• odd windowing issue (perl Tk)

    From Mike Scott@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, July 08, 2026 12:03:51
    Hi all. A bit of an odd problem here.

    I've a perl program that opens an X window using Tk. I specify the
    geometry 1400x700+0+0.

    Running under Mint, it works fine, and opens exactly as expected in the
    top left screen corner.

    On the Pi (pi4, 11/bullseye), it opens a window with the correct size
    but a very odd position:

    xwininfo: Window id: 0x1a00013 "Display"

    Absolute upper-left X: 1782
    Absolute upper-left Y: 30
    Relative upper-left X: 2
    Relative upper-left Y: 30
    Width: 1400
    Height: 700
    Depth: 24
    Visual: 0x21
    Visual Class: TrueColor
    Border width: 0
    Class: InputOutput
    Colormap: 0x20 (not installed)
    Bit Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
    Window Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
    Backing Store State: NotUseful
    Save Under State: no
    Map State: IsViewable
    Override Redirect State: no
    Corners: +1782+30 --1262+30 --1262-350 +1782-350
    -geometry 1400x700+1780+0

    which is well off to the right, with the title bar concealed underneath
    the top task bar.

    Any thoughts please as to what might be going on?


    (I know bulldog isn't the latest but I don't have any pressing need to upgrade. This machine is dedicated to running this one program.

    I also see xrandr returns unexpected output about not being able to
    fetch the gamma value for the screen, which it calls "default". But
    maybe that's a red herring.)



    --
    Mike Scott
    Harlow, England


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, July 08, 2026 17:04:01
    On 2026-07-08, Mike Scott <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> wrote:
    Hi all. A bit of an odd problem here.

    I've a perl program that opens an X window using Tk. I specify the
    geometry 1400x700+0+0.

    Running under Mint, it works fine, and opens exactly as expected in the
    top left screen corner.

    On the Pi (pi4, 11/bullseye), it opens a window with the correct size
    but a very odd position:

    xwininfo: Window id: 0x1a00013 "Display"

    Absolute upper-left X: 1782
    Absolute upper-left Y: 30
    Relative upper-left X: 2
    Relative upper-left Y: 30
    Width: 1400
    Height: 700
    Depth: 24
    Visual: 0x21
    Visual Class: TrueColor
    Border width: 0
    Class: InputOutput
    Colormap: 0x20 (not installed)
    Bit Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
    Window Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
    Backing Store State: NotUseful
    Save Under State: no
    Map State: IsViewable
    Override Redirect State: no
    Corners: +1782+30 --1262+30 --1262-350 +1782-350
    -geometry 1400x700+1780+0

    which is well off to the right, with the title bar concealed underneath
    the top task bar.

    Any thoughts please as to what might be going on?


    (I know bulldog isn't the latest but I don't have any pressing need to upgrade. This machine is dedicated to running this one program.

    I also see xrandr returns unexpected output about not being able to
    fetch the gamma value for the screen, which it calls "default". But
    maybe that's a red herring.)

    Under some circumstances, the window manager can override the
    size or position parameters. Under some other circumstances, the
    application can ignore those parameters.

    There is a program called devilspie (apparently named after a
    song) that can force new (or old) windows to specified sizes and
    positions.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Mike Scott@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, July 08, 2026 19:54:56
    On 08/07/2026 18:33, rbowman wrote:
    On Wed, 8 Jul 2026 12:03:51 +0100, Mike Scott wrote:

    (I know bulldog isn't the latest but I don't have any pressing need to
    upgrade. This machine is dedicated to running this one program.

    What is XDG_SESSION_TYPE? Mint is X11. I'm running the latest Trixie derivative on the Pi and it is Wayland. I'm wondering if an older XWayland isn't doing the job.

    Thanks for the comment.

    X11 (on both)


    --
    Mike Scott
    Harlow, England

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Mike Scott@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, July 08, 2026 19:57:06
    On 08/07/2026 18:04, Robert Riches wrote:
    Under some circumstances, the window manager can override the
    size or position parameters. Under some other circumstances, the
    application can ignore those parameters.

    Presumably the wm's differ. But /anything/ positioning a window outside
    the screen real estate after ignoring the user's request is most
    assuredly broken.

    Looks like I'll have to write some simpler test code to see what's
    happening.

    Thanks for the thought.

    --
    Mike Scott
    Harlow, England

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, July 09, 2026 10:30:01
    On Wed, 8 Jul 2026 12:03:51 +0100, Mike Scott wrote:

    On the Pi (pi4, 11/bullseye), it opens a window with the correct
    size but a very odd position:

    On Wayland, the application is not in control of where its windows
    appear.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, July 09, 2026 02:46:39
    On 2026-07-08, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Wed, 8 Jul 2026 12:03:51 +0100, Mike Scott wrote:

    On the Pi (pi4, 11/bullseye), it opens a window with the correct
    size but a very odd position:

    On Wayland, the application is not in control of where its windows
    appear.

    Then, what of the time-honored -geometry or --geometry option a
    user can add to a command line in a script or alias to create a
    window at a user-specified location? I have scripts that open
    multiple windows, each at a location specified by that option.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Mike Scott@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, July 09, 2026 08:41:29
    On 09/07/2026 03:46, Robert Riches wrote:
    On 2026-07-08, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Wed, 8 Jul 2026 12:03:51 +0100, Mike Scott wrote:

    On the Pi (pi4, 11/bullseye), it opens a window with the correct
    size but a very odd position:

    On Wayland, the application is not in control of where its windows
    appear.

    Then, what of the time-honored -geometry or --geometry option a
    user can add to a command line in a script or alias to create a
    window at a user-specified location? I have scripts that open
    multiple windows, each at a location specified by that option.


    That option seems to have been lost in many cases (eg Lingot) where it
    would be useful. Regrettable.

    However, getting back to the original problem, I'll hold up my hands and
    say 'programming error'. I still don't understand the failure mode - the program runs single or dual-head, distributing one or two Tk main
    windows between them. I won't include the suspect code here.

