[H-GEN] Why no keyboard with NO Window Manager ?

[Mark Corben]

Thanks very much all for suggestions.

I had a play with twm and it may be the best compromise. I wittled down 
the menu item list to only have
        - Web Browser
        - Exit
I also needed to change the titlebar icons to use f.fullzoom. The window 
manager starts up Phoenix only and therefore the user only has access to 
this application.
If the user exits Phoenix then they are left with the desk top and the 
menu (perhaps only after frustrated clicking!) to exit.
I'd still prefer to be able to exit the session by only exiting Phoenix 
(or some browser)

Ben as regards

>In your case it sounds to me like X has given focus to something else 
>(whatever that may be). I'm not sure of the exact policy here. I would 
>guess that the first window to open would be the one that X would give 
>focus, then some other policy would occur if that window ever closed.
>
Yes i agree although I thought that the focus was on this window as I 
could select other menu items - just couldn't type!
I guess it still comes down to this ?

>The 
>important thing is that without a window-manager there's noone to decide 
>who gets keyboard focus when you really don't want that window to have it. 
>

If this was the case .....

>This means that generally you don't want to run without a window 
>manager unless you know that there will only ever be one window open, and 
>that the app behind it will never ever try to open any kind of dialogue 
>window :)
>  
>
then is there any other way to set up the keyboard focus - or only 
through a window manager ??

Thanks

MArk



ben.carlyle at invensys.com wrote:

>[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and     ]
>[ Unix-related topics. Posts from non-subscribed addresses will vanish. ]
>
>G'day Mark,
>
>
>
>
>
>Mark Corben <mcorben at bigpond.com>
>Sent by: Majordomo <majordom at caliburn.humbug.org.au>
>25/04/03 14:08
>Please respond to general
>
> 
>        To:     general at lists.humbug.org.au
>        cc: 
>        Subject:        [H-GEN] Why no keyboard with NO Window Manager ?
>
>  
>
>> I want to set up a number of Redhat 7.x Linux  boxes so that the user 
>>logins and is presented with only a browser application (Phoenix). When 
>>the user exits the browser either they are presented with a login xdm 
>>screen or the application is restarted (I am still looking at 
>>    
>>
>alternatives).
>
><snip>
>
>  
>
>>When the user is logged in he/she is able to use the browser via the 
>>buttons HOWEVER the user cannot use the keyboard to type any URL into 
>>the application.
>>    
>>
>
>What probably we're talking about here is keyboard focus. When you click a 
>button with your mouse it's reasonably clear to X exactly what the 
>keypress should be associated with. It sends a click message to the widget 
>under the X,Y coordinates of your mouse at the time of the click. A 
>keyboard is a different matter.
>
>Say you have five or six applications all of which can receive input from 
>the keyboard. When you press the character 'y', who does it go to? 
>Whomever has keyboard focus. Keyboard focus to a particular window is 
>usually defined by the window-manager. Thus the traditional wars of 
>Click-to-Focus vs Focus-follows-mouse, etc.
>
>Within a particular window my understanding is that the individual widgets 
>broker between themselves which has focus at any one time. Focus in this 
>case may change because of a click somewhere, or tab keys, or a variety of 
>other actions. The trouble is that none of this works if the larger window 
>that maintains the widgets has focus granted by X.
>
>In your case it sounds to me like X has given focus to something else 
>(whatever that may be). I'm not sure of the exact policy here. I would 
>guess that the first window to open would be the one that X would give 
>focus, then some other policy would occur if that window ever closed. The 
>important thing is that without a window-manager there's noone to decide 
>who gets keyboard focus when you really don't want that window to have it. 
>This also applies to some dialogues opened by the parent window which you 
>won't be able to type into unless that dialogue window gets keyboard 
>focus. This means that generally you don't want to run without a window 
>manager unless you know that there will only ever be one window open, and 
>that the app behind it will never ever try to open any kind of dialogue 
>window :)
>
>I hope that goes some way to explaining why it's probably better to run an 
>unobtrusive window manager without any useful menu functionality than it 
>is to run completely without a wm. In any case it might give you some 
>search terms to help you read up on it ;)
>
>Benjamin.
>
>
>
>--
>* This is list (humbug) general handled by majordomo at lists.humbug.org.au .
>* Postings to this list are only accepted from subscribed addresses of
>* lists 'general' or 'general-post'.  See http://www.humbug.org.au/
>
>  
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.humbug.org.au/pipermail/general/attachments/20030429/71839ef0/attachment.html>