec/x24.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000..47b406d0b --- /dev/null +++ b/twin/wm-spec/x24.html @@ -0,0 +1,496 @@ +<HTML +><HEAD +><TITLE +>Non-ICCCM features</TITLE +><META +NAME="GENERATOR" +CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.72 +"><LINK +REL="HOME" +HREF="index.html"><LINK +REL="PREVIOUS" +HREF="index.html"><LINK +REL="NEXT" +TITLE="Root Window Properties (+Related Messages)" +HREF="x107.html"></HEAD +><BODY +CLASS="SECT1" +BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" +TEXT="#000000" +LINK="#0000FF" +VLINK="#840084" +ALINK="#0000FF" +><DIV +CLASS="NAVHEADER" +><TABLE +SUMMARY="Header navigation table" +WIDTH="100%" +BORDER="0" +CELLPADDING="0" +CELLSPACING="0" +><TR +><TH +COLSPAN="3" +ALIGN="center" +></TH +></TR +><TR +><TD +WIDTH="10%" +ALIGN="left" +VALIGN="bottom" +><A +HREF="index.html" +ACCESSKEY="P" +>Prev</A +></TD +><TD +WIDTH="80%" +ALIGN="center" +VALIGN="bottom" +></TD +><TD +WIDTH="10%" +ALIGN="right" +VALIGN="bottom" +><A +HREF="x107.html" +ACCESSKEY="N" +>Next</A +></TD +></TR +></TABLE +><HR +ALIGN="LEFT" +WIDTH="100%"></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT1" +><H1 +CLASS="SECT1" +><A +NAME="AEN24" +>2. Non-ICCCM features</A +></H1 +><P +>There is a number of window management features or behaviours which are +not specified in the ICCCM, but are commonly met in modern Window Managers and Desktop Environments.</P +><DIV +CLASS="SECT2" +><H2 +CLASS="SECT2" +><A +NAME="AEN27" +>2.1. Additional States</A +></H2 +><P +>The ICCCM allows Window Managers to implement additional window states, which will +appear to clients as substates of NormalState and IconicState. Two +commonly met examples are Maximized and Shaded. A Window Manager may implement these +as proper substates of NormalState and IconicState, or it may treat them +as independent flags, allowing e.g. a maximized window to be iconified +and to re-appear as maximized upon de-iconification.</P +><DIV +CLASS="SECT3" +><H3 +CLASS="SECT3" +><A +NAME="AEN30" +>2.1.1. Maximization</A +></H3 +><P +>Maximization is a very old feature of Window Managers. There was even a ZoomedState +in early ICCCM drafts. Maximizing a window should give it as much of the +screen area as possible (this may not be the full screen area, but only +a smaller 'workarea', since the Window Manager may have reserved certain areas for other +windows). A Window Manager is expected to remember the geometry of a maximized window +and restore it upon de-maximization. Modern Window Managers typically allow separate +horizontal and vertical maximization.</P +><P +>With the introduction of the Xinerama extension in X11 R6.4, maximization +has become more involved. Xinerama allows a screen to span multiple +monitors in a freely configurable geometry. In such a setting, maximizing +a window would ideally not grow it to fill the whole screen, but only the +monitor it is shown on. There are of course borderline cases for windows +crossing monitor boundaries, and 'real' maximization to the full screen may +sometimes be useful.</P +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT3" +><H3 +CLASS="SECT3" +><A +NAME="AEN34" +>2.1.2. Shading</A +></H3 +><P +>Some Desktop Environments offer shading (also known as rollup) as an alternative to +iconfication. A shaded window typically shows only the titlebar, the client +window is hidden, thus shading is not useful for windows which are not +decorated with a titlebar.</P +></DIV +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT2" +><H2 +CLASS="SECT2" +><A +NAME="AEN37" +>2.2. Modality</A +></H2 +><P +>The Window Manager _TRANSIENT_FOR hint of the ICCCM allows clients to specify that a +toplevel window may be closed before the client finishes. A typical example +of a transient window is a dialog. Some dialogs can be open for a long time, +while the user continues to work in the main window. Other dialogs have to be +closed before the user can continue to work in the main window. This property +is called modality. While clients can implement modal windows in an ICCCM +compliant way using the globally active input model, some Window Managers offer support +for handling modality.</P +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT2" +><H2 +CLASS="SECT2" +><A +NAME="LARGEDESKS" +>2.3. Large Desktops</A +></H2 +><P +>The Window Manager may offer to arrange the managed windows on a desktop that is +larger than the root window. The screen functions as a viewport on this large +desktop. Different policies regarding the positioning of the viewport on the +desktop can be implemented: The Window Manager may only allow to change the viewport +position in increments of the screen size (paging) or it may allow arbitrary +positions (scrolling).