Re: Problem with focus in Metacard windows on SGI system 5.2

Boyd Sweeney (starnet!apple!puzzler.nichols.com!sweeneyb)
Fri, 27 May 1994 07:59:02 -0500

>As for olwm, it is pretty broken in both OpenWindows 2 and 3 (see the
>BUGS.txt file for many examples). It's completely unusable with
>pointer focus (unless you specify the -p command line option), but
>occasionally focus problems occur with explicit focus too. There is
>no way to work around these bugs without breaking MetaCard on systems
>running other window managers. Since olwm is officially obsolete now
>that Sun is shipping Motif, we recommend that people using olwm switch
>to mwm at their earliest convenience.
> Scott
>
It would be nice to move to motif on our Sun, but I'll have to convince our
Computer Services folks first. I've been trying to get them to upgrade to
Solaris for over a year now.

>
>There are several practical reasons why pointer focus is a bad design,
>especially for use with MetaCard. First, there is the conflict one
>has when switching back and forth between the Mac or MS-Windows and X.
>
Are you hinting at something here Scott?

Thanks for the detailed explaination concerning window managers and pointer
focus. It provided a bit of insight into some of the factors that have
affected the design of MetaCard. At least for me, a more through
understanding of the MetaCard environment will invariably lead to better
programming practices.

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_/ Boyd Sweeney Scientist, Nichols Research Corporation _/
_/ sweeneyb@puzzler.nichols.com (205) 883-1170x1775 _/
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