    The code /looked/ OK, and worked fine on Mint where it was debugged.
    However, running single-head on the Pi gave the weird position of the
    window. I've reworked the code, and it all works now (or seems to) on
    both machines.

    It does raise the question though of exactly why the behaviour differed
    so obscurely. Perl/Tk AFAIK shouldn't be doing this.

    Thanks for the comments. They did make me take a closer look at the code.


    --
    Mike Scott
    Harlow, England

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Daniel James@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, July 09, 2026 11:14:45
    On 09/07/2026 05:34, rbowman wrote:
    Absolute positioning of
    windows was something the Wayland developers objected to.

    That seems short-sighted.

    In my former life as a Windows (cough!) developer we took some trouble
    to open our main application window at the same position on the screen
    as it had been when the application was last closed (and stored screen size/position values for different screen sizes/resolutions for the
    benefit of those who copied the application between their laptop and
    desktop PCs). It was a popular feature.

    I really do *NOT* like the fact that on this (stock RaspiOS) Pi the wm
    chooses to open each and every application right in the centre of the
    screen and I have to move them all around to acceptable places.

    --
    Cheers,
    Daniel.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 11, 2026 10:49:28
    On Thu, 9 Jul 2026 11:14:45 +0100, Daniel James wrote:

    I really do *NOT* like the fact that on this (stock RaspiOS) Pi the
    wm chooses to open each and every application right in the centre of
    the screen and I have to move them all around to acceptable places.

    That?s an issue with the window manager.

    On my KDE Plasma system, the default window manager behaviour seems to
    be to put windows wherever there is a convenient gap among the
    existing windows on the current desktop.

    One thing is for sure: giving control to the apps themselves is never
    going to be the optimal solution.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Daniel James@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 11, 2026 12:32:30
    On 09/07/2026 23:58, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    One thing is for sure: giving control to the apps themselves is never
    going to be the optimal solution.

    It's not clear to me that there is any one solution that is optimal in
    all cases.

    It's certainly nice to allow the apps to be able to request a particular size/position, but of course the wm should be able to ignore the request
    if that location makes no sense. No, the app shouldn't have *control*,
    just be able to express a preference.

    --
    Cheers,
    Daniel.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Richard Kettlewell@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 11, 2026 14:05:51
    Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> writes:
    On 09/07/2026 23:58, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    One thing is for sure: giving control to the apps themselves is never
    going to be the optimal solution.

    It's not clear to me that there is any one solution that is optimal in
    all cases.

    It's certainly nice to allow the apps to be able to request a
    particular size/position, but of course the wm should be able to
    ignore the request if that location makes no sense. No, the app
    shouldn't have *control*, just be able to express a preference.

    I would argue that for the most part, the window position preferences
    (or outright control) should come from the user, not the application at
    all. That does point to a system-level component (window manager,
    compositor, whatever) managing positions, following user configuration,
    rather than the application.

    There is some nuance here when an application either opens more than one window, or opens a window that is in some way logically connected to
    another application. Depending on what?s going on it might be
    preferrable for the new window to be overlapping the existing window
    (e.g. menus, tooltips, confirmation dialogs, etc), or it might be
    preferrable for it to not overlapping the existing window if possible
    (e.g. a pop-out media player).

    Wayland already covers much of this but there does seem to be a gap for
    a niche set of use cases. It always seems to be the same application
    mentioned each time this comes up, so it?s unclear if the niche is
    bigger than 1.

    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Mike Scott@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 11, 2026 19:37:57
    On 11/07/2026 14:05, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
    I would argue that for the most part, the window position preferences
    (or outright control) should come from the user, not the application at
    all. That does point to a system-level component (window manager, compositor, whatever) managing positions, following user configuration, rather than the application.

    I rather depends on the use, i suspect. That warning window really may
    need to position itself screen dead centre on top of everything else to
    make the realise there's a problem with the automatic reactor emergency shutdown :-{

    --
    Mike Scott
    Harlow, England

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Richard Kettlewell@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, July 11, 2026 22:08:21
    Mike Scott <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> writes:
    Richard Kettlewell wrote:
    I would argue that for the most part, the window position preferences
    (or outright control) should come from the user, not the application at
    all. That does point to a system-level component (window manager,
    compositor, whatever) managing positions, following user configuration,
    rather than the application.

    I rather depends on the use, i suspect. That warning window really may
    need to position itself screen dead centre on top of everything else
    to make the realise there's a problem with the automatic reactor
    emergency shutdown :-{

    That?s not inconsistent with policy being in the window manager (or
    compositor or or whatever).

    Personally I think that having the warning obscure whatever outputs and controls you might use to further investigate and mitigate the problem
    doesn?t seem like a great idea.

    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 12, 2026 14:09:40
    On Sat, 11 Jul 2026 12:32:30 +0100, Daniel James wrote:

    It's certainly nice to allow the apps to be able to request a
    particular size/position, but of course the wm should be able to
    ignore the request if that location makes no sense. No, the app
    shouldn't have *control*, just be able to express a preference.

    It?s not clear that that preference would be useful in enough cases to
    bother.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 12, 2026 03:55:03
    On 2026-07-11, Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> writes:
    On 09/07/2026 23:58, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    One thing is for sure: giving control to the apps themselves is never
    going to be the optimal solution.

    It's not clear to me that there is any one solution that is optimal in
    all cases.

    It's certainly nice to allow the apps to be able to request a
    particular size/position, but of course the wm should be able to
    ignore the request if that location makes no sense. No, the app
    shouldn't have *control*, just be able to express a preference.

    I would argue that for the most part, the window position preferences
    (or outright control) should come from the user, not the application at
    all. That does point to a system-level component (window manager, compositor, whatever) managing positions, following user configuration, rather than the application.

