[gnotepad-users] new user questions/suggestions

[Stephen I. <S....@ed...>]

Hello,

I've only recently started looking into gnp while trying to create a
mouse-friendly linux environment for a refugee from Windows.  I like it.  I
may start using it myself.

One thing that isn't behaving the way I'd expect is the saving of screen
position.  Maybe I'm misunderstanding something.

1. If I click the "Save window position on exit" box in preferences->window,
gnp always starts up a bit lower on the screen than the position it was in
when I last exited.  So if I open and close it several times in succession,
without moving the window while it is open, it gradually creeps downward.
I've never programmed gtk before, but from groping around in the
documentation, it looks as if this behaviour is caused by getting the saved
coordinates from a call to gdk_window_get_position, and then giving them to
gtk_widget_set_uposition when gnp restarts.  gdk_window_get_position seems to
get the upper left corner of the gnp screen itself, ignoring the window
manager's title bar at the top, while gtk_widget_set_uposition puts the upper
left corner of the window manager's frame at the coordinates it is given.

I tried replacing the call to gdk_window_get_position in win.c with one to
gdk_window_get_root_origin, and the creeping stopped.  Is that a reasonable
move, or will I have broken something else?  Here's the patch:

*** win.c   Wed Dec 13 18:23:08 2000
--- win.c.new   Thu Aug 23 13:46:17 2001
***************
*** 1044,1048 ****
    /* update preferences */
    if (IS_SAVE_WIN_POS()) {
!       gdk_window_get_position(w->toplev->window,
                    &prefs.win_xpos, &prefs.win_ypos);
        GNPDBG_WIN(("win_close_common: xpos = %d, ypos = %d\n",
--- 1044,1048 ----
    /* update preferences */
    if (IS_SAVE_WIN_POS()) {
!       gdk_window_get_root_origin(w->toplev->window,
                    &prefs.win_xpos, &prefs.win_ypos);
        GNPDBG_WIN(("win_close_common: xpos = %d, ypos = %d\n",

2. I can't find preferences settings that will let me choose coordinates that
I like and have gnp start there every time, regardless of whether the window
gets moved around during a session.  The reason seems to be that the default
coordinates only get consulted if "Save window position on exit" is in force.
Shouldn't the test for whether to call gtk_widget_set_uposition in win.c be
something on the lines of whether either default coordinate is set to -1,
rather than IS_SAVE_WIN_POS()?

While I'm writing, there are a couple of standard unix features that look to
me (in my ignorance) as if they wouldn't be very hard to incorporate, nor
create much bloat.  One would be to read from standard input if the input file
is specified as '-' on the command line, and the other would be to let the
user specify an alternative preferences file.  I want to use gnp as a viewer
for some program output, and want fewer buttons, tabs, etc. in this context
than when I'm using it as a general purpose editor.  If these features are
already present and I've missed them, then I'm ashamed of myself and please
tell me how to invoke them.

Thanks,

Stephen Isard