[compiz] Re: metacity theme support in gnome-window-decorator

[David Reveman]

On Wed, 2006-09-20 at 11:10 -0700, Shawn Starr wrote: 
> To further, 
> 
> jbarnes on IRC mentioned perhaps it would be a good idea to turn compiz plugins into some sort of Freedesktop API specification so DEs can share plugins?
> 
> What do you think?

I don't think that's possible. There's no API and replicating all
structures that compiz expose to plugins is not straight forward. Most
effects are tied to how window management is implemented and it's
slightly different in most DEs. Most of our existing window managers are
also not designed to be plug-able and do lots of effects.

Having an effects and window management plugin API that can be shared
between DEs is a nice idea but very hard to realize. To be flexible
enough such an API would have to be huge and I think it would be
horrible to maintain.

My opinion is that the shortest and most realizable way to having cross
desktop window effects is to have DEs share window and compositing
manager code.

-David