    There is some nuance here when an application either opens more than one window, or opens a window that is in some way logically connected to
    another application. Depending on what?s going on it might be
    preferrable for the new window to be overlapping the existing window
    (e.g. menus, tooltips, confirmation dialogs, etc), or it might be
    preferrable for it to not overlapping the existing window if possible
    (e.g. a pop-out media player).

    Wayland already covers much of this but there does seem to be a gap for
    a niche set of use cases. It always seems to be the same application mentioned each time this comes up, so it?s unclear if the niche is
    bigger than 1.

    Okay, here's one niche use case:

    - I want to run a shell script that opens four xterms (or
    similar), and on the command line that starts each instance
    the script specifies colors and screen size/position.

    - On another day of the week, I have a different shell script
    that opens nine xterms (or similar). Again, each command
    line in the script specifies colors and screen
    size/positions.

    Here's another:

    - I want to monitor a group of maybe a dozen machines involved
    in a performance benchmark, so I have a script that opens a
    small monitoring application (maybe xload or "vmstat 3" or
    similar) on various machines. I would use the equivalent of
    "ssh -X ..." to launch them, since IIUC Wayland doesn't do
    network transparency (defined as a client application
    throwing its display to display server).

    Oh, another:

    - I want to open several web browser windows in specific screen
    sizes and positions to run a web app.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 12, 2026 19:20:47
    On 12 Jul 2026 03:55:03 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    Okay, here's one niche use case:

    - I want to run a shell script that opens four xterms (or
    similar), and on the command line that starts each instance
    the script specifies colors and screen size/position.

    If you want total control over how things are laid out, put them all
    in the same window. In this case, open the terminal sessions as panels
    in a single window.

    (Note that, in both X11 and Wayland, ?window? is not synonymous with ?contiguous rectangular region of opaque pixels?.)

    Here's another:

    - I want to monitor a group of maybe a dozen machines involved
    in a performance benchmark, so I have a script that opens a
    small monitoring application (maybe xload or "vmstat 3" or
    similar) on various machines. I would use the equivalent of
    "ssh -X ..." to launch them, since IIUC Wayland doesn't do
    network transparency (defined as a client application
    throwing its display to display server).

    <https://packages.debian.org/trixie/waypipe>

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Richard Kettlewell@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 12, 2026 09:07:05
    Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> writes:
    On 2026-07-11, Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> writes:
    On 09/07/2026 23:58, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    One thing is for sure: giving control to the apps themselves is never
    going to be the optimal solution.

    It's not clear to me that there is any one solution that is optimal in
    all cases.

    It's certainly nice to allow the apps to be able to request a
    particular size/position, but of course the wm should be able to
    ignore the request if that location makes no sense. No, the app
    shouldn't have *control*, just be able to express a preference.

    I would argue that for the most part, the window position preferences
    (or outright control) should come from the user, not the application at
    all. That does point to a system-level component (window manager,
    compositor, whatever) managing positions, following user configuration,
    rather than the application.

    There is some nuance here when an application either opens more than one
    window, or opens a window that is in some way logically connected to
    another application. Depending on what?s going on it might be
    preferrable for the new window to be overlapping the existing window
    (e.g. menus, tooltips, confirmation dialogs, etc), or it might be
    preferrable for it to not overlapping the existing window if possible
    (e.g. a pop-out media player).

    Wayland already covers much of this but there does seem to be a gap for
    a niche set of use cases. It always seems to be the same application
    mentioned each time this comes up, so it?s unclear if the niche is
    bigger than 1.

    Okay, here's one niche use case:

    - I want to run a shell script that opens four xterms (or
    similar), and on the command line that starts each instance
    the script specifies colors and screen size/position.

    - On another day of the week, I have a different shell script
    that opens nine xterms (or similar). Again, each command
    line in the script specifies colors and screen
    size/positions.

    Here's another:

    - I want to monitor a group of maybe a dozen machines involved
    in a performance benchmark, so I have a script that opens a
    small monitoring application (maybe xload or "vmstat 3" or
    similar) on various machines. I would use the equivalent of
    "ssh -X ..." to launch them, since IIUC Wayland doesn't do
    network transparency (defined as a client application
    throwing its display to display server).

    Oh, another:

    - I want to open several web browser windows in specific screen
    sizes and positions to run a web app.

    i.e. you want user control of window positions, which is what I?m
    arguing for:

    | I would argue that for the most part, the window position preferences
    | (or outright control) should come from the user, not the application
    | at all.

    This is not inconsistent with the user control being expressed via a
    window manager rather than through the application, so I have no idea
    what point you?re trying to make here.

    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 12, 2026 16:14:28
    On 2026-07-12, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On 12 Jul 2026 03:55:03 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    Okay, here's one niche use case:

    - I want to run a shell script that opens four xterms (or
    similar), and on the command line that starts each instance
    the script specifies colors and screen size/position.

    If you want total control over how things are laid out, put them all
    in the same window. In this case, open the terminal sessions as panels
    in a single window.

    Perhaps you did not understand. The xterms or whatever are the
    applications. I'm just want to use something like [-]-geometry
    when launching instances of the applications so that they are
    arranged how I (as the user) want them.

    Or, perhaps you're just following the far-too-frequently observed
    pattern of, "The Wayland way is the _ONLY_ way!"

    (Note that, in both X11 and Wayland, ?window? is not synonymous with ?contiguous rectangular region of opaque pixels?.)

    Yes, there are a few things that create windows that are not
    rectangular.

    Here's another:

    - I want to monitor a group of maybe a dozen machines involved
    in a performance benchmark, so I have a script that opens a
    small monitoring application (maybe xload or "vmstat 3" or
    similar) on various machines. I would use the equivalent of
    "ssh -X ..." to launch them, since IIUC Wayland doesn't do
    network transparency (defined as a client application
    throwing its display to display server).

