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Re: rfe: seamless windows integration


Jack Tanner <ihok@hotmail.com> wrote in <3F2F1086.6070300@hotmail.com>
in gmane.os.cygwin.xfree on Mon, 04 Aug 2003 22:03:50 -0400:

> 1. X should run as a service. There's no reason for it to run as a 
> user-launched app.

Harold's dealt with this one. An X-server on Windows is not a
background service. It makes no sense whatsoever to have it running
when nobody's logged in. Therefore the StartUp folder is the place for
it or in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run, if
and only if the particular user wants to have it start when he logs in
to Windows.

> 2. All X client application on one's machine should have shortcuts 
> associated with them in the start menu, and these shortcuts should be 
> created automatically during installation.

No thanks.
a.) If I'm running Cygwin/Xfree86 as a X-terminal to another machine,
I don't use local X client programs anyway.
b.) If I'm running Cygwin/Xfree86 with a manager like openbox or
WindowMaker, they have their own configurable menus for launching
programs which are a more appropriate place for this.
c.) Even if I'm running local clients and using the "-multiwindow"
option, the programs to which I want mouse-click access aren't
necessarily the same as the ones you'd want. I certainly don't want to
clutter up the start menu with /every/ X client on the system. That
would quickly become an unmanageably large menu.

> 3. Exiting X (e.g., by stopping the service) should list all cygwin 
> processes that were launched under X and prompt the user to terminate 
> them. For example, an ssh-agent launched from an xterm should be killed 
> automatically.

This is entirely the wrong way to go about things.

It's the job of your X session manager interacting with the clients on
the X desktop to provide this sort of "Shutting down now. Please save
files. Okay to exit?" functionality, not of the X server. You can then
use the -once switch to make the X server exit cleanly after the last
client - i.e. the session manager - exits.

It /would/ make sense for the -multiwindow window manager to implement
X session-end functionality when the user (Alt-F4/Close) or system
(WM_QUERYENDSESSION) requests X server shutdown. But this should
/only/ happen in -multiwindow mode.

As Harold has pointed out, even without a session manager handling
session-end requests, X clients exit when the server closes down.

Other things like ssh-agent should shut down only when I tell them
too. Just because I'm ending a X session doesn't mean I'm not going to
continue using ssh from a Windows-GUI rxvt or console shell.

> I know there are ways of approximating these behaviors now; I'm just 
> suggesting that these be built in.

Absolutely not. The X server should be an X server.  If you want a
session manager, install a session manager. (If you don't have one,
write one or convince someone to write one.)

That way you get the functionality you want while I can choose not to
use up disc/memory/CPU resources on my machine on something I don't
want.

Try looking up the term "feature bloat" some time. ;-)

Regards
-- 
Sam Edge


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