Session manager

[Chris Green]

On Mon, Nov 29, 2004 at 12:24:23PM +0100, Benedikt Meurer wrote:
> Chris Green wrote:
> >>>I use xfce 4.0.6 and have been thinking that I'd like to upgrade to the 
> >>>new 4.2. I have been lurking on the list for quite some time and have on 
> >>>occasion seen mention of a session manager. I have absolutely no idea 
> >>>what a "session manager" is, what it does, nor why you would even need 
> >>>one. There appears to be no such beast in 4.0.6 - or maybe it is hidden, 
> >>>exactly the way it should be. It should be entirely transparent to me as 
> >>>I have no need/desire to know about such things.
> >>>
> >>>Could someone please enlighten me - and please tell me that the 
> >>>functionality IS actually hidden.
> >>
> >>In simple terms, a session manager keeps track of the applications that 
> >>you start so that when you login again it will restore your desktop to 
> >>the state that it was when you last logged off.
> >
> >Which would be a real pain in the backside if it was the only thing it
> >could do.  I expect a session manager to be able to save a particular
> >desktop arrangement and then make that arrangement my default whenever
> >I start up.  (CDE on which xfce was originally loosely based has a
> >session manager which works as I describe/expect)
> 
> Thats not the job of the session manager. The session manager only 
> remembers the active workspace number for every screen, but the window 
> positions, workspaces, states, etc. are saved by the window manager when 
> the session manager tells him to do so.
> 
Yes, that's fine.  As a user I make a wonderful arrangement of
windows, applications, xterms, etc. that I want to restore when I
log in the next time.  Thus (as with CDE) I want ways to:-

    Tell the session manager (or window manager, as a user I don't
    really care) that I want to save the arrangement as it is *now*.

    Tell the start-up sequence (presumably the session manager but
    again I don't actually care) to restore the arrangement I saved.
    In CDE this is done by having options to restore - nothing, or the
    last saved arrangement, or the arrangement when I last logged out.
    (Actually I think CDE allows one to decide when it's saved, e.g.
    automatically at logout, when I decide, not at all, etc.)

-- 
Chris Green (chris at areti.co.uk)

    "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."