Re: Why intergrate with WindowMaker's dock?

[Gregory Casamento]

--- Dan Grillo <Dan_Grillo@grillo.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> I think there's a real world perspective that's been lost
> here.

No perspective has been lost.... see below.
 
> I used to work at NeXT -- I can't wait for bunch of real
> GNUstep apps.  A real workspace would rock.  I just want to
> double click on files and have the right thing happen.  (or
> run open(1)...)

I agree that this is needed.   I wonder sometimes if all the dock did was
execute the open command on the application or file which you clicked on.  
 
> But, right now folks like me run WindowMaker, and cross
> our fingers that GNUstep will some day get to a point where
> lots of apps exist.  
> 
> During the transition from basically nothing exists to
> full-blown 1989, what are folks supposed to run to use
> the few GNUstep apps that exist today, plus get some
> usefulness out of X?

We are not that far away from having a working Dock at this point.  It seems to
me that GDock.app or the GWorkspace Fiend could be extended to fill the role of
GNUstep Dock.   In order to get some interoperability with X we could wrap
existing applications in app wrappers in order to have the Dock properly start
them.   Ironically we run into the converse problem with a GNUstep dock.   How
do we get X applications to correctly dock w/o the use of a wrapper?  In this
case, however, I believe that it is okay to kludge the dock application
somewhat in order to handle this.   This way we don't kluge WindowMaker to
handle GNUstep applications and we don't commit the unforgivable sin of
kludging GNUstep to interoperate specifically w/ WindowMaker.

My other point in the previous e-mail was that, if we do integrate, we should
not permanently tie ourselves to using WindowMaker's dock.  That is to say we
should make sure it's still possible to write a GNUstep dock once we have
integrated with WindowMaker.
 
>                       --Dan
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: Ian Mondragon <copal@dragonhelix.org>
> Subject: Re: Why intergrate with WindowMaker's dock?
> To: Gregory Casamento <borgheron@yahoo.com>
> Cc: discuss-gnustep@gnu.org
> Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 17:54:35 -0500
> 
> all -
> 
> i feel i have to strongly agree with mr. casamento on this topic.  while
> it's
> nice to have windowmaker around, being what it is, i simply don't want to
> see
> GNUstep tied to it like this, as i think it would just complicate things
> down
> the road.  i'm sure alot of us here have seen large code bases that have
> older
> 'compatibilities' built into them that, at the time they were written,
> seemed
> like a good idea, but eventually became more of a pain in the ass to deal
> with
> than they were worth in the first place.
> 
> - ian mondragon
> 
> * Gregory Casamento <borgheron@yahoo.com> [02/10/01 17:38]:
> > Other than the fact that WindowMaker's Dock is very close to the one under
> > OPENSTEP, why should we integrate with it?   It seems as though whenever
> we
> > consider doing this we find it necessary to kludge the code.   Why kludge
> > GNUstep, when we can write a Dock application which will act as the
> GNUstep
> > dock?
> > 
> > If we are going to intergrate with WindowMaker, it needs to be done in a
> way
> > such that we are not tied to it.  We should never, under any
> circumstances,
> > kludge the API for the sake of interoperating with any window manager.
> > Afterwards, it should still be possible to create a GNUstep dock.
> > 
> > I just thought I would get this off my chest.   I am ready for any flames
> you
> > feel as though you need to send.
> > 
> > Thanks, GJC
> 
> -- 
> @end
> 
> Ian Mondragon  - < copal @ dragonhelix . org >
> 
> < h t t p : // d r a g o n h e l i x . o r g >
> 
> <<< F r e e B S D -- O b j e c t i v e - C >>>
> 
> 
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> 
> ----- End forwarded message
> --
>   Dan Grillo   dan@grillo.net  (650) 917-0685  fax (209)315-797



=====
======================================================
Gregory John Casamento           Sr. Software Engineer
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