WINDOWPATH environment variable?

[Samuel Thibault]

Hi,

Carsten Haitzler, le Thu 08 Dec 2005 09:49:54 +0900, a écrit :
> On Thu, 8 Dec 2005 00:29:56 +0100 Samuel Thibault
> <samuel.thibault at ens-lyon.org> babbled:
> > Carsten Haitzler, le Tue 06 Dec 2005 22:09:08 +0900, a $(D+1crit :
> > > >  but on the short term WINDOWPATH would be quite handy for getting
> > > > similar result with much less pain.
> > > 
> > > well if that is what you need it is as simple as setting it before the
> > > wm/session manager/desktop startup starts and everything will inherit it. it
> > > doesnt have to invovle x, wm authors, etc. etc. :)
> > 
> > Good candidates for performing this are xinit and xdm, so yes it
> > involves Xorg.
> 
> you need it a little higher level for the xnest work - as the session under
> xnest doesnt launch through xdm/startx. :) really its a matter of:
> 
> WINDOWPATH=$WINDOWPATH:`xwininfo -root | grep "Window id" | awk '{printf("%s
> \n", $4);}'`
> 
> added to the very beginning of the session script. :)

Yes, but note that it can be started via xinit too:
xinit -- $(which Xnest) :1

Xnest could set its window ID as a root property (like XFree86_VT).

> > What about the name? Does it seem good enough?
> 
> i would call it BRAILLESERVERPATH
> myself as it is specific to the braille terminal

Mmm, it is _not_ specific to braille: WINDOWPATH just designates where X
windows appear.

> the old fashioned text terminal q/a zork style "UI" to me sounds like
> the perfect interaction level - but thats an uneducated guess. i'd
> like to know why it is you are choising to use a mutliple context,
> app, focus, etc. windowing system for this work? to me it seems like
> it is just making your life harder

Yes, text mode is much better for everyday life.

However, the fact is: people write X applications. An example is
javascript support: the text-mode browser elinks2 has some support, but
it's quite bad compared to mozilla's support. The latter has no textual
interface. There is no textual interface for OpenOffice.org either.

Yes, mozilla & OOo people may start writing a textual interface, but
there's little hope many developpers will take enough time to do it
properly (including testing in real conditions: a 40x1 terminal).

Regards,
Samuel