Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!hplabs!hpl-opus!hpccc!hp-sde!hpfcdc!hpfclp!diamant
From: diamant@hpfclp.SDE.HP.COM (John Diamant)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Why window managers? (was Re: output in icons)
Message-ID: <9740033@hpfclp.SDE.HP.COM>
Date: 22 Jun 88 18:50:22 GMT
References: <3050@sdsu.UUCP>
Organization: HP SDE, Fort Collins, CO
Lines: 19

> Couldn't all the functions of the window manager be handled by default
> widget code that the clients had more control over?

Well, yes they could, but there are good reasons not to.  First of all, that
would cause all clients to grow unnecessarily (now the code is all shared
in the window manager).  Second, and more importantly, the purpose of the
window maanger is to manage shared resources (screen real estate, in this
case).  No single application can understand the requirements of all the
applications unless it is designed to know about all the applications (as
window managers are).  For instance, how would you implement a tiling layout
policy within each individual application?  They have to know about each other
to tile properly.  Finally, applications are written independent of the window
manager used, so the end user gets to decide what window management policy
(and what window manager) he wants to run.  Putting all the options in each
application would be virutally impossible (and a waste of effort and space).

John Diamant
Software Development Environments
Hewlett-Packard Co.		ARPA Internet: diamant@hpfclp.sde.hp.com
Fort Collins, CO		UUCP:  {hplabs,hpfcla}!hpfclp!diamant