On Thu, Jul 19, 2001 at 04:01:39PM -0500, Ben Jansens wrote:
> Ok, I've given this some thought and talked this over with
> others, and I think this is the best idea we've come up with:
>
> Currently, when bbkeys fires the Next Window message, blackbox
> catches the message, and switches to the next window. The same
> functionality is used for catching this event as for when the
> button on the toolbar is pressed.
>
> I propose that instead of blackbox handling the window cycling
> call from bbkeys (it should still internally handle the toolbar
> one), it instead passes it to the bbcycle application. This
> application could cycle windows in any fashion seen fit, classic
> style, KDE style, or any style devised at a later date.
Sorry, but it's not gonna happen...
-- It will consume unnecessary system resources (bbkeys itself
adds more than enough overhead).
-- The more sophisticated window cycling methods need more
information than blackbox's CycleWindow message provides
(for instance, in Windows-style cycling it's important to
know whether the Mod key was released in between cycle
events). This means that the blackbox protocol would have
to be changed to include all the possible info that bbcycle
would require (and possibly have to be changed each time
bbcycle added a new cycling), and in turn bbkeys would
have to be changed in order to provide blackbox with all
that information.
-- It doubles the network trips it takes to cycle a window.
-- On a looking-into-the-future note, once I manage to slog
my way through my blackbox TODO list and get to adding NET
WM support, the CycleWindow message will disappear. The
only way to cycle windows using the NET WM spec is by
raising and focusing the appropriate window yourself (so
bbkeys would be forced to do the cycling itself, instead
of asking blackbox to do it).
> I'd especially really like to hear what you core developers think
> of this, since it encrouches on your territory somewhat :-) but I
> believe this would really improve the window manager and keeps most
> of the work out of the main codebase.
I still think it's far easier to do this within bbkeys itself.
Jeff Raven
