XLIB Programming Manual, Rel. 5, Third Edition

16.5 Window Manager - Client Communications

There is no point in reiterating all that was said in Chapter 12, about the properties that applications set for the window manager. As described there, these properties are hints that the window manager may use or ignore as the programmer sees fit. There is a large amount of flexibility and variety in what window managers can do with the information provided in these hints. Its actions are to some extent constrained by the interclient communication conventions described in Appendix L, Interclient Communication Conventions, of Volume Zero, X Protocol Reference Manual (as of the second printing), since these conventions are now a standard.

These hints allow the window manager to smooth the user interface so that all the applications running on the system appear integrated. Any good window manager will read most, if not all, of the properties described in this section and try to do with them what is most helpful to applications and users.

16.5.1 Reading the Hints

Hints help the window manager conform to the needs of the application while at the same time letting it control window layout and policy. The window manager gets the hints with the routines shown in Table 16-1.

Table 16-1. Window Manager Hints

Hint	Set (by Application)	Get (by Window Manager)
Window Name	XSetWMName()	XGetWMName()
Icon Name	XSetWMIconName()	XGetWMIconName()
Shell Command and Arguments	XSetCommand()	XGetCommand()
Icon Pixmap	XSetWMProperties() or XSetWMNormalHints()	XGetWMNormalHints() ...