[openbox] question on window size

[Fred]

On 02/24/2013 12:38 PM, Ian Zimmerman wrote:
> On Sun, 24 Feb 2013 10:13:18 -0700
> Fred<fred at blakemfg.com>  wrote:
>
> Fred>  Hi Ian, In your previous post you show the output of dpkg --status
> Fred>  openbox.  The version shown is: 3.3.5.0-4+leastoverlap2.  Is this
> Fred>  actually 3.5?
>
> No.  It is 3:3.5.0-4+leastoverlap2.  Note the colon and search debian
> packaging documentation for "epoch".
>
> Fred>  The documentation for openbox configuration under titleLayout
> Fred>  shows a function for iconify.  The horizontal line on the title
> Fred>  bar does something which implies the window was supposed to be
> Fred>  iconified.  What is this actually supposed to do?
>
> It is similar to "hide" in more traditional window managers, I guess.
> The window has no visual representation but it still exists in the
> window list.
>
> Fred>  In your reply above you mention window switching.  If one attempts
> Fred>  to iconify a window by clicking the horizontal bar the app does
> Fred>  not appear in another window (desktop).  It is gone somewhere that
> Fred>  does not appear to be accessible.
>
> I mean switching to the window with Alt-Tab or its configured
> equivalent.  That should be possible even after the window is
> iconified.  Is that the case or not?
>
> Fred>  Perhaps whatever the horizontal bar does should be disabled in the
> Fred>  software so it doesn't become a trap for the user.
>
> There _are_ other window managers which treat iconification the same way
> (notably Sawfish), so I disagree that this is somehow a uniquely
> dangerous attribute of Openbox.
>
> Fred>  I don't understand how the window menu applies to this problem.
>
> I mean the "window list" menu, not the "window operations" menu.  You
> get the window list menu by right-clicking on the desktop (on my system,
> I think that is configurable).  The iconified windows are present in the
> window menu (grayed), and by selecting one you can restore it to normal
> visible state.
>
Hi Ian,
I do see the colon now.

If an application is minimized by the horizontal bar it can indeed be 
restored by the window menu, Desktops -> desktop 1 ->  the grayed out 
application.  I had no clue it works like this.  The default rc.xml has 
the iconify animation enabled which causes a quick motion to the bottom 
of the screen so one would assume it has become lost.  I have been using 
OpenWindows on Solaris 2.6 for 15 years to do all my work.  I also have 
a PC running Debian but I despise the bloated Gnome desktop and am 
looking for an alternative that is reasonably close to OpenWindows.

Thanks for the help.
Best regards,
Fred