Re: Windows backend : questions and answers

[Xavier Glattard]

Richard Frith-Macdonald <richard <at> tiptree.demon.co.uk> writes:

> On 6 Mar 2007, at 09:10, Xavier Glattard wrote:
> 
(...)
> > - Should the backend options be handled by a SystemPreferences  
> > module ?
> >   (X11 backend options have no dedicated module)
> 
> In the long term, I'd like to see this stuff controlled by themes,  
> with overrides provided by manual setting of user defaults or by  
> setting them from a preferences app.

The 'Defaults' panel already handles 'GSUseWMTaskBar' and
'GSX11HandlesWindowDecorations'. A very easy solution would be to rename
the later to 'GSBackHandlesWindowDecorations'.

> > - in my patch handlesWindowDecoration (like X11?) and  
> > usesSystemTaskbar are
> >   set by default : do you agree with these choices ?
> 
> Yes but ... I expect the person who added the application preferences  
> panel did so because people want a variety of behaviors ... so I  
> think that removing that panel without providing a better alternative  
> is a mistake. Unfortunately I don't know what the better alternative  
> is.  My impression of the preference panel was that it looked quite  
> good and professional to offer the user the option first time stuff  
> was used (though allowing setting the default for all apps as well as  
> just one app would be an improvement).  However, this should really  
> be something done when packages are installed for the first time  
> rather than when they are run for the first time.   But since we  
> don't have such functionality in gnustep-make, and don't have any  
> other standard installation system, I can see why the author put it  
> into the backend.

That panel was 1) annoying 2) problematic : if you ignore it (or dont see or
dont understand) the application crashes in some case (try Gorm...)
Under X11 there is not such a panel and nobody complains about that.
Why ?

(...)
> > - i suggest to rename GSUseWMTaskbar to GSUseSystemTaskbar or  
> > anything.
> 
> Yes ... makes sense ... there may be other systems where we want to  
> integrate with someone elses taskbar.
> 
> Perhaps GSBackUsesNativeTaskbar ?

I like it :-)

What is the 'GSAppOwnsMiniwindow' option ? Not related ?
And 'UseWindowMakerIcons ?
Both are handles by the 'defaults' panel.

> > - does the backend runs on 64bits system ?
> >   If it does, why not rename it to MSWin or Win or MSW or something ?
> 
> Not yet ... afaik there is no 64bit version of mingw available yet.   
> However, I guess 64bit windows support is likely some time in the  
> future.

Yep. MinGW is actually mingw*32*...
And Cygwin dont run natively on a 64bit system.
So ? Keep on with WIN32 ?
I guess nobody cares ;-)