    <https://packages.debian.org/trixie/waypipe>

    Nice that somebody finally came around to seeing that some form
    of network transparency is needed. However, the real beauty of
    X's network transparency is not in 'ssh -X', it is in putting a
    hostname or IP address in the value of $DISPLAY so that X clients
    can access X display servers wherever they may be.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 12, 2026 16:06:44
    On 2026-07-12, Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> writes:
    On 2026-07-11, Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> writes:
    On 09/07/2026 23:58, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    One thing is for sure: giving control to the apps themselves is never >>>>> going to be the optimal solution.

    It's not clear to me that there is any one solution that is optimal in >>>> all cases.

    It's certainly nice to allow the apps to be able to request a
    particular size/position, but of course the wm should be able to
    ignore the request if that location makes no sense. No, the app
    shouldn't have *control*, just be able to express a preference.

    I would argue that for the most part, the window position preferences
    (or outright control) should come from the user, not the application at
    all. That does point to a system-level component (window manager,
    compositor, whatever) managing positions, following user configuration,
    rather than the application.

    There is some nuance here when an application either opens more than one >>> window, or opens a window that is in some way logically connected to
    another application. Depending on what?s going on it might be
    preferrable for the new window to be overlapping the existing window
    (e.g. menus, tooltips, confirmation dialogs, etc), or it might be
    preferrable for it to not overlapping the existing window if possible
    (e.g. a pop-out media player).

    Wayland already covers much of this but there does seem to be a gap for
    a niche set of use cases. It always seems to be the same application
    mentioned each time this comes up, so it?s unclear if the niche is
    bigger than 1.

    Okay, here's one niche use case:

    - I want to run a shell script that opens four xterms (or
    similar), and on the command line that starts each instance
    the script specifies colors and screen size/position.

    - On another day of the week, I have a different shell script
    that opens nine xterms (or similar). Again, each command
    line in the script specifies colors and screen
    size/positions.

    Here's another:

    - I want to monitor a group of maybe a dozen machines involved
    in a performance benchmark, so I have a script that opens a
    small monitoring application (maybe xload or "vmstat 3" or
    similar) on various machines. I would use the equivalent of
    "ssh -X ..." to launch them, since IIUC Wayland doesn't do
    network transparency (defined as a client application
    throwing its display to display server).

    Oh, another:

    - I want to open several web browser windows in specific screen
    sizes and positions to run a web app.

    i.e. you want user control of window positions, which is what I?m
    arguing for:

    Happy that there's some agreement.

    | I would argue that for the most part, the window position preferences
    | (or outright control) should come from the user, not the application
    | at all.

    This is not inconsistent with the user control being expressed via a
    window manager rather than through the application, so I have no idea
    what point you?re trying to make here.

    For the record, I did not write the "I would argue ..." piece.
    IIUC, it appears you did.

    While it may be possible for user preference to be expressed via
    the window manager, in the cases I'm thinking of, it's much
    easier for the user to simply add the [-]-geometry option to the
    command line (perhaps in a shell script) when launching the
    application(s).

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Monday, July 13, 2026 09:41:51
    On 12 Jul 2026 16:14:28 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    Or, perhaps you're just following the far-too-frequently observed
    pattern of, "The Wayland way is the _ONLY_ way!"

    I don?t see anybody offering a serious alternative. All I see is
    people like you, complaining about things changing but not serious
    about wanting to do something about it.

    However, the real beauty of X's network transparency is not in 'ssh
    -X', it is in putting a hostname or IP address in the value of
    $DISPLAY so that X clients can access X display servers wherever
    they may be.

    X11 was never ?network-transparent?. If the network connection went
    down, all the remote X clients would die.

    To achieve network-transparency, you had to resort to something like
    VNC or RDP. And those sorts of protocols can work equally well with
    Wayland.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 12, 2026 23:27:43
    On 2026-07-12, Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> writes:
    On 2026-07-12, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On 12 Jul 2026 16:14:28 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:
    Or, perhaps you're just following the far-too-frequently observed
    pattern of, "The Wayland way is the _ONLY_ way!"

    I don?t see anybody offering a serious alternative. All I see is
    people like you, complaining about things changing but not serious
    about wanting to do something about it.

    Why is there a need to do anything? X works just fine. What
    happened to the motto of not fixing something if it's not broken?
    Why is there such a mad rush to re-invent things but do so more
    poorly than the original, working solution?

    ?Why? is covered in the FAQ.

    https://wayland.freedesktop.org/faq.html

    Yes, and those who have chosen to pathetically re-implement ntpd
    for systemd (throwing out everything that makes ntpd a superior
    solution) have similar justifications for their needless efforts.

    There's a quote, something to the effect that those who do not
    understand Unix will be condemned to re-implement it--poorly.
    The same seems appropriate when describing systemd's poor
    imitation of ntpd and Wayland.

    However, the real beauty of X's network transparency is not in 'ssh
    -X', it is in putting a hostname or IP address in the value of
    $DISPLAY so that X clients can access X display servers wherever
    they may be.

    That has very limited usefulness today due to its unacceptably poor
    security.

    Yes, but in those cases where it is useful (far inside more than
    a few levels of security fencing and such), it's still useful and
    consumes a lot less resources than ssh -X.

    X11 was never ?network-transparent?. If the network connection went
    down, all the remote X clients would die.

    To achieve network-transparency, you had to resort to something like
    VNC or RDP. And those sorts of protocols can work equally well with
    Wayland.

    Wrong! Without resorting to VNC, RDP, or anything similar, I
    have personally launched X clients that displayed on a display
    server on a different host. All you have to do is use the proper
    syntax to specify the remote display server in $DISPLAY or when
    calling the library function to open the display, set XHost
    appropriately, and supply the XAUTH key/cookie/whatever.

    Lawrence is right that your clients die if the network goes down
    (e.g. if the client endpoint sleeps, which is the usual reason my remote
    X clients fail).

    The first part about clients dying if the network connection goes
    down is so obviously trivial that it doesn't deserve comment. I
    think that gimmick might be called a red herring.

