Re: tlug: X resolution / color depth

["Scott H. Perlman" <perlman@example.com>]

Jonathan Byrne--3Web wrote:
> Moving a little farther afield (and maybe people are working on this?),
> installing a software package should also add it to the menu of your window
> manager, assuming it has one, like what you get under you-know-what.  Right
> now, the only way to find out what packages you have is to start Glint and
> check.   And even then, most of them are neither on a menu anywhere nor on
> your path, so there's a lot of work involved in trying them out to see it
> they're things you want to keep, or things you want to reclaim the disk
> space from.  I know that's a big order because of how many window managers
> there are and because some are more menu-based than others.  But these are
> the kinds of polish that Linux will need to make it in the mass market.  You
> don't think I'm the only person who will always say "But <this other OS>
> does it automatically," right? :-)

This is obvoiusly not a function of X.  The problem with this concept
is that there are far far too many available options.  Any program that
decides to modify my .ctwmrc without asking won't make it for long.
The necessary intelligence to parse all the various window management
files and itelligently add itself is nigh unto impossible.  You simply
cannot completely automate this in a customizeable Unix environment.

That being said, what IS doable is creating a twm compatible
(its the simplest) window manager section, store it in a default
location. (/usr/X11/app-defaults perhaps?) and modify installs to add
themselves to that.  You can have it #include to your window manager if
it uses cpp, or the appropriate m4 equivalent.  And it gives the list
a location for people who want things customized.

Any install program that breaks because I do not use fvwm, has some
serious problems.  (I'm stuck in CDE at work right now and it is really 
bad, but my preference is still ctwm)

I'm snipping the rest of the post before I go off on an advocacy war.

I think a lot of the polish you want is doable, but to be effective it
will take some careful work.  We don't wantto polish Linux OUT of being a 
powerful and configurable server to make it palatable to the masses.

-Scott

-- 
The first thing to be judged must be the standards of Judgement!
  Scott H. perlman@example.com
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