Window visible on all virtual desktops

Cecil Westerhof

unread,

Jan 4, 2018, 10:28:06 PM1/4/18

to

I can make a window topmost with:
wm attributes . -topmost 1

Is there also a way to make it displayed on all virtual desktops?

--
Cecil Westerhof
Senior Software Engineer
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cecilwesterhof

Gerald Lester

unread,

Jan 4, 2018, 11:00:50 PM1/4/18

to

On 01/04/2018 09:19 PM, Cecil Westerhof wrote:
> I can make a window topmost with:
> wm attributes . -topmost 1
>
> Is there also a way to make it displayed on all virtual desktops?
>

What window manager?

--
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Gerald W. Lester, President, KNG Consulting LLC |
| Email: Gerald...@kng-consulting.net |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Rich

unread,

Jan 4, 2018, 11:15:31 PM1/4/18

to

Cecil Westerhof <Ce...@decebal.nl> wrote:
> I can make a window topmost with:
> wm attributes . -topmost 1
>
> Is there also a way to make it displayed on all virtual desktops?

That's a feature of the window manager, not of Tk.

In Fvwm2 it is called "sticky" and it makes the window appear on all
the virtual desktops.

Cecil Westerhof

unread,

Jan 5, 2018, 2:44:05 AM1/5/18

to

Gerald Lester <Gerald...@KnG-Consulting.net> writes:

> On 01/04/2018 09:19 PM, Cecil Westerhof wrote:
>> I can make a window topmost with:
>> wm attributes . -topmost 1
>>
>> Is there also a way to make it displayed on all virtual desktops?
>>
>
> What window manager?

xfwm4

Cecil Westerhof

unread,

Jan 5, 2018, 2:44:05 AM1/5/18

to

I am using xfwm4.

So there is no system independent way to do it?

Gerald Lester

unread,

Jan 5, 2018, 11:07:53 AM1/5/18

to

On 01/05/2018 01:43 AM, Cecil Westerhof wrote:
> Rich <ri...@example.invalid> writes:
>
>> Cecil Westerhof <Ce...@decebal.nl> wrote:
>>> I can make a window topmost with:
>>> wm attributes . -topmost 1
>>>
>>> Is there also a way to make it displayed on all virtual desktops?
>>
>> That's a feature of the window manager, not of Tk.
>>
>> In Fvwm2 it is called "sticky" and it makes the window appear on all
>> the virtual desktops.
>
> I am using xfwm4.
>
> So there is no system independent way to do it?
>

None.

Cecil Westerhof

unread,

Jan 5, 2018, 12:28:07 PM1/5/18

to

Gerald Lester <Gerald...@KnG-Consulting.net> writes:

> On 01/05/2018 01:43 AM, Cecil Westerhof wrote:
>> Rich <ri...@example.invalid> writes:
>>
>>> Cecil Westerhof <Ce...@decebal.nl> wrote:
>>>> I can make a window topmost with:
>>>> wm attributes . -topmost 1
>>>>
>>>> Is there also a way to make it displayed on all virtual desktops?
>>>
>>> That's a feature of the window manager, not of Tk.
>>>
>>> In Fvwm2 it is called "sticky" and it makes the window appear on all
>>> the virtual desktops.
>>
>> I am using xfwm4.
>>
>> So there is no system independent way to do it?
>>
>
> None.

I was afraid for that. Anybody knows how to do it for xfwm4?

Gerald Lester

unread,

Jan 5, 2018, 12:44:37 PM1/5/18

to

On 01/05/2018 11:20 AM, Cecil Westerhof wrote:
> Gerald Lester <Gerald...@KnG-Consulting.net> writes:
>
>> On 01/05/2018 01:43 AM, Cecil Westerhof wrote:
>>> Rich <ri...@example.invalid> writes:
>>>
>>>> Cecil Westerhof <Ce...@decebal.nl> wrote:
>>>>> I can make a window topmost with:
>>>>> wm attributes . -topmost 1
>>>>>
>>>>> Is there also a way to make it displayed on all virtual desktops?
>>>>
>>>> That's a feature of the window manager, not of Tk.
>>>>
>>>> In Fvwm2 it is called "sticky" and it makes the window appear on all
>>>> the virtual desktops.
>>>
>>> I am using xfwm4.
>>>
>>> So there is no system independent way to do it?
>>>
>>
>> None.
>
> I was afraid for that. Anybody knows how to do it for xfwm4?

