Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!yale!husc6!think!barmar From: barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Why window managers? (was Re: output in icons) Message-ID: <22428@think.UUCP> Date: 22 Jun 88 04:17:12 GMT References: <8806211610.AA15708@leviathan.cs.umd.edu> Sender: usenet@think.UUCP Reply-To: barmar@kulla.think.com.UUCP (Barry Margolin) Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA Lines: 22 In article <8806211610.AA15708@leviathan.cs.umd.edu> ogata@LEVIATHAN.CS.UMD.EDU (Jeff Ogata) writes: >Why window managers? Couldn't all the functions of the window >manager be handled by default widget code that the clients had more control >over? Or something? Am I missing something obvious that only window managers >can do adequately? I think there are a couple of reasons for window managers. First of all, it reduces network I/O, by allowing many of the routine, repetitive actions of managing a set of windows to be done in the server, without requiring an excessive set of messages between the client and server machines. Second, it guarantees a certain level of consistency. If window manager functionality were moved into client libraries then things would be weird if two clients were using the same server but incompatible toolkit libraries. Barry Margolin Thinking Machines Corp. barmar@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar