X (xinerama) doesn't restore window locations

[Carsten Haitzler]

On Tue, 23 Aug 2022 10:27:44 -0000 (UTC) David Chmelik <dchmelik at gmail.com>
said:

> On Tue, 23 Aug 2022 08:54:07 +0100, Carsten Haitzler wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, 23 Aug 2022 02:18:53 -0000 (UTC) David Chmelik
> > <dchmelik at gmail.com> said:
> > 
> >> I usually always have my PC on, but of course go away and come back.
> >> Sometimes the screens (three) go inactive and sometimes I turn them
> >> off. Every time I make them active again, no X program has its location
> >> restored but in fact every one is moved somewhere else: often/usually
> >> to another screen.  It's a problem with every X window manager (WM) &
> >> desktop environment (DE) I ever used including KDE 3 (and TDE), 4, 5,
> >> and XFCE almost as long.  Is this a xinerama problem and can it be
> >> fixed?
> > 
> > if you are using xinerama then this would not be happening as it's a
> > fixed setup for the server (or was decades ago when i last used it).
> > everyone moved on to using xrandr to configure screens. this can be
> > dynamic and it's your wm/de environment that would handle things like
> > detecting a screen disconnected and reconfiguring things. you issue is
> > not with xorg but with the wm/de's you choose.
> 
> Okay, I was mistaken: then it's xrandr.
> 
> > as someone who writes these... i can tell you i have EXPLICITLY
> > supported your case in enlightenment. it will auto-restore windows to
> > the screen they were on if it sees a disconnect then a reconnect if you
> > have not reconfigured (changed geometry) of those screens in between the
> > disconnect and the reconnect. it detects re-connects automatically and
> > restores that screen to whatever it was configured to last time it saw
> > it (based on output name + edid blob).
> > 
> > so i'd say you haven;t tried enough wm's and de's ... as the one i wrote
> > does what you want. i even just tested it now - did exactly what it was
> > programmed to do :)
> 
> I've tried dozens but most (including Enlightenment, E) don't do what I 
> want... I'm willing to try E again, but last time there was much more 
> setup to do (some I couldn't figure out) that KDE/TDE & XFCE already did 
> years/decades ago.

E has had the ability to restore the screen if lost like above for years now.

commit 73d305d2a8699f4535403e1820e13a024ea409e3
Author: Carsten Haitzler <raster at rasterman.com>
Date:   Tue Jul 28 13:12:01 2020 +0100

    client - restore to added zone if were there before

    ...

so either you tried a long time ago, or your distribution ships a horribly old
version of enlightenment. either way - it's been capable of it for years.

> I'd rather use CDE or NsCDE but there's a lot they don't do yet also.  I 

then that's up to you. it's your choice what you use. you will have to complain
to their development teams about this and get them to fix it or fix it yourself
and make some patches and send them off... up to you. :)

> know XFCE can be made to work like them (after I get a dependency) and E 
> used to be able to work like them, i.e. like Windows 3 in which you could 
> have program manager groups and not just a start menu.  Someone wrote a 

e has a whole file manager. you can go create directories, fill them
with .desktop files that launch apps and double-click to launch those apps.
it'll work. leave them on your desktop (desktop icons) or arrange in dirs - up
to you.

> script to setup XFCE that way but if I worked similarly again (setting up 
> a file manager that way) I wouldn't have time to setup hundreds .desktop 
> files without a script.  I liked E a lot and would rather use a WM instead 
> of DE if possible...

well you can just ln -s whatever .desktop files you like into dirs. :) up to
you. :)

-- 
------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" --------------
Carsten Haitzler - raster at rasterman.com