Re: FVWM: FvwmTaskBarAutoHide has no clothes

From: Jui-Hsuan Feng <fengj_at_percy.engr.wisc.edu>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 17:27:43 CST

Hi,

>
>
>
> 11-19-98
>
> The AutoHide feature of the fvmw2 TaskBar (used, e.g., in AnotherLevel) does
> not work well; more bluntly, I'd say it's BROKEN. Can anyone at fvwm2 or
> RedHat fix it or tell us how to patch it?
>

As far as I kown, it's fvwm2's issue. Some of them still remain in the
current fvwm CVS tree. If you have the source code, check the function
RaiseWindow(FvwmWindow *t) in the file fvwm/misc.c: the last line reads

void RaiseWindow(FvwmWindow *t)
{
  ...
  raisePanFrames();
}

The PanFrames are used to eat out all the events when the pointer get to the
edge of the screen. If an application window is bigger than the screen, and
the pointer enters one of these unvisibel PanFrames windows, fvwm will scroll
the screen so other part of that application window can be shown on the screen.
In early days, people tend to use bigger virtual desk top, say 1024x768,
than the actual desk top resolution, say 800x640, this scrolling feature
was pretty good. Or similarly, it can be used to switch to another desk top
without click on the pager. This is the reason why the TaskBar always hides
in the pane 2, because it will never get a chance to be raised up after
those PanFrames.

Another problem is cause by the function move_Loop() in the file fvwm/move.c
(maybe in another procedure). It will adjust those way-out-of-edge windows
back to screen. You can do a simple test by drag any application window
to the edge and hide it as much as you can in pane 3, it will behave the same,
and TaskBar is one of the application windows.

Surely there are workarounds, like rasing those Always-on-top windows after
PanFrames windows. But those workarounds may cause some side effects to
other modules. The fvwm maintainer should be informed.

> I'm using fvwm2-2.0.46 as it comes with RedHatLinux 5.2.
> As far as my experiments can tell, AutoHide behaves differently in the top,
> middle, and bottom panes of a desktop (and because of this, it took me a
> while to characterize its behavior). For simplicity, assume you have a 1x3
> desktop
> -----
> | 1 |
> -----
> | 2 |
> -----
> | 3 |
> -----
> (but my comments apply to any vertical number of panes, and in this case
> 1 stands for the top pane, 3 for the bottom one, and 2 stands for all the panes
> in between)
>
> Well, AutoHide works well in pane one, UNTIL you manage to cross, with the
> mouse, the boundary between panes 1 and 2; then, when you come back to 1, the
> taskbar remains stuck in the hidden position.
>
> In pane 2, the taskbar always remains hidden.
>
> In pane 3 (the bottom pane, or the only pane in a 1x1 desktop), the taskbar
> pops up and down all right, but when it pops down it hides only 2/5 of the
> way, so that most of it still sticks out.
>
> So, in none of the three cases is the AutoHide feature worth its name.
>
> A working AutoHide would be a very useful features especially with small
> screens. The powers that be, please take a look at it and make it work.
> If, on the other hand, I'm being extremely dense and the feature can
> be made to work, please show me how.
> Tom Toffoli
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> Prof. Tommaso Toffoli tt_at_bu.edu |
> ECE Dept. | home:
> Boston University 617/353-9846 | 617/864-8545
> 8 Saint Mary's St. fax -6440 | 26 Athens St.
> Boston, MA 02215 | Cambridge, MA 02138
> --
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>


--
J. Joshua Feng                            (O)608/262-3640
Electrical & Computer Engr., Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison
http://www.cae.wisc.edu/~fengj  fengj_at_percy.engr.wisc.edu
--
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Received on Thu Nov 19 1998 - 17:12:18 GMT

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