xrandr moves panel away from screen border

[Achim Linder]

On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 22:31:12 +0200
Olivier Fourdan <fourdan at xfce.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 2003-09-17 at 16:04, Achim Linder wrote:

> > Switching screen size with xrandr works fine as long as panel window
> > layer is set to "Top", but the panel is moved and stays in the middle
> > of the screen when switching back to the old screen size if the layer
> > is set to a different value. Gkrellm works as expected if I set it to
> > _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK (with normal layer),

and it shows the same behaviour as the normal layer panel if the window
type is normal.

> > the problem with the panel seems to be that its window type
> > (as reported by xprop) is always _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_NORMAL.
> > 
> > I had a look at the sources, but set_window_type_dock seems to be
> > the only relevant function and I haven't been able to find a place
> > where this function is actually used. Is there some configuration
> > option I haven't found yet, or is this a bug?

> Not surprising, only the WM is xrandr compatible, the panel isn't.

The panel doesn't have to be xrandr compatible, all it has to do is stay
where it is - that's what it _does_ when it is on top, and this should
not depend on the layer. An average user who changes the panel layer
expects that the panel can be covered by other windows. He doesn't
expect that the panel is treated like a normal window in every respect,
eg that it becomes decorated or non-sticky or that it occurs in the
window list or a pager. And he does not expect that he has to move it
back to the screen border by hand each time the screen size was changed
(eg by xawtv).

xfce4 is a *great* environment, but this problem is really annoying and
xfwm4 and devilspie don't provide a workaround. A gkrellm dock window or
a gnome panel is a TYPE_DOCK window, and the type doesn't depend on the
window layer. If your panel is a TYPE_NORMAL window, then there should
be another way to exclude it from the "is moved when using xrandr"-list.
Any hint how to do this?

Achim