    Where Lawrence is wrong is that X does not require ssh -X, VNC,
    RDP, or anything similar to do X displaying across a network.
    That is what is normally meant by X's network transparency.

    Whether that?s the definition of ?network transaprent? I?ll not take a
    view on. But it?s certainly inconvenient.

    Not sure what you mean is inconvenient.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Richard Kettlewell@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 12, 2026 23:29:58
    Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> writes:
    On 2026-07-12, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On 12 Jul 2026 16:14:28 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:
    Or, perhaps you're just following the far-too-frequently observed
    pattern of, "The Wayland way is the _ONLY_ way!"

    I don?t see anybody offering a serious alternative. All I see is
    people like you, complaining about things changing but not serious
    about wanting to do something about it.

    Why is there a need to do anything? X works just fine. What
    happened to the motto of not fixing something if it's not broken?
    Why is there such a mad rush to re-invent things but do so more
    poorly than the original, working solution?

    ?Why? is covered in the FAQ.

    https://wayland.freedesktop.org/faq.html

    However, the real beauty of X's network transparency is not in 'ssh
    -X', it is in putting a hostname or IP address in the value of
    $DISPLAY so that X clients can access X display servers wherever
    they may be.

    That has very limited usefulness today due to its unacceptably poor
    security.

    X11 was never ?network-transparent?. If the network connection went
    down, all the remote X clients would die.

    To achieve network-transparency, you had to resort to something like
    VNC or RDP. And those sorts of protocols can work equally well with
    Wayland.

    Wrong! Without resorting to VNC, RDP, or anything similar, I
    have personally launched X clients that displayed on a display
    server on a different host. All you have to do is use the proper
    syntax to specify the remote display server in $DISPLAY or when
    calling the library function to open the display, set XHost
    appropriately, and supply the XAUTH key/cookie/whatever.

    Lawrence is right that your clients die if the network goes down
    (e.g. if the client endpoint sleeps, which is the usual reason my remote
    X clients fail).

    Whether that?s the definition of ?network transaprent? I?ll not take a
    view on. But it?s certainly inconvenient.

    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 12, 2026 22:16:40
    On 2026-07-12, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On 12 Jul 2026 16:14:28 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    Or, perhaps you're just following the far-too-frequently observed
    pattern of, "The Wayland way is the _ONLY_ way!"

    I don?t see anybody offering a serious alternative. All I see is
    people like you, complaining about things changing but not serious
    about wanting to do something about it.

    Why is there a need to do anything? X works just fine. What
    happened to the motto of not fixing something if it's not broken?
    Why is there such a mad rush to re-invent things but do so more
    poorly than the original, working solution?

    However, the real beauty of X's network transparency is not in 'ssh
    -X', it is in putting a hostname or IP address in the value of
    $DISPLAY so that X clients can access X display servers wherever
    they may be.

    X11 was never ?network-transparent?. If the network connection went
    down, all the remote X clients would die.

    To achieve network-transparency, you had to resort to something like
    VNC or RDP. And those sorts of protocols can work equally well with
    Wayland.

    Wrong! Without resorting to VNC, RDP, or anything similar, I
    have personally launched X clients that displayed on a display
    server on a different host. All you have to do is use the proper
    syntax to specify the remote display server in $DISPLAY or when
    calling the library function to open the display, set XHost
    appropriately, and supply the XAUTH key/cookie/whatever.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Monday, July 13, 2026 11:27:03
    On 12 Jul 2026 22:16:40 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    On 2026-07-12, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    On 12 Jul 2026 16:14:28 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    Or, perhaps you're just following the far-too-frequently observed
    pattern of, "The Wayland way is the _ONLY_ way!"

    I don?t see anybody offering a serious alternative. All I see is
    people like you, complaining about things changing but not serious
    about wanting to do something about it.

    Why is there a need to do anything? X works just fine.

    Developers have largely ceased updating it, because hardly anybody
    sees it as a worthwhile project any more. If you don?t care about
    that, fine. But most of those responsible for maintaining
    well-supported distros do.

    Without resorting to VNC, RDP, or anything similar, I have
    personally launched X clients that displayed on a display server on
    a different host. All you have to do is use the proper syntax to
    specify the remote display server in $DISPLAY or when calling the
    library function to open the display, set XHost appropriately, and
    supply the XAUTH key/cookie/whatever.

    X11 was never ?network-transparent?. If the network connection went
    down, all those remote X clients would die.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, July 12, 2026 23:30:59
    On 2026-07-12, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
    On 12 Jul 2026 22:16:40 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    All you have to do is use the proper syntax to specify
    the remote display server in $DISPLAY or when calling the library
    function to open the display, set XHost appropriately, and supply the
    XAUTH key/cookie/whatever.

    We tended to set 'xhost +'. 'Why is it suddenly snowing on my computer?'

    That's where the "appropriately" part comes in. If there aren't
    enough layers of security fencing between what you're doing and
    either pranksters or bad guys, you want to be more selective.

    I would agree that in _MOST_ cases, ssh -X is probably preferable
    in today's environment.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Monday, July 13, 2026 16:30:02
    On 13 Jul 2026 04:16:39 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    On 2026-07-13, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    X11 was never ?network-transparent?. If the network connection went
    down, all those remote X clients would die.

    That's not what the term means ...

    Doesn?t matter what you think it means. That?s what happens,
    regardless.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Monday, July 13, 2026 04:16:39
    On 2026-07-13, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On 12 Jul 2026 22:16:40 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    On 2026-07-12, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    On 12 Jul 2026 16:14:28 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    Or, perhaps you're just following the far-too-frequently observed
    pattern of, "The Wayland way is the _ONLY_ way!"

    I don?t see anybody offering a serious alternative. All I see is
    people like you, complaining about things changing but not serious
    about wanting to do something about it.

    Why is there a need to do anything? X works just fine.

    Developers have largely ceased updating it, because hardly anybody
    sees it as a worthwhile project any more. If you don?t care about
    that, fine. But most of those responsible for maintaining
    well-supported distros do.

