🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <9002231624.AA01344@devnull.sun.com>, dshr@SUN (David Rosenthal) writes:
>...It is necessary to be very careful when you quote the ICCCM.  Here are
>the actual words from Section 5.1.1:
>
>	The client communicates with the session manager by placing
>	two properties (WM_COMMAND and WM_CLIENT_MACHINE) on its
>	top-level window.  If the client has a group of top-level
>	windows,  these properties should be placed on the group
>	leader window.
> ...
>There is no implication that multiple top-level windows have to be in the
>same group...

I feel there is a very *clear* implication that top-level
windows of a single client should be in the same group, and that a
client with multiple top-level windows should create a group and place
its top-level windows in that group.  But I agree that ICCCM does not
explicitly *say* this, but rather says something less precise.  What
does "the client has a group of top-level windows" mean?  Perhaps it
means that the client has created a window-group leader.  But suppose
the client has created more than one window-group leader.  Should it
place its WM_COMMAND and WM_CLIENT_MACHINE properties on each?  Why?
With that strategy, why not place them on every top-level window it
creates?

I'll argue that the only sensible interpretation of that sentence from
the ICCCM is "If the client has created more than one top-level
window, it should use one top-level window as a window-group leader,
place its other top-level windows in that group, and place the
WM_COMMAND and WM_CLIENT_MACHINE properties on that window-group
leader window, but not on any other of its top-level windows."

And since I have no wish to spend my life debating the fine points of
ambiguous sentences, I propose that my interpretation of the sentence
replace the original sentence in the ICCCM, or that the original
sentence and related sentences be deleted from the document.

Bill


--
 Bill Janssen        janssen.pa@xerox.com      (415) 494-4763
 Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, California   94304