</P +><P +>To fulfill the ICCCM principle that clients should behave the same +regardless wether a Window Manager is running or not, Window Managers which +implement large desktops must interpret all client-provided geometries with +respect to the current viewport.</P +><DIV +CLASS="SECT3" +><H3 +CLASS="SECT3" +><A +NAME="LARGEDESKSIMPL" +>2.3.1. Implementation note</A +></H3 +><P +>There are two options for implementing a large desktop: The first is to +keep the managed windows (or, if reparenting, their frames) as children +of the root window. Moving the viewport is achieved by moving all managed +windows in the opposite direction.</P +><P +>The second alternative is to reparent all managed windows to a dedicated +large window (somewhat inappropriately called a 'virtual root'). Moving +the viewport is then achieved by moving the virtual root in the opposite +direction.</P +><P +>Both alternatives are completely ICCCM compliant, although the second one +may be somewhat problematic for clients trying to figure out the Window Manager decorations +around their toplevel windows and for clients trying to draw background +images on the root window.</P +></DIV +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT2" +><H2 +CLASS="SECT2" +><A +NAME="AEN49" +>2.4. Sticky windows</A +></H2 +><P +>A Window Manager which implements a large desktop typically offers a way for the user +to make certain windows 'stick to the glass', i.e. these windows will stay +at the same position on the screen when the viewport is moved.</P +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT2" +><H2 +CLASS="SECT2" +><A +NAME="AEN52" +>2.5. Virtual Desktops</A +></H2 +><P +>Most X servers have only a single screen. The Window Manager may virtualize this +resource and offer multiple so-called 'virtual desktops', of which only one +can be shown on the screen at a time. There is some variation among the +features of virtual desktop implementations. There may be a fixed number +of desktops, or new ones may be created dynamically. The size of the desktops +may be fixed or variable. If the desktops are larger than the root window, +their viewports (see <A +HREF="x24.html#LARGEDESKS" +>Section 2.3</A +>) may be independent or forced to be at the same +position.</P +><P +>A Window Manager which implements virtual desktops generally offers a way for the user +to move clients between desktops. Clients may be allowed to occupy more than +one desktop simultaneously.</P +><DIV +CLASS="SECT3" +><H3 +CLASS="SECT3" +><A +NAME="AEN57" +>2.5.1. Implementation note</A +></H3 +><P +>There are at least two options for implementing virtual desktops. +The first is to use multiple virtual roots (see <A +HREF="x24.html#LARGEDESKSIMPL" +>Section 2.3.1</A +>) and change the current +desktop by manipulating the stacking order of the virtual roots. This is +completely ICCCM compliant, but has the issues outlined in <A +HREF="x24.html#LARGEDESKSIMPL" +>Section 2.3.1</A +></P +><P +>The second option is to keep all managed windows as children of the root +window and unmap the frames of those which are not on the current +desktop. Unmapped windows should be placed in IconicState, according to +the ICCCM. Windows which are actually iconified or minimized +should have the _NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN property set, to +communicate to Pagers that the window should not be represented as +"onscreen."</P +></DIV +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT2" +><H2 +CLASS="SECT2" +><A +NAME="AEN63" +>2.6. Pagers</A +></H2 +><P +>A pager offers a different UI for window management tasks. It shows a +miniature view of the desktop(s) representing managed windows by small +rectangles and allows the user to initiate various Window Manager actions by manipulating +these representations. Typically offered actions are activation (see <A +HREF="x24.html#ACTIVATION" +>Section 2.8</A +>), +moving, restacking, iconification, maximization and closing. On a large +desktop, the pager may offer a way to move the viewport. On virtual desktops, +the pager may offer ways to move windows between desktops and to change the +current desktop.</P +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT2" +><H2 +CLASS="SECT2" +><A +NAME="AEN67" +>2.7. Taskbars</A +></H2 +><P +>A taskbar offers another UI for window management tasks. It typically +represents client windows as a list of buttons labelled with the window +titles and possibly icons. Pressing a button initiates a Window Manager action on the +represented window, typical actions being activation and iconification. +In environments with a taskbar, icons are often considered inappropriate, +since the iconified windows are already represented in the taskbar.