[openbox] usability

[Peter Chiocchetti]

On Fri, Jun 27, 2003 at 01:55:58PM -0400, Scott Moynes wrote:
> * Peter Chiocchetti (pch at myzel.net) wrote:
> > handling of dependend windows in X applications traditionally
> > is bad: eg. the gimp's many palettes all are independend of
> > the canvas. so moving the canvas window makes it raise and
> > obscure the brushes etc. at least scrolling doesnt.
> 
> I believe this behaviour is much improved in the upcoming openbox3
> release. If you try it out, and it doesn't seem right, I'd be
> interested in hearing how you think it should work.

I pulled ob from cvs; the debug build runs smooth. First I
missed the window list menu and the toolbar. I decided to run
the gnome-panel. Looks like this is the preferred environment
for ob3.

I actually may get used to gnome, (version two with simple
theme is a convenience,) if only mplayer in fullscreen would
overlay the panel! The panel also steals A-F2, which is, imo
the way to switch to workspace two - a one hand shortcut.

Theres a bug with the selection of icons for starters in the
gnome-panel that kills ob, but only if gnome-session is active.

Its also quite hard to have gnome-session fully recognise ob,
the foot hangs about a minute (probably because I did not
compile in startup-notification).

The rc3 from cvs really moves windows without raising! I had
this setting with fvwm/twm once and missed it since then. Now I
will have to get used to it again; but it sure feels right,
like real sheets of paper on a desktop...  This may be like
sloppy focus - it even may have some kind of tradition in X;
but this one might be harder to get right.

ob3 seems to keep windows stacked in layers: I dont know if I
got it fully yet. Mozilla and a FileOpen dialogue raise and
sink together, as they should. The gimp is still a beast, and
ob3 is different but not better than ob2: the canvas, once on
top cannot sink below the palettes; instead I have to raise
each one of them. this clearly is a design failure, not in the
wm, but in the protocol, Sodipodi has it right, and ob3
understands!

If you dont mind, I will continue to comment, if I learn more.

regards,

peter