[LAU] Update: Lightweight WM that can be used without any issue with audio applications

[Simon Wise]

On 14/09/14 19:40, Simon Wise wrote:

>
> lxde with openbox is the choice the Raspberry Pi lot made for a very low powered
> device to be used by Linux noobs ... it behaves itself quite well and is very
> lightweight. I haven't seen these issues,

I'd forgotten one issue like that ... when pd creates a new, empty, patch its 
window is positioned incorrectly in the top left with the decorations and menu 
off-screen (regardless of the positioning settings). After moving with alt-drag 
and saving then it re-opens correctly each time, so it has never been an issue. 
I think it is an attempt by pd to keep the canvas areas aligned consistently 
regardless of platform, but it doesn't always work so well.

So ...  Openbox allows applications and users to place their windows badly if 
they insist, you had better stick with something a bit heavier if you need more 
discipline applied. It does use its margins as a border for maximise and for 
'edge resistance'.

Experimenting with xfce and openbox ... pd saves the position of the top left of 
its inner windows (excluding the decorations and menu) and their size in its 
patch files .. then a window on openbox is opened exactly there if this inner 
window would land within the display, otherwise a clumsy guess at placement and 
size is made. Xfce4 over-rides this if part of the window is outside the set 
margins, and moves and resizes to fit. Xfce4 always pushes the whole window 
decoration out of the panel area and won't allow a window to be dragged too far 
outside the margins.

I think it is a Pd issue, it is trying to place windows manually rather than 
giving the WM appropriate hints. Also the WM_CLASS window property doesn't seem 
to be properly set, so it isn't dealing with the whole WM thing correctly at 
all, probably trying to avoid different WM and OS decisions leading to different 
layouts.

There will be others which ask for awkward positions in a way that Openbox does 
not fix up.


Simon