client side decorations

[Russell Shaw]

On 06/05/11 10:18, Bill Spitzak wrote:
> I believe client-side decorations are an absolute must.
>
> The amount of code necessary for an application to use an async protocol
> to describe how the window border should appear is greatly larger than
> that needed to just draw and handle events in the window border itself.
> In FLTK I would estimate the ICCCM code for the window object is about 5
> times larger than the code for an otherwise similar MDI-like frame where
> FLTK draws everything. Handling resize and other events cleanly is a
> real mess, too, due to the async nature of them.
>
> Also such designs lock the user interface ideas into whatever existed at
> that time, an excellent example is Gimp's being forced to give up any
> attempt to make multiple windows because of window managers failing to
> implement the many controls it would need.
...

Any program could manage the internals of their own "desktop" window,
acting like a sub window manager for other windows belonging to that
program.