Subject: Re: FVWM: Page-placement of windows?

From: Neil Bird <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 14:36:29 +0000

Brad Giaccio wrote:
> >   There's an old article (Jan '97) in the mailing-list archive about
> > specifying a *Page* for a window (a la 'StartsOnDesk', but
> > 'StartsOnPage'). There didn't seem to be any response - does anyone know
> > how to achieve this?
>
> In versions 2.1.x you can use StartsOnPage d x y,

  Okey-dokey. Look like I'll have to compile up one of the bets, then!

  Thanks.

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---

From: Neil Bird <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 14:49:35 +0000

Brad Giaccio wrote:
> This does work if you just say StartsOnPage d

  How does that work (with a 2D page-layout) then??

---

From: Bob Woodside <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 21:22:52 -0500 (EST)

"Philippe BOURDEU d'AGUERRE" <[email-masked]> wrote:
> I was very happy to find this feature which was high in my wish list,
> but I am a bit disappointed because it doesn't work very well.

	Er, excuse me, it works superlatively well.   :-)

> 
> I try to use:
> 
> Style "Netscape*"	SkipMapping, StartsOnPage 0 1 0
> 
> with an InitFunction which starts Netscape with option -iconic.
> 
> It fails, Netscape always starts on Page 0 0 0 :=(
> But it works without -iconic option.

	The problem lies in code that is much older than the StartsOnPage
logic. FVWM bypasses any of the window placement logic (where StartsOnPage
operates) if the window has the wmhints initial_state properrty set to
IconicState. This is what happens when you use the -iconic command line
argument.

	I'm not quite sure what the reason for this was...perhaps to defer
the placement logic until the window is actualy mapped for the first time.
I see an inconsistencly in the handling that puzzles me, but it may give
you a temporary workaround. If you use the StartIconic style instead of
using the -iconic arg, it slips right on through the placement code and
ends up on the page where you wanted it.

	There's another quirk: the Desk component of the StartsOnPage spec
is honored even though the page isn't (technical reason - the desk has
nothing to do with what we might call the "page placement", which is
stricly a function of the x,y positions of the window, so the desktop
is set, but the relative positioning of the window is bypassed).

	I'll look into this as soon as I can, and see whether I can change
the old code without breaking something else. In the meantime, you might try
adding StartIconic to the Style spec for those windows you want started iconic
(you *do* also have to lose the -iconic arg when invoking the program - that's
what does the dirty work).

> I think also that both options StartsOnPage and StartsOnDesk could be
> grouped together in a single option.

	Consider StartsOnPage as a replacement for StartsOnDesk. As Brad
pointed out, it does both. Consider StartsOnDesk as being retained for
backward compatibility, and eligible to be removed in a future release.

- Bob

---

From: Bob Woodside <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 22:16:58 -0500 (EST)

Neil Bird <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
>   Well, I'm now trying to use this, ... and it /doesn't/ seem to work. It
> gets the Netscape stuff on the right page if one removes '-iconic', but
> the StartsIconic style fails, and both Navigator & MailThread kick off in
> open windows:

	As Dominik mentioned, this has been corrected in the CVS repository
for a few days. If you don't have CVS access, unfortunately, you'll have
to wait till the next tarball is cut.

	If you install the latest CVS sources or the next tarball, and still
have problems with StartsOnPage, please let us know ASAP.

- Bob