XWin design suggestion

[Harold L Hunt II]

Sam Edge wrote:
> Hi Harold.
> 
> I've read the follow-ups on this point with interest. Having sobered
> up a bit I'll add another two penn'orth.
> 
> Harold L Hunt II <huntharo@msu.edu> wrote in <3EB659BB.40408@msu.edu>
> in gmane.os.cygwin.xfree on Mon, 05 May 2003 08:31:55 -0400:
> 
> 
>>Another way to handle this, and I think this may be the Windows 
>>standard, is to always center the Exit confirmation box on the screen. 
>>I may just implement that.
> 
> 
> It might be better to centre on the XWin application window not on the
> whole desktop, or as close as possible to this without letting the
> pop-up box end up off-screen. (Which might happen if the user has
> dragged the XWin window partially off-screen.)
> 
> I've always had positive responses from users when implementing
> message and dialog boxes this way since it gives an additional visual
> cue as to the application window with which the pop-up is associated.
> 
> If the XWin window is minimized to the taskbar/systray or is running
> in full-screen mode, centre the pop-up on the primary display. (Or if
> a switch is introduced to allow full-screen on a specific
> multi-monitor display, then centre on that display.)
> 
> There is a little extra work involved in retrieving the display
> geometry/geometries and checking for off-screen issues of course but
> it does make the "user experience" (!) that much smoother.
> 

I like this idea.  Are you sure this isn't the Windows standard?  I 
would have to check the user interface guidelines, but I suspect that 
the actual standard is more like yours than it is like my simple idea.

> 
>>>Using .config file in users $HOME dir we can reduce dependency (so called vendor locking effect)
>>>on MS-Win and also it will be like other *nix program. 
>>>Saving settings in a file will also make it easy for copying if there is lot of users and/or PC
> 
> 
>>[snip]
>>So, I am going to have to see a much better reason than avoiding using 
>>Windows features for using something other than the registry.  Sure, we 
>>could use an XML config file... but that introduces another dependency 
>>on XML libraries, which I really don't want to have.
> 
> 
> Hmmm. I agree that there's no point ignoring useful Windows features
> such as the registry API where they're appropriate.
> 
> However, as a /Cygwin/ application and as a port of XFree86, one could
> argue that XWin should behave in a POSIX fashion i.e. get its default
> configuration from text files in /etc and user-specific ones in $HOME.
> Apart from the mount table and cygrunsrv (which do so for obvious
> reasons) I don't know of any "official" Cygwin package that stores its
> configuration in the registry. (I may be wrong here - I've not checked
> them all!)
> 

Ah ha... some people get the impression that XWin.exe is a Cygwin app. 
It isn't.  However, you only get that point of view if you are deep in 
the code, since you realize that there is no way that XWin.exe would 
exist without the GDI and other Win32 API calls.  So, XWin.exe is really 
a Windows-dependent application, thus it is a Windows application.  It 
is also unique amognst almost all (save rxvt) Cygwin apps in that it 
draws its own Windows window and appears on the task bar independently. 
  In my mind, XWin.exe is a Windows app, whereas the general XFree86 
port (all the apps and libraries) consists of Cygwin apps.

> Traditionally Xfree86 uses /etc/X11/XF86Config for system-wide
> settings so why not add a section there, perhaps after discussing it
> with the rest of the XFree86 development bods? 
> 
> Alternatively have a Cygwin-specific file, say, /etc/X11/Xcygwinrc and
> a user-specific version $HOME/.Xcygwinrc.
> 
> Keep the format simple, maybe along the lines of OpenSSH with simple
> "<keyword> <value>" pairs separated by newlines. A simple parser
> shouldn't be too difficult to write or to snag from elsewhere, and the
> file should be small enough to rewrite in its entirety when saving
> changes from any GUI configuration utility. (You could use the Win32
> INI-file API if you wanted a little more structure, although that
> would force DOS line-endings.)
> 
> I think that it's preferable to have people using a text editor rather
> than regedit if/when they do manual configuration and I'd prefer to
> use normal POSIX tools (ex, sed, awk, grep, perl etc.) rather than the
> riskier regtool method when automating configuration tasks.
> 
> Biju's point is also valid. It's nice to be able to just copy
> c:\cygwin and the mount table to backup or duplicate a Cygwin
> installation.
> 

That is the first good reason I have seen for providing the option of a 
text file for configuration settings.

In any case, I still think that user preferences should be stored in the 
registry.  Think about a check box that says "Don't ask this again" on 
the Exit confirmation dialog box.

> So now my head's cleared, I think I'd like to vote against using the
> registry. Mind you, I realize that, the traditions of BWAM, this isn't
> a democracy and you're entitled to code it however you please, Harold!
> ;-D
> 
> I'll add my thanks to Biju's to everyone involved in Cygwin/XFree86
> development (and Cygwin itself, of course). I'd be paying through the
> nose for Exceed or the like otherwise.
> 

Thanks for your input.  I appreciate it.

Harold