</P +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT2" +><H2 +CLASS="SECT2" +><A +NAME="ACTIVATION" +>2.8. Activation</A +></H2 +><P +>In the X world, activating a window means to give it the input focus. +This may not be possible if the window is unmapped, because it is on a +different desktop. Thus, activating a window may involve additional steps +like moving it to the current desktop (or changing to the desktop the window +is on), deiconifying it or raising it.</P +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT2" +><H2 +CLASS="SECT2" +><A +NAME="AEN73" +>2.9. Animated iconification</A +></H2 +><P +>Some Window Managers display some form of animation when (de-)iconifying a window. +This may be a line drawing connecting the corners of the window with +the corners of the icon or the window may be opaquely moved and resized +on some trajectory joining the window location and the icon location.</P +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT2" +><H2 +CLASS="SECT2" +><A +NAME="AEN76" +>2.10. Window-in-window MDI</A +></H2 +><P +>Window-in-window MDI is a multiple document interface known from MS +Windows platforms. Programs employing it have a single top-level window +which contains a workspace which contains the subwindows for the open +documents. These subwindows are decorated with Window Manager frames and can be +manipulated within their parent window just like ordinary top-level +windows on the root window.</P +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT2" +><H2 +CLASS="SECT2" +><A +NAME="AEN79" +>2.11. Layered stacking order</A +></H2 +><P +>Some Window Managers keep the toplevel windows not in a single linear stack, +but subdivide the stack into several layers. There is a lot of variation +among the features of layered stacking order implementations. The number of +layers may or may not be fixed. The layer of a toplevel window may be explicit +and directly modifyable or derived from other properties of the window, e.g. +the <SPAN +CLASS="emphasis" +><I +CLASS="EMPHASIS" +>type</I +></SPAN +> of the window. The stacking order may or may not +be strict, i.e. not allow the user to raise or lower windows beyond their +layer.</P +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECT2" +><H2 +CLASS="SECT2" +><A +NAME="AEN83" +>2.12. Scope of this spec</A +></H2 +><P +>This spec tries to address the following issues:</P +><P +></P +><UL +><LI +><P +>Allow clients to influence their initial state with respect +to maximization, shading, stickyness, desktop, stacking order.</P +></LI +><LI +><P +>Improve the Window Managers ability to vary window +decorations and maintain the stacking order by allowing clients to hint the +Window Manager about the type of their windows.</P +></LI +><LI +><P +>Enable pagers and taskbars to be implemented as separate +clients and allow them to work with any compliant Window Manager.</P +></LI +></UL +><P +>This spec doesn't cover any of the following:</P +><P +></P +><UL +><LI +><P +>Other IPC mechanisms like ICE or Corba.</P +></LI +><LI +><P +>Window Manager configuration.</P +></LI +><LI +><P +>Window Manager documentation.</P +></LI +><LI +><P +>Clients appearing on a proper subset of desktops.</P +></LI +><LI +><P +>Window-in-window MDI.</P +></LI +></UL +><P +>The Window Manager is supposed to be in charge of window management +policy, so that there is consistent behaviour on the user's screen no matter +who wrote the clients.</P +><P +>The spec offers a lot of external control about Window Manager actions. +This is intended mainly to allow pagers, taskbars and similar Window Manager +UIs to be implemented as separate clients. "Ordinary" clients shouldn't use +these except maybe in response to a direct user request (i.e. setting a +config option to start maximized or specifying a -desk n cmdline +argument).</P +></DIV +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="NAVFOOTER" +><HR +ALIGN="LEFT" +WIDTH="100%"><TABLE +SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" +WIDTH="100%" +BORDER="0" +CELLPADDING="0" +CELLSPACING="0" +><TR +><TD +WIDTH="33%" +ALIGN="left" +VALIGN="top" +><A +HREF="index.html" +ACCESSKEY="P" +>Prev</A +></TD +><TD +WIDTH="34%" +ALIGN="center" +VALIGN="top" +><A +HREF="index.html" +ACCESSKEY="H" +>Home</A +></TD +><TD +WIDTH="33%" +ALIGN="right" +VALIGN="top" +><A +HREF="x107.html" +ACCESSKEY="N" +>Next</A +></TD +></TR +><TR +><TD +WIDTH="33%" +ALIGN="left" +VALIGN="top" +></TD +><TD +WIDTH="34%" +ALIGN="center" +VALIGN="top" +> </TD +><TD +WIDTH="33%" +ALIGN="right" +VALIGN="top" +>Root Window Properties (+Related Messages)</TD +></TR +></TABLE +></DIV +></BODY +></HTML +>
\ No newline at end of file |