RE: cygwin XFree86 as windows window manager ?

["Suhaib Siddiqi" <ssiddiqi at inspirepharm dot com>]

> Hello!
>
> > I used to think that one of the things that made X so much better than
> > windows was that window management was done in a seperate layer (the
> > windom manager), so it could be totally customized, and that Windows
> > didn't have this.
>
> Agreed.

Ditto.  That is why your OS will crash if something goes wrong with
one application runing in one window.

>
> > Then one day I came across litestep (www.litestep.net).  Windows
> > (95/98/NT) uses a desktop shell.  That happens to be one of the
> functions
> > of explorer.exe -- that's what handles the icons on your desktop, your
> > task bar, etc.
>
> ... but it doesn't manage windows. Windows are managed on a lower level.

I do not know about litesetp.  If it does not know X protocols, it will not
be
a good candidate because it would require adding code for X protocols.  What
is needed
is to add multi-windowing capabilities to existing X server (XWIN).  Peter
Busch
wrote last night that he is working on it.

We also need to add Win32 clipboard code to one of the existing Windows
Manager.
This may allow cut and paste between X and Win32 clients.

>
> > Litestep is styled after X type GUIs.  litestep.exe is used to replace
> > explorer.exe as your desktop shell.  It's neat.  But the
> significant part
> > here is that it can be done, has been done, and the source code is
> > available under the GPL.
>
> But it knows nothing about the X11 protocol.
>
> > On the cygwin/xfree page, it states "One of the desired feature is;
> > integration of X Desktop with Windows Desktop, so X and Win32 can share
> > same desktop."  I'm guessing you mean allowing explorer to handle the X
> > client windows ?
>
> Explorer doesn't handle client windows.
>
> > I have a more fun idea.
> > What would it take to use cygwin/XFree86 as my desktop shell
> under windows ?


Well, when you run Xwin, at present it has its own desktop under Windows.
You can cut and paste between two desktops, at the moment, but you can
switch
between two desktops using alt+tab keys.

>
> Almost nothing. Instruct you window manager to run Windows programs when
> you click on certain buttons or select certain items in the menu.
> Everything else will be done by the system.
>
> However, automated creating of icons in the way how WindowMaker does may
> be very hard.
>
> Regards,
> Pavel Roskin