GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 338729
clock applet calendar popup positioning doesn't work on all WMs
Last modified: 2020-11-06 20:20:40 UTC
metacity has a bug in its handling of resizing windows with non-NorthWest gravity, Obug 338728), and the calendar popup in the clock applet depends on this bug for correct functioning. Specifically, if you place the applet in a bottom panel, click it to pop up the calendar, and then click back and forth between two days with different numbers of events listed, then under metacity, the bottom of the popup will stay pinned to the top of the panel, but under most other WMs (or with no WM), the top-left will stay pinned and the popup will either shrink and detach itself from the panel or grow and overlap the panel. The fix is that the window needs to both move and resize itself when it gets a size_allocate in that situation.
Since I notabug'ed 338728, I'll add a short comment here: The metacity 'bug' Dan mentions is explicitly defined as correct behavior in the EWMH as a clarification (Dan would probably prefer I used quotes on that word) to how window gravity is supposed to work. My opinion is that the other unnamed WMs and the no WM cases are buggy. But, that's a discussion for wm-spec-list. Dan and many others admittedly smarter than me might decide otherwise and get the EWMH changed. Of course, that doesn't rule out working around those other buggy WMs... :-)
If I remember correctly, at one point it did use the standard gravity and do a move and resize. It looked terrible. I think the way it works now, at least under metacity, is much better. So, I don't think we should change back. Getting it to this point took quite a bit of work and I think it finally works well. I have no idea if the metacity behavior is a bug or not but it is certainly helpful to have this kind of functionality in some form.
(In reply to comment #2) > If I remember correctly, at one point it did use the standard gravity and do a > move and resize. It looked terrible. If it did a separate move and resize, it would have looked bad, but if it did them together it would look exactly like it does now. > I have no idea if the metacity behavior is a bug or not. Metacity complies with the EWMH as written. There was discussion on wm-spec-list about this, and there was not a consensus that the EWMH was wrong, and there was at least a weak consensus to not change the EWMH regardless, so metacity is not buggy by that definition. However, the calendar still does the wrong thing if you're running no window manager at all.
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