Removing Window Decorations

[Bruce Miller]

Tyler wrote:
> Jonathan B. Horen said:
> I suppose the lesson I learned here is that this is something window
> managers are not supposed to do, but some do anyway. Ideally, the WM
> should display whatever the application asks for. Some WMs (like
> Enlightenment) have options to override what an application asks for in
> terms of window decoration, but that sort of breaks the rules and they
> really should do do that even if it is convenient at times.
> 
> Would that be accurate?

Not necessarily; Although I don't suppose we should get into a general
philosophical debate here, I think there are a range of opinions on
exactly what the limits of a window manager should be, rather than hard
rules.  I'd make two observations, here:

One is that most of these properties go by names like "wm_hint", that is,
they hint to, but don't require from, the window manager what treatment
they would like. The window manager may not implement a feature, or may
choose to ignore or override the hint.

A second point is that there is an evolving set of things that applications
might like to hint at, or WM's might want hints about (eg stickiness,
shading, minimize, iconify, composition, etc).  It's nice if applications
evolve to use the latest tricks, but to forbid the WM from doing anything
with them if they don't seems rather limiting.

That said, I think that what matters is the philosophy of the author
of a particular window manager.  Rather than hard & fast rules about
what they can do, they should develop it how _they_ feel is appropriate.
And us users should choose the WM whose behaviour fits _us_!

bruce