    Without resorting to VNC, RDP, or anything similar, I have
    personally launched X clients that displayed on a display server on
    a different host. All you have to do is use the proper syntax to
    specify the remote display server in $DISPLAY or when calling the
    library function to open the display, set XHost appropriately, and
    supply the XAUTH key/cookie/whatever.

    X11 was never ?network-transparent?. If the network connection went
    down, all those remote X clients would die.

    That's not what the term means, and as someone else already
    pointed out, VNC and RDP and anything else would soon follow. To
    help you correct your misunderstanding of the terminology:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System_protocols_and_architecture

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_transparency

    On the former page, please notice the first line and other
    supporting statements later in the page.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Richard Kettlewell@3:633/10 to All on Monday, July 13, 2026 08:31:15
    rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes:
    Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    X11 was never ?network-transparent?. If the network connection went
    down, all the remote X clients would die.

    To achieve network-transparency, you had to resort to something like
    VNC or RDP. And those sorts of protocols can work equally well with
    Wayland.

    If the network connection goes down VNC and RDP will not be far behind.

    But your clients will still be there when you reconnect. With remote X,
    or X forwarding, they won?t be.

    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Richard Kettlewell@3:633/10 to All on Monday, July 13, 2026 08:37:44
    Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> writes:
    Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> writes:
    Why is there a need to do anything? X works just fine. What
    happened to the motto of not fixing something if it's not broken?
    Why is there such a mad rush to re-invent things but do so more
    poorly than the original, working solution?

    ?Why? is covered in the FAQ.

    https://wayland.freedesktop.org/faq.html

    Yes, and those who have chosen to pathetically re-implement ntpd
    for systemd (throwing out everything that makes ntpd a superior
    solution) have similar justifications for their needless efforts.

    There's a quote, something to the effect that those who do not
    understand Unix will be condemned to re-implement it--poorly.
    The same seems appropriate when describing systemd's poor
    imitation of ntpd and Wayland.

    Wayland was largely created by X11 developers. They know a lot more
    about it than you.

    However, the real beauty of X's network transparency is not in 'ssh
    -X', it is in putting a hostname or IP address in the value of
    $DISPLAY so that X clients can access X display servers wherever
    they may be.

    That has very limited usefulness today due to its unacceptably poor
    security.

    Yes, but in those cases where it is useful (far inside more than
    a few levels of security fencing and such), it's still useful and
    consumes a lot less resources than ssh -X.

    SSH is the ?security fencing?, and consumes almost no resources on
    modern hardware (meaning last 20 years or so).

    Lawrence is right that your clients die if the network goes down
    (e.g. if the client endpoint sleeps, which is the usual reason my remote
    X clients fail).

    The first part about clients dying if the network connection goes
    down is so obviously trivial that it doesn't deserve comment. I
    think that gimmick might be called a red herring.

    Where Lawrence is wrong is that X does not require ssh -X, VNC,
    RDP, or anything similar to do X displaying across a network.
    That is what is normally meant by X's network transparency.

    Whether that?s the definition of ?network transaprent? I?ll not take a
    view on. But it?s certainly inconvenient.

    Not sure what you mean is inconvenient.

    It was literally in the previous paragraph:

    | Lawrence is right that your clients die if the network goes down
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    | (e.g. if the client endpoint sleeps, which is the usual reason my remote
    | X clients fail).
    |
    | Whether that?s the definition of ?network transaprent? I?ll not take a
    | view on. But it?s certainly inconvenient.

    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Tom Blenko@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 10:30:01
    In article <slrn115a3i3.ki8.spamtrap42@one.localnet>, Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> wrote:

    An analogous thing happens in SQL database design. Academics
    preach normalization at an absolute goal. However, with a
    sufficiently complex system, full normalization can require each
    query to use an excessive number of joins, and that can adversely
    affect performance. Those with practical experience in DB design
    will concede that sometimes you need to denormalize slightly in
    order to get reasonable performance.

    This is nonsense and a good hint is that you are putting words in the
    mouths of others and then attacking them for those words.

    I've never taken a database course but I had nearly 20 years of
    database design in industry for mid-level systems. I have read some
    database books written by academics along the way. The claim that they
    "preach normalization at (sic) an absolute goal" is plain wrong in my experience.

    The academic books I've read describe multiple normal forms. I don't
    recall ever seeing one singled as superior to all the others, different
    normal forms reflect different (generally theoretical) perspectives on
    data and the relational calculus. Not surprising, I think, and I am
    confident that being informed about different perspectives has helped
    me design systems.

    Database design requires a designer to balance various factors,
    including where the data comes from, how it is to be maintained, and
    how it is to be used (including performance of queries). I have no idea
    which of all the tables I've designed and run in production may or may
    not be normalized by any of the multiple normalizations that have been described. But I read those books in order to improve my skills and it
    was time well spent.

    Tom

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Monday, July 13, 2026 16:11:47
    On 2026-07-13, Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> writes:
    Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> writes:
    Why is there a need to do anything? X works just fine. What
    happened to the motto of not fixing something if it's not broken?
    Why is there such a mad rush to re-invent things but do so more
    poorly than the original, working solution?

    ?Why? is covered in the FAQ.

    https://wayland.freedesktop.org/faq.html

    Yes, and those who have chosen to pathetically re-implement ntpd
    for systemd (throwing out everything that makes ntpd a superior
    solution) have similar justifications for their needless efforts.

    There's a quote, something to the effect that those who do not
    understand Unix will be condemned to re-implement it--poorly.
    The same seems appropriate when describing systemd's poor
    imitation of ntpd and Wayland.

    Wayland was largely created by X11 developers. They know a lot more
    about it than you.

    Ahhh, yes... The "My dad is smarter than your dad" card was very
    popular on the grade-school playground.

