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[Don Christensen]

Brian J. Tarricone wrote:
> On Tue, 4 May 2004, Don Christensen wrote:
> 
> 
>>Brian J. Tarricone wrote:
>>...
>>
>>>my first simple thought was to 
>>>make the settings panel responsible for selecting the random image from 
>>>the list file.
>>
>>...
>>
> 
> ...
> 
>>Is it possible to place some sort of "hook" into the settings manager
>>mechanism such that when xfdesktop requests a background image, the
>>settings manager selects (and remembers, at least for the duration of
>>the running instance) a random image?  This would require the ability
>>for the settings manager (or would it be xfce-mcs-manager?) to be able
>>to calculate a response to a read request from an app rather than
>>returning a static value.
> 
> 
> that's the problem, actually.  all communication with xfce-mcs-manager 
> is one-way.  the client apps (e.g., xfdesktop) can say "hey mcs manager, 
> gimme the setting named X in channel Y," but that's basically all it can 
> do.  building in a hook/callback mechanism would be a bit of an 
> undertaking, and probably not worth the effort.  hopefully 
> xfce-mcs-manager will go away in favor of something DBUS-based for xfce 
> 4.4 anyway.

What I was trying to suggest (without knowing the terminology to do
so properly) was to be able to have "mcs manager" be able to dynamically
answer the client app's "hey mcs manager, gimme the setting named X in
channel Y" request, rather than just returning a statically configured
value.  So the "hook" would exist entirely on the mcs manager side
(with the possible exception that maybe the client would somehow indicate
it wanted the mcs manager to use the hook to provide a dynamic value,
but that might best be accomplished by using a separate setting X or
channel Y, however it is organized.)

> at any rate, it seems to work fine just setting a property on the root 
> window in xfdesktop and reading the property in the mcs plugin, so i see 
> no need to mess with it.

A solution in hand is worth two in the bush, right?  Especially when a
more "correct" solution down the road is going to void anything done
now.  Besides, I made my suggestion before I got to your announcement
that you had already coded the root window property "hack" (I was behind
on my email).

-Don

-- 
Don Christensen       Senior Software Development Engineer
djc at cisco.com         Cisco Systems, Santa Cruz, CA
   "It was a new day yesterday, but it's an old day now."