Removing decorations from a window

[Don Christensen]

Heinrich Rebehn wrote:
...
> I have to object at this point. Any software should do what the *user*
> tells it to do, and if for some reason i do not want a decoration, i
> want a tool to suppress it, be it devilspie or a capable wm. After all
> this is easier for me than to edit the app's source.
> And, since i definately refuse to edit xml config files by hand, i keep
> recommending sawfish wm.
> 
> --Heinrich

Actually, any software should do what it's *developer* tells it
to do.  This applies for both commercial and open source software.
For commercial software, what the developers tell it to do should
match up as closely as possible with what the intended customers
want it to do, or esle it will not be successful in the marketplace.

For open source software, the developers are free to choose who the
intended customer is.  In some cases, the developer is targeting as
large an audience as possible, which aligns with the commercial
software model.  In the case of Xfce, however, the intended
audience happens to be the developers themselves (this has been
stated by the developers on this list on numerous occasions).
The rest of us who want software that works the way Xfce does
happily get a free ride on the backs of the developers, who are
kind and generous enough to share their efforts with us.

I, for one, am thankful.  This isn't to say that I wouldn't
request some new or different behavior that I thought would be
useful to me.  But I would attempt to convince the developers
that this behavior would be useful to them in some way rather
than telling them they should accomodate what I desire.  If
they don't agree, I'll live with what they give me, find
something else, or write my own.

-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."