unity-design team mailing list archive

[Dylan McCall <dylanmccall@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2010-05-14 at 21:05 +0530, Akshat Jain wrote:
> Link Copy-Pasta
> http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2010/05/why-you-should-not-use-client-side-window-decorations/
> http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2010/05/follow-up-on-client-side-decorations/
> 
> This guy named Martin Gräßlin is a hardcore KWin fan I think,looks
> like if he were a senior GNOME developer he would have replaced
> Metacity with KWin.Lol
> 
> Design Team-?
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I was really looking forward to client-side decorations, but Martin has
pretty thoroughly changed my tune. I think there's a different problem
that needs to be solved: there is a doomed effort right now to make
window decorations feel like part of window clients even though the two
know nothing of each other. For example, window decorations are fixed to
the edges of the client area no matter what, as if they need to be. In
some themes (like Lucid's Light themes) they apply some quirky tricks to
blend with the client area.

Perhaps more problems can be solved if window borders Stop Intruding on
window clients.

A few loosely related thoughts spring to mind:

      * It would be really super if someone would implement unobtrusive
        window manager controls that appear (with lots of alpha channel
        goodness) when the mouse reaches particular hotspots at the edge
        of the client area, maybe after being inside the client area.
        That would lead to a valid solution to Bug #160311
        (https://launchpad.net/bugs/160311), among other things, and
        it's a requirement for client-side decorations to work at all
        well.
      * Why does a title bar have to be at the top of its respective
        window? This causes a serious usability problem when a window is
        Alt+Dragged above the screen: only the bottom part is visible,
        so it's impossible to drag it back unless you know how it got
        there. I actually am quite surprised this isn't a common issue.
        Why can't the title bar detach from the window and stay visible
        regardless of where the client has gone?
      * A window “title bar”, with goodies like the Close and Minimize
        buttons (and soon, I guess, Windicators!), serves a distinct
        role: it helps the user organize a window client quickly and
        easily. These are proxies; helpers; tools. I think “title bar”
        is a misnomer.
      * A window client, in the Linux desktop, cannot trust the window
        manager to do anything. As a result, we have a unique
        arrangement where window decorations rarely introduce new
        functionality that can't be achieved through the client. (Beyond
        managing windows themselves, of course. The client can't be
        reliably dragged to move it around. Now THERE is something that
        could be patched in all the toolkits. If we want touch support,
        it's a necessity).
      * Items in the window list mimic window title bars. (Title, icon -
        that's how they typically look!). Windicators could fit in there
        really neatly. We're moving to a world where the window manager
        handles more of the surrounding desktop (eg: gnome-shell), so
        these things could get cool.



Thanks,
Dylan