Re: [Discuss-gnustep] GNUstep should remain independent of any window manager.

[Gregory Casamento]

--- Christian Edward Gruber <christian.edward.gruber@gmx.net> wrote:
> The problem here, is that a GNUstep dock implies a GNUstep workspace, which

Not necessarily.  Having a dock does not mean that it must be integrated
into the same app as the workspace.  This was the way it was done under
NeXTSTEP, but I believe that that has changed under MOSX.  We should
follow thier example.

> overlaps, functionally, with the concept of a Window Manager in X.  

Not really.  It is possible to write a window manager which doesn't have this.
The sole purpose of a window manager is to serve windows, anything else
is just an extension.  The truth is is that most window managers today do,
to some extent, provide too many features.  Window Maker, no offense Alfred,
is a good example of this.  Having the dock integrated into the window manager
is a little too much.  The dock is clearly a "desktop" thing which should
be seperate and distinct from a window manager. 

> I think
> that in this case, it's probably unavoidable, but I think it's reasonable to
> have a "preferred" WM, simply so that good features which are not essential
> to any application functionality can be developed.  

I don't think it's really necessary to have a preferred WM.  If the apps
were to draw thier own windows and borders, the WM would just be for X apps.
We could add code to the GNUstep code base to do this.  On the other hand, if
a preferred WM is what we want, then let us *not* make it the *only* WM.  
That is to say, allow GNUstep's design to be open enough such that it can
work with or without the preffered WM.

> However, I think that one
> way to achieve this independence of which you speak is to look at KDE and
> Gnome's various menuing systems, and see if there isn't enough API to have a
> menu bridge, or some similar bridging, so that (as with Rhapsody, OS for NT,
> and OS for Mach in the old days) the same menu API in GNUstep can render in
> each menuing paradigm of the Window Manager (for at least those three
> primaries).  A good adapter pattern could do the trick, if KDE and Gnome
> expose enough functionality.  Alternately, it might be good to prototype it
> with WM, and propose API changes to KDE/Gnome.

Later, GJC
 
> regards,
> christian.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Gregory Casamento" <borgheron@yahoo.com>
> To: <discuss-gnustep@gnu.org>
> Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2000 11:03 AM
> Subject: [Discuss-gnustep] GNUstep should remain independent of any window
> manager.
> 
> 
> > GNUstep should simply be an API, folks.   We can go ahead
> > and make it into an environment, but it shouldn't be inexorably
> > tied to one given window manager (namely WindowMaker).  I should
> > have the *capability* to work w/ WindowMaker, but not to the
> > exclusion of all else.
> > 
> > One of the things I am hoping will happen, eventually, is that we
> > can have a "pure" GNUstep environment w/ a GNUstep based Dock.
> > In this case we could either use WindowMaker is a window server,
> > or we could have the apps draw thier own frames (as is done in
> > OPENSTEP) and have a small window manager for X-only apps.
> > 
> > Tieing GNUstep to one window manager severly restricts the users
> > options and will cost us users.  There are some people out there
> > who think AfterStep is the greatest, and won't be willing to switch.
> > 
> > Later, GJC
> > 
> > =====
> > ======================================================
> > Gregory John Casamento           Sr. Software Engineer
> > ======================================================
> > Software patents are endangering the computer industry
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> 


=====
======================================================
Gregory John Casamento           Sr. Software Engineer
======================================================
Software patents are endangering the computer industry
in the US and around the world.  Join the LPF and help 
the cause.       http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/
======================================================

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