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Re: request confirmation: no virtual desktop in x4 r128 server?



On Sun, Dec 24, 2000 at 10:04:20PM +0100, Michel Dänzer wrote:
> Virtual desktops are a window manager feature. Most current window
> managers support them.

That's not precisely true, at least if you're using the XFree86 definition
of "virtual desktop".  In that sense, the root window is actually larger
than the physical display (you have to have enough framebuffer memory on
the card to hold the actual root window, however large it is), and the
visible root window is a viewport on the actual root.  The viewport
defaults to being centered on the pointer (unless you use the "Viewport"
option in the XF86Config file), and moves as the pointer encroaches upon
its boundary.

This happens at a layer beneath the very similar virtual desktop used by,
e.g., vtwm, or the multiple desktops or workspaces implemented by most
other window managers.  Those are different in that the extra "desktop" can
be stored in RAM generally, and is not part of the framebuffer.

This is as I understand things.  I could be wrong.

-- 
G. Branden Robinson             |       If you have the slightest bit of
Debian GNU/Linux                |       intellectual integrity you cannot
branden@debian.org              |       support the government.
http://www.debian.org/~branden/ |       -- anonymous

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