Versions & mass-appeal

[Jeremy White]

On Wed, 2002-10-30 at 15:35, Dimitrie O. Paun wrote:
> On October 30, 2002 01:57 am, Ender wrote:
> >      - Many apps do not work without Desktop enabled. This is far worse
> > than it sounds, because most newbies try managed non-desktop first. People
> > think WINE should be able to do seemless intergration. Then when an
> > application hangs, they think it's incompatible and give up. However in
> > many cases the Application will work fine in Desktop mode. BAD, these apps
> > should either be made to work... or non-desktop mode should be removed!
> 
> IMO desktop mode exists only because our integration is not very good.
> It should die sooner, rather than later, it's just a big hack. So we should
> rather focus on getting apps to work in non-desktop more, rather then
> resurrecting the silly desktop option.
> 

My understanding is that there still remain some fairly serious issues
with Z-order processing in the window management code.  I know
that Mike and Alexandre have looked into it extensively; Alexandre
mostly just shakes his head in despair when I ask about it <grin..

At some point, though, I think Alexandre is going to break down
and fix it.  Unless some fairly senior Wine hacker wants to
step up first...

Mike is also starting to communicate with some of the freedesktop
guys about WM standards; he has some ideas of ways the WMs can
be tweaked to make our lives easier.  If anyone else wants to
kibitz/raise a voice with Mike, I think it'd be appreciated.

Finally, and this is purely a 'me-too' comment:  I agree with
Dimi - Wine should be run in its default case totally without
the desktop mode.  However, I strongly agree with Lionel - since
we have desktop mode, we should keep it as an option.  Free software is
all about choice.

Cheers,

Jer