[Pidgin] #4832: conversation window ignores window manager's placement rules in X11

[Pidgin]

#4832: conversation window ignores window manager's placement rules in X11
-------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Reporter:  lex     |       Owner:  lschiere    
    Type:  defect  |      Status:  new         
Priority:  minor   |   Component:  unclassified
 Version:  2.3.1   |    Keywords:              
 Pending:  0       |  
-------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
 Pidgin remembers the position of the conversation window and opens new
 conversation windows in the same spot.  In X11, this results in all new
 conversation windows appearing on top of each other, regardless of how the
 window manager is set to place new windows.

 The standard paradigm for new window placement in X11 is that the window
 manager (in my case enlightenment 16) handles placement of windows. I've
 set mine to place them intelligently by sticking them in an unused spot on
 the screen if there's enough room. That way you can see all new windows
 that open up. (I don't have a taskbar because I don't need one, so windows
 stacking up right on top of each other can be confusing and lead me to
 lose track of them.)

 In gaim, this worked perfectly. I prefer not to use tabs, but instead to
 have all of my conversations visible on the screen at once so I don't have
 to click around to see what's happening in other conversations. Gaim
 remembered only the size of the new windows, and the window manager made
 them sit nicely side by side. It worked exactly how I wanted it to.

 Now that I've upgraded to pidgin, all of my new conversations open up
 right on top of the old ones. This is incredibly annoying and makes me
 want to either stay with gaim or hack pidgin's source code.  This bug is
 pretty much a showstopper for me.

 The Extended Placement plugin doesn't help out with this. The only other
 positioning plugin I could find, "extpos", is MS Windows-only.

 In the comments of ticket #4461, rekkanoryo indicated that this is not
 intended behavior, and that conversation window positions are not supposed
 to be saved in X11.   However, looking at pidgin-2.3.1/pidgin/gtkconv.c:

 {{{
 PidginWindow *
 pidgin_conv_window_new()
 {
         PidginWindow *win;
         GtkPositionType pos;
         GtkWidget *testidea;
         GtkWidget *menubar;
 #if GTK_CHECK_VERSION(2,6,0)
         GdkModifierType state;
 #endif

         win = g_malloc0(sizeof(PidginWindow));

         window_list = g_list_append(window_list, win);

         /* Create the window. */
         win->window = pidgin_create_window(NULL, 0, "conversation", TRUE);
 #if GTK_CHECK_VERSION(2,6,0)
         if (!gtk_get_current_event_state(&state))
                 gtk_window_set_focus_on_map(GTK_WINDOW(win->window),
 FALSE);
 #endif
         pidgin_conv_restore_position(win);
 }}}
 {{{
 static void
 pidgin_conv_restore_position(PidginWindow *win) {
         pidgin_conv_set_position_size(win,
                 purple_prefs_get_int(PIDGIN_PREFS_ROOT
 "/conversations/im/x"),
                 purple_prefs_get_int(PIDGIN_PREFS_ROOT
 "/conversations/im/y"),
                 purple_prefs_get_int(PIDGIN_PREFS_ROOT
 "/conversations/im/width"),
                 purple_prefs_get_int(PIDGIN_PREFS_ROOT
 "/conversations/im/height"));
 }
 }}}

 ...and pidgin_conv_set_position_size also doesn't have any code to check
 the platform either, so position-storing is definitely happening on all
 platforms.

 Requested solution:  #ifdefs to avoid doing position saving/restoring in
 X11, or a preference (need not be settable in the GUI) to save only window
 size, not position, like gaim used to do.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4832>
Pidgin <http://pidgin.im>
Pidgin