    Without an equivalent or replacement for the [-]-geometry option
    when starting a simple (rectangular) client, a graphical
    windowing system is nearly as useless as Mickey$oft WinDoze.
    Being able to do the equivalent of "xterm -geometry
    48x16+100+200" or "mplayer -geometry 720x480+200+300" is
    essential functionality.

    Parsimony is generally a good thing, but it be overdone to the
    point of impracticality. Software engineering academics will
    preach parsimony as an absolute goal. However, the benefits of
    parsimony need to be balanced against practical considerations in
    order to achieve useful results.

    An analogous thing happens in SQL database design. Academics
    preach normalization at an absolute goal. However, with a
    sufficiently complex system, full normalization can require each
    query to use an excessive number of joins, and that can adversely
    affect performance. Those with practical experience in DB design
    will concede that sometimes you need to denormalize slightly in
    order to get reasonable performance.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Richard Kettlewell@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 08:36:14
    druck <news@druck.org.uk> writes:
    Richard Kettlewell wrote:
    Wayland was largely created by X11 developers. They know a lot more
    about it than you.

    Richard, that's a strange hill to die on.

    The context was Robert attacking the Wayland developers, from a position
    of evident ignorance, via Henry Spencer?s remark ?Those who do not
    understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly?. But the quote
    does not fit, indeed it is almost the opposite of a fit: the reality is
    that the Wayland developers do understand X11, more so than most, and
    that is why they decided to go in a different direction.

    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 04:09:14
    On 2026-07-13, Tom Blenko <blenko@martingalesystems.com> wrote:
    In article <slrn115a3i3.ki8.spamtrap42@one.localnet>, Robert Riches
    <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> wrote:

    An analogous thing happens in SQL database design. Academics
    preach normalization at an absolute goal. However, with a
    sufficiently complex system, full normalization can require each
    query to use an excessive number of joins, and that can adversely
    affect performance. Those with practical experience in DB design
    will concede that sometimes you need to denormalize slightly in
    order to get reasonable performance.

    This is nonsense and a good hint is that you are putting words in the
    mouths of others and then attacking them for those words.

    I've never taken a database course but I had nearly 20 years of
    database design in industry for mid-level systems. I have read some
    database books written by academics along the way. The claim that they "preach normalization at (sic) an absolute goal" is plain wrong in my experience.

    Yes, you caught my typo.

    It appears your experience differs from mine. Evidently, the
    academics who wrote the books you read had a different take from
    the professors who taught my DB courses at Oregon Graduate
    Institute in 2001 and those who wrote the articles I studied with
    colleagues around 2024-2025. I'm glad you had the good fortune
    in your study and practical experience to see and adopt a more
    balanced approach.

    The academic books I've read describe multiple normal forms. I don't
    recall ever seeing one singled as superior to all the others, different normal forms reflect different (generally theoretical) perspectives on
    data and the relational calculus. Not surprising, I think, and I am
    confident that being informed about different perspectives has helped
    me design systems.

    Database design requires a designer to balance various factors,
    including where the data comes from, how it is to be maintained, and
    how it is to be used (including performance of queries). I have no idea
    which of all the tables I've designed and run in production may or may
    not be normalized by any of the multiple normalizations that have been described. But I read those books in order to improve my skills and it
    was time well spent.

    Tom

    Thank you for describing your experience and perspective.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, July 15, 2026 12:30:01
    On 13 Jul 2026 16:11:47 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    An analogous thing happens in SQL database design.

    It does seem like you are trying to distract attention from the X11-versus-Wayland discussion. Your argument there is collapsing, so
    you try to pull the old smokescreen switcharoo: ?Never mind that, look
    over here!?

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, July 15, 2026 03:10:30
    On 2026-07-14, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On 13 Jul 2026 16:11:47 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    An analogous thing happens in SQL database design.

    It does seem like you are trying to distract attention from the X11-versus-Wayland discussion. Your argument there is collapsing, so
    you try to pull the old smokescreen switcharoo: ?Never mind that, look
    over here!?

    Collapsing? No, with the lack of mention of any sort of
    replacement for the essential [-]-geometry option to launch
    simple clients (xterm, mplayer, for example), it's the
    pro-Wayland argument that has collapsed.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, July 15, 2026 12:17:04
    On 15/07/2026 04:10, Robert Riches wrote:
    On 2026-07-14, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On 13 Jul 2026 16:11:47 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    An analogous thing happens in SQL database design.

    It does seem like you are trying to distract attention from the
    X11-versus-Wayland discussion. Your argument there is collapsing, so
    you try to pull the old smokescreen switcharoo: ?Never mind that, look
    over here!?

    Collapsing? No, with the lack of mention of any sort of
    replacement for the essential [-]-geometry option to launch
    simple clients (xterm, mplayer, for example), it's the
    pro-Wayland argument that has collapsed.


    I am reminds me of a friend who said 'you can't program in C on an Apple
    II' and I said 'why?' and he said 'there is no key for {or }'!

    IIRC there was no lower case either.

    --
    The lifetime of any political organisation is about three years before
    its been subverted by the people it tried to warn you about.

    Anon.


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, July 16, 2026 10:34:28
    On 15 Jul 2026 03:10:30 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    On 2026-07-14, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    On 13 Jul 2026 16:11:47 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    An analogous thing happens in SQL database design.

    It does seem like you are trying to distract attention from the
    X11-versus-Wayland discussion. Your argument there is collapsing,
    so you try to pull the old smokescreen switcharoo: ?Never mind
    that, look over here!?

    Collapsing? No, with the lack of mention of any sort of replacement
    for the essential [-]-geometry option to launch simple clients
    (xterm, mplayer, for example), it's the pro-Wayland argument that
    has collapsed.

    Well, then, you need to put your money where your mouth is, right? If
    your argument hasn?t ?collapsed?, then you need to point out what?s
    holding it up.

