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Date:      Thu, 29 Apr 1999 09:12:04 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Thomas David Rivers <rivers@dignus.com>
To:        rivers@dignus.com, rkw@dataplex.net
Cc:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Adding desktop support
Message-ID:  <199904291312.JAA20991@lakes.dignus.com>
In-Reply-To: <l03130302b34df6008389@[216.140.184.150]>

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> 
> At 5:57 AM -0500 4/29/99, Thomas David Rivers wrote:
> > I point out that if the executable has no icon in it, then this
> > "overrides" from the window manager would come into play, right?
> >
> > Since the "overrides" have to be there anyway - what's the advantage
> > of putting the icon in the exe?
> 
> I think that you miss the hierarchy of "defaults".
> 
> If the USER has specified the icon for the entity, use his,
> 
> else if the AUTHOR provided an icon, use it,
> 
> else if the USER gave a default to the window manager, ...
> 
> else if the WM-AUTHOR, ...
> 
> else use a totally generic icon.
> 

 And - my point - which you really made - is that all of the
 alternatives can't go in the executable, or you begin to have
 many copies of the executable, or one executable with large
 repository & information for each user that may run it... both
 of which can be quite a nightmare.  

 So, the program (the window manager) has to support a mechanism for
 specifying all of these alternate "locations" in the hierarchy.

 Given that mechanism - which is a necessity... why would I choose 
 a different implementation technique for one out of the five "locations"
 you list?  What advantage does that bring to the problem?  You still
 have to implement solutions for 4/5ths of the uses.

 Thus, it seems, that placing information in the executable isn't
 worthwhile  given the description above, as it doesn't really "save"
 anything. 
 
 Furthermore, it wouldn't be portable (presumably, this window manager
 is going to want to run on other UNIXes?)  So, the presumed window
 manager really doesn't have a good reason to use that approach.

	- Dave Rivers -




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