[openbox] usability

[Ben Jansens]

On Sun, Jun 29, 2003 at 12:34:33AM +0200, Peter Chiocchetti wrote:

First off, thanks for all your comments.

> 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.

Gnome-panel is, indeed, a delight to use. There are other panel options
available of course, from rox, fspanel, fbpanel, kicker, and so on.

> 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.

That can be disabled in gnome-panel's options.

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

Could you describe this better? What do you mean by kills, and what causes
it?

> 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).

This is working in CVS now. I'm not sure when you pulled but I added some
support for session managers just the other day. Startup notification is not
involved in that.

> 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.

I discovered this behavior in PWM and couldn't live without it after.

> 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!

In layers and groups. GTK2 currently provides some issues with that. Some
apps work really nicely, like gimp, and some not as nice, like nautilus,
since it groups all of an apps windows together no matter what. I'm giong to
take this up with Owen Taylor shortly.

I have been replacing the stacking code over the last couple days, and the
unable-to-lower-behind-a-group-member (phew) bug is gone. Let me know if the
problem you were experiencing is still there of course, in case im reading
this wrong.

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

Please do.

Cheers,
Ben
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