Open tab in window on current desktop
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#108 Open tab in window on current desktop
The tabbed windows patch, IMHO, has one important
shortcoming: whenever a new file is opened, it is, by
default, opened in some (seemingly) arbitrary server
window. This is especially annoying when that window is
not visible on the current desktop.
This patch tries to be a bit smarter in that respect:
whenever the user opens a new document via nc, by
default, the server tries to open it in a window on
the current desktop, or creates a new window if no
window is available on the current desktop.
For me this is a no-brainer, as it is much more
intuitive. If anyone doesn't agree, I can always make
this behaviour optional via an X resource or even a
preference.
For the patch to work, the window manager needs to
support extended window manager hints (all reasonable
recent window managers do), but it falls back on the
old behaviour for non-compliant window managers.
I've tested it with sawfish, metacity, and an old
version of fvwm.
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Though I've yet to try it, but it's indeed a behavior
the 'modern' WM users expected out of NEdit. I'd say we
should just commit it.
-TK
Declaration fixes
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I agree -- this was a concern I mentioned back with the original tabs
patch. I went as far as submitting most of the code for doing just what
you describe but I was told that this was the window manager's job and
NEdit shouldn't care. Maybe some of those critics have changed their
minds by now...
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I tried it, and it is definitively better than before, so
you have my vote for including it.
However, it still suffers from the weakness that it always
reuses an Untitled document when no file name is
specified.
E.g. in WS1 open a window with an Untitled document with
% nc
Then go to WS2 and do the same. No new window is created
in WS2.
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BTW, I just notice this: this is for new files only? what about
opened files?
-TK
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Concerning the Untitled windows: I can probably do something
about that. That would make it more consistent.
Concerning the opened files: I've been thinking about that
too, but this is more controversial. What should happen when
an open file is opened again?
- Should the window manager be told to switch to the
desktop displaying the file?
- Should the window containing the file be moved to the
current desktop?
- Should the tab containing the file be detached and moved
to the current desktop (or to a window of the current desktop)?
All of these are possible, but this is definitely something
that we don't want to hard-code. It would probably even make
sense to be able to control the behaviour through the nc
command line and to provide some macro hooks for moving
windows/tabs to specific desktops etc. Moreover, this is not
a new problem since the "old" NEdit also suffers from it.
So, I see this as a separate issue (that I intend to look
into nevertheless).
Untitled windows on current desktop too
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V3 addresses the Untitled window issue: nc now opens a new
untitled window unless it finds one on the current desktop.
A side effect of this change is that in the non-tabbed mode,
the behaviour for Untitled windows is now similar. I
probably can avoid this, but the old behaviour was rather
obnoxious, so I guess nobody will complain.
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I think this is the right choice, it follows the law of
least astonishment.
The current virtual desktop should be "owned" by the user,
and an application only rarely try to change it. (If
anything, the application could provide a hint to the window
manager, and the window manager should decide). Similarly,
windows shouldn't be moved from desktop to desktop except on
direct user action.
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It's in CVS now.