[Cuis-dev] Embedded Squeak/Cuis

[Casey Ransberger]

Hello Douglas,

Yes, a server is required. A window manager integrated with (or even implemented in) Smalltalk would allow X11 client applications (in communication with a local or remote X11 server) to appear within the Smalltalk environment, would it not? I was expecting to just use whatever stock server was available at the time (can’t remember if it was xorg yet.) Maybe you mean that I’d need to tightly integrate with the server as well, but isn’t that what a client does in the first place?

Maybe I have a wire crossed. X11’s architecture is so… extra.

Anyway, what I brought up is only obliquely related to the original post in that both of us are looking to centralize Smalltalk in our computing experiences. It’s the desire to have the rest of the junk out of the way, which for me includes a long-term quest to see a web browser (at the very least) open within my programmable world. I was happy to see the no-x11 work happen, shared the thought that making Smalltalk the window manager was another approach I thought was interesting, albeit one that drags along X11/org. That’s all:) 

—Casey

> On Sep 4, 2020, at 1:20 AM, Douglas Brebner via Cuis-dev <cuis-dev at lists.cuis.st> wrote:
> 
> On 04/09/2020 00:17, Casey Ransberger via Cuis-dev wrote:
>> I looked at writing an X11 window manager as a plugin for Squeak. But my search for “how make x11 window manager" didn’t turn up much. I pulled down the source for a supposedly minimal wm and looked at the total LoC and thought “yeah, maybe not.”
>> 
>> It would still be cool to see native applications running inside of SystemWindows. Obviously the native widgets would be jarring, but it’s better in my mind than having to switch out of a full-screen smalltalk to a full-screen desktop (this is an insight I got running Windows on a Mac with a feature called Synergy, which allowed Windows windows to coexist with Mac windows on the same desktop.
> 
> 
> To get X11 applications running in a SystemWindow you would need some kind of X server, not a window manager.
> 
> To do the same with Wayland apps you'd probably need a full wayland compositor.
> 
> I'm pretty sure I once saw a basic X server written in Smalltalk once, but I have no idea where. The full api description is available in XML form though, for those people with mad skills.
> 
> 
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