It is likely an Atom you need to define.

Have you Googled it or looked at the xfwm4 programming guides (you want
the X level information)?

Rich

unread,

Jan 5, 2018, 1:33:54 PM1/5/18

to

Cecil Westerhof <Ce...@decebal.nl> wrote:
> Rich <ri...@example.invalid> writes:
>
>> Cecil Westerhof <Ce...@decebal.nl> wrote:
>>> I can make a window topmost with:
>>> wm attributes . -topmost 1
>>>
>>> Is there also a way to make it displayed on all virtual desktops?
>>
>> That's a feature of the window manager, not of Tk.
>>
>> In Fvwm2 it is called "sticky" and it makes the window appear on all
>> the virtual desktops.
>
> I am using xfwm4.
>
> So there is no system independent way to do it?

Literally everything related to window positioning on desktops in X11
is the pervue of the window manager. Applications draw inside their
windows. Where the windows go (beyond the app "asking" to place/size
it somewhere) is all handled by the window manager.

But if you mean "system independent" as in Mac/Win/Linux(X11) then no,
there is really no way to do it that is OS independent (or none that I
am aware of).

Cecil Westerhof

unread,

Jan 5, 2018, 2:14:06 PM1/5/18

to

Gerald Lester <Gerald...@KnG-Consulting.net> writes:

> On 01/05/2018 11:20 AM, Cecil Westerhof wrote:
>> Gerald Lester <Gerald...@KnG-Consulting.net> writes:
>>
>>> On 01/05/2018 01:43 AM, Cecil Westerhof wrote:
>>>> Rich <ri...@example.invalid> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> Cecil Westerhof <Ce...@decebal.nl> wrote:
>>>>>> I can make a window topmost with:
>>>>>> wm attributes . -topmost 1
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Is there also a way to make it displayed on all virtual desktops?
>>>>>
>>>>> That's a feature of the window manager, not of Tk.
>>>>>
>>>>> In Fvwm2 it is called "sticky" and it makes the window appear on all
>>>>> the virtual desktops.
>>>>
>>>> I am using xfwm4.
>>>>
>>>> So there is no system independent way to do it?
>>>>
>>>
>>> None.
>>
>> I was afraid for that. Anybody knows how to do it for xfwm4?
>
> It is likely an Atom you need to define.
>
> Have you Googled it or looked at the xfwm4 programming guides (you want
> the X level information)?

Yes, but did not find anything. (I am afraid I am not the best
researcher.) But I will use your tip about the programming guides.

Cecil Westerhof

unread,

Jan 5, 2018, 2:14:06 PM1/5/18

to

Well some things are independent (as I understood it):

wm attributes . -topmost 1

wm resizable . 0 0
wm title . "Show CPU Temperature"

Or are these also depending on the window manager and am I just lucky?

Brad Lanam

unread,

Jan 5, 2018, 2:27:40 PM1/5/18

to

On Friday, January 5, 2018 at 11:14:06 AM UTC-8, Cecil Westerhof wrote:
> Rich <rich@> writes:

title will work everywhere.
attributes is definitely system and wm dependent.
resizable I don't know.

Rich

unread,

Jan 5, 2018, 3:54:03 PM1/5/18

to

Those are all "requests" to the window manager. The window manager is
free to perform, or ignore, the requests.

Case in point, an early version of OpenOffice used to like to raise all
of its child windows whenever the mouse entered any one of them. I
quickly tired of that miss-feature and added a setting to my Fvwm2
config instructing Fvwm2 to ignore any raise requests from OpenOffice.
Problem solved, it's windows remained exactly where they were whenever
the mouse entered them after that.

Robert Heller

unread,

Jan 5, 2018, 5:04:16 PM1/5/18

to

These "requests" follow a standardized API -- there is an published API to
talk to X11 window mangers, to MS-Windows's "window manager", and to the
MacOSX "window manager" (the non-X11 GUI layer). Tk has platform-specific code
behind the wm command that does this. How a the window manager deals with the
requests depends on what features the window manager has implemented and/or
what user supplied settings for the handling of those features. For some of
the requests (like wm title), all window managers honor them with no fuss.
Others might be more complicated and are either just ignored (because the
window manager can't do that) or has a config option that will override it or
something. The name for the X11 API is telling: the X11 API is called "Window
Manager Hints"...

>
>

--
Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services
hel...@deepsoft.com -- Webhosting Services