    Start by explaining why window-arrangement options should be
    reimplemented (often inconsistently) by every single X11 app, instead
    of being handled once and for all in the window manager.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Robert Riches@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, July 15, 2026 23:53:24
    On 2026-07-15, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On 15 Jul 2026 03:10:30 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    On 2026-07-14, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    On 13 Jul 2026 16:11:47 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

    An analogous thing happens in SQL database design.

    It does seem like you are trying to distract attention from the
    X11-versus-Wayland discussion. Your argument there is collapsing,
    so you try to pull the old smokescreen switcharoo: ?Never mind
    that, look over here!?

    Collapsing? No, with the lack of mention of any sort of replacement
    for the essential [-]-geometry option to launch simple clients
    (xterm, mplayer, for example), it's the pro-Wayland argument that
    has collapsed.

    Well, then, you need to put your money where your mouth is, right? If
    your argument hasn?t ?collapsed?, then you need to point out what?s
    holding it up.

    Start by explaining why window-arrangement options should be
    reimplemented (often inconsistently) by every single X11 app, instead
    of being handled once and for all in the window manager.

    If the window manager wants to do the placement and sizing, it
    might be possible for that to work. However, to be usable from
    the user's perspective, it shouldn't be much more difficult for
    the user to specify the size and location of each window. Being
    as the user doesn't routinely communicate directly with the
    window manager, it might be a little difficult for the user to
    tell the window manager where to place a specific window
    instance.

    With X, if I as user write a script to instantiate a dozen (or
    more) xterms, mplayer instances, or whatever client, arranged in
    a grid, a diagonal cascade arrangement, or whatever, the cost to
    me is at most a couple dozen characters on each command line:
    '-geometry 215x215+2010-0' or similar. The parameters for each
    instance are local to the command that launches that instance.
    From the user's perspective, it's simple and clean.

    It has been a long time since I coded my own X oscilloscope
    program and such, but if I remember correctly, there might be an
    X library function that causes the X library to read the common
    X-defined options. Or, perhaps I had to parse the option and
    hand the parameter string to an X library function when I created
    the window. Either way, it was at most a small handful of lines
    of code. Documentation could supply a sample of that code, which
    should solve the inconsistency problem, unless application
    developers really want to be inconsistent. Whether it was a
    library function or a function argument, the net effect was for
    the application instance to tell the library, "This is where the
    user wants the window created."

    If Wayland developers simply cannot cope with the application
    being launched acting as a go-between from the user to a library
    or to the window manager, an alternative might be a single
    command that would take the geometry parameters and the rest of
    the command line. For example, instead of X's

    xterm -geometry 48x16+100+200 -title ...

    the user could do something like this:

    launchWithGeometry 48x16+100+200 xterm -title ...

    That way, the geometry processing could be done only once by the launchWithGeometry program. The xterm or mplayer or whatever
    would never see the geometry parameters. It might look a little
    odd to the user, but it's not difficult enough to be much of a
    barrier.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Mike Scott@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, July 16, 2026 08:57:46
    On 15/07/2026 21:59, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    Well, then, you need to put your money where your mouth is, right? If
    your argument hasn?t ?collapsed?, then you need to point out what?s
    holding it up.

    Start by explaining why window-arrangement options should be
    reimplemented (often inconsistently) by every single X11 app, instead
    of being handled once and for all in the window manager.

    I'm getting muddled here. I've never used Wayland, so please excuse a
    probably naive comment.

    Suppose I start a program that pops up a window. Can I put this where I
    want on the screen, presumably by a mouse drag'n'drop operation? Can I
    raise and lower relative to other windows? If either answer is 'no', I'd question the use of such a system. If yes, then why not let this be done programmatically and save the user a probably repetitive task?

    I've seen comments about 'security'; but we live in a real world and
    usability and security are IME both tradeoffs. Has Wayland erred on the too-secure side?

    --
    Mike Scott
    Harlow, England

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Friday, July 17, 2026 09:43:11
    On Thu, 16 Jul 2026 08:57:46 +0100, Mike Scott wrote:

    Suppose I start a program that pops up a window. Can I put this
    where I want on the screen, presumably by a mouse drag'n'drop
    operation? Can I raise and lower relative to other windows?

    Of course.

    If yes, then why not let this be done programmatically and save the
    user a probably repetitive task?

    Naturally that can be done, too. But not by asking the application
    program; this is now controlled by the window manager.

    You already have this sort of thing under many window managers on X11;
    the GUi application was never totally in control of where its windows
    were placed, since user-definable window manager rules could override
    such placement.

    The only way to get total control over placement under X11 was to run
    without a window manager.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Richard Kettlewell@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, July 16, 2026 17:52:39
    Mike Scott <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> writes:
    Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

    Well, then, you need to put your money where your mouth is, right? If
    your argument hasn?t ?collapsed?, then you need to point out what?s
    holding it up. Start by explaining why window-arrangement options
    should be reimplemented (often inconsistently) by every single X11
    app, instead of being handled once and for all in the window manager.

    I'm getting muddled here. I've never used Wayland, so please excuse a probably naive comment.

    Suppose I start a program that pops up a window. Can I put this where
    I want on the screen, presumably by a mouse drag'n'drop operation? Can
    I raise and lower relative to other windows?

    Yes.

    If either answer is 'no', I'd question the use of such a system. If
    yes, then why not let this be done programmatically and save the user
    a probably repetitive task?

    I've seen comments about 'security'; but we live in a real world and usability and security are IME both tradeoffs. Has Wayland erred on
    the too-secure side?

    The thing that Wayland specifically objects to is applications directly controlling the positions of their windows. While there are some
    security concerns about window placement, there?s a lot more to it than
    that; see https://www.mail-archive.com/wayland-devel@lists.freedesktop.org/msg41606.html for some discussion.

    That is not inconsistent in principle with the user specifying
    application window positions, as has already been discussed in this
    thread.

    Whether any Wayland compositors do in fact support some means for the
    user to specify the pixel position an application?s window(s) should
    appear at, I do not know, but AFAIK there?s no fundamental reason they couldn?t.

    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)