multiwindow mode

[Harold L Hunt II]

JS,

Applications can have problems reading information about the screen size 
(which comes from the X Server itself) or understanding the Window 
Manager hints about the size of the window borders, etc.  Those problems 
could be because the author of those applications did not pay enough 
attention to making sure that their app works with multiple X Servers 
and Window Manager; rather, they may have checked it with one X Server 
and with one Window Manager and just assumed that they implemetned 
everything correctly.  Thus, certain X Server and certain Window 
Managers may exhibit problems in the application that are not apparent 
on other platforms.

With all of that being said, it is also entirely possible that there is 
something wrong with Cygwin/XFree86's X Server or with our Multi-Window 
Window Manager.

The Multi-Window Window Manager (MWWM) was developed by Kensuke 
Matsuzaki.  I have no idea what his schedule is like, but I know that he 
said he could not finish the entire MWWM on his own and that he would 
appreciate some help.

I would not say that the MWWM is done by any means.  I would also not 
assume that most users are using it since the default startup scripts do 
not use invoke it.  I cannot switch us to using the MWWM until someone 
sits down with the code and is able to tell me that it implements most 
of what a window manager should implement.  I am thinking mostly about 
window manager hints here; I don't think the MWWM implements them at 
all, though I could be mistaken.

You mention that you have customers.  Having customers implies to me 
that it might be worth *your* while to spend a little of your own time 
on the MWWM.  Think about it, if you are going to benefit from the MWWM 
being more stable, then shouldn't you be contributing to making it more 
stable?  On the other hand, you could contact Kensuke and see if he will 
setup a tip jar so that you (or anyone else) can donate some money to 
him to encourage him to work on the MWWM.  The current list of 
Cygwin/XFree86 developers with a donations page is at:

http://xfree86.cygwin.com/donations.html

However, I am currently the only developer that has setup such a page. 
I strongly recommend that people ask Kensuke to setup a tip jar.

Well, I hope that helps.  I could give you one of my old analogies about 
how I am not going to drop my beer to run inside and code on 
Cygwin/XFree86, but I think you get the point that not much is going to 
happen unless people make it happen.

Harold

J S wrote:
> I've started to find that a lot of the X apps we use in our company 
> actually work better in multiwindow mode.
> 
> For example, one application we have was practically unusable before 
> because some of the pop up windows it opened were greater in size than 
> the desktop, and these windows didn't have scrollbars either. Despite 
> changing the window properties in my window manager (windowmaker) they 
> still got oversized.
> 
> Now with multiwindow mode, the window behaviour is much better. Can 
> someone explain that to me please?! What makes me slightly nervous 
> though is that so many of my customers want to use multiwindow mode yet 
> this is still relatively new and development on it seems to have slowed 
> down recently.
> 
> Anyway the main reason I've written is because in multiwindow mode the  
> window resizing doesn't always work as expected, and also I have one 
> particular problem where the window menu bars (on the pop up windows) 
> are placed just above the desktop so I have to resize the window to get 
> at them. Has anyone else seen that? Would really like to get a fix for 
> that if anyone can help.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> JS.
> 
> Is this the impression you get that most xfree users now are running in 
> multiwindow mode? Also is there still development going on with 
> multiwindows mode or has that come to a halt for some reason now? I only 
> ask since I haven't seen quite so many emails on it lately.
> 
> JS.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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