On Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 01:16:14PM -0800, Marc Wilson wrote: > IMHO this is why window managers have virtual desktops. I use six on each > head. Usually four of each six have a plan as to what's running on them, > and the other two on each head are for parking things when I don't need > them. > ... > And this is the stated, documented, and implemented reason for and behavior > of Xinerama in relation to blackbox.
Xinerama was implemented to "increase screen real estate" for those who have more than one monitor on the same machine. If you have two monitors, you should be able to put them both on the same machine, and move apps between them, or put part of an app in a screen, and part in the other. For example, one of my coworkers keeps his email program on his small screen, and does his work in the other. Another coworker, who uses adobe golive, keeps the source code window in the small screen, while working visually in the other. If he needs to tweak some source code, he moves the mouse to the source window and does that. This is on Apple machines, mind you. What do you do when you work with apps like Kdevelop, which have a whole bunch of small panels popping everywhere, and half of them pop in the small screen, and half in the other screen? Isn't it normal that kdevelop should set itself up in the screen that you start it in? It would on all other operating systems that implement dualhead. Apple's dual head does not allow popup windows to go willy nilly all over the place, it knows about dead areas and does not place windows in them, etc. If xinerama support included all of that, you would not be bitching right now. Because you're used to something working the wrong way, and you're terrified that it may be fixed. But rest assured, you can disable the stuff. > I'm not against Xinerama. If you like it, use it. I do, from time to > time. But I *am* against imposing artificial limits on what windows do, > just because I've selected it. If I'm using Xinerama, and I tell that > window to *maximize*, it better damn well *maximize*. Across both heads. I'm not sure why you're clinging so hard to this. Let me guess. You have 2 monitors that are exactly the same size, and you keep them right next to each other. The fact that people would have two monitors of the same exact size is rare. And if you do have different sizes, how to you like it when windows are placed where you can't see them? or can only see part of them? If I was using it and maximized Netscape, and netscape spanned to the 17" monitor that is 2.5 feet away from the main monitor, and i couldn't even see the whole thing, because some of it would be in the dead area, the normal thing for me to do would be to grab netscape and resize it to fit my main screen. Now it would be nice if that had happened automatically. > Anything else is the window manager trying to do my thinking for me. Heh. So what is the window manager doing the rest of the time? Doing a better job at /guessing/ what your thinking is? You can always fork blackbox, you can always rip out any code you don't like, you can always code your own, etc. etc. etc.. There are about 2-3 people in here who share your opinions, and you all can always ./configure --without-xinerama. But i'd hate it if perfectly good code didn't make it into blackbox because of some disgruntled group of users who like to argue for the sake of arguing.
