xfdesktop inside a window

[Pablo Angulo]

>This really has nothing to do with xfdesktop.  Xfdesktop *is* a window 
>that sits on top of the X root window.  It has nothing to do with 
>keeping windows in a certain place.  The window manager, xfwm4, does 
>that...

That's natural! I didn't think about it.

>
>I don't really understand why you'd want to use the desktop component 
>for this, anyway...
>

I just though it would provide a neat component for development. It is indeed very common in windows applications (I can think of what used to be the macromedia suite). Sometimes a program asks for tons of windows and they mess up with other applications you may have opened. It's more tidy to group them in only one window. You may also want to do special things that are not used generally (e.g., window tiling). It's a lot of functionality and I don't know of such a component in the gtk toolkit. An existing window manager would be a nice place to start.


--------------------

> Actually, I *would* prefer a single window.
>
> Anyway, a workaround is described here:
> http://xubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/09/05/howto-run-gimp-in-one-window/
>
> Also, this comment seems to describe what you want (I haven't tried it):
> http://xubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/09/05/howto-run-gimp-in-one-window/#comment-5778

Very nice trick! It gives me some trouble because I'm using compiz instead of xfwm4 lately, but it sure works. I will now explore Xephyr, which is mentioned in the documentation of xnest as a better alternative to run a xserver inside another. If it can run as a component, then I got all I was asking for.

Thank you, Vincent and Brian, I'll write back later if I find something interesting.