On 05.07.2011, at 21:51, Chris Muller wrote:

> Does anyone like full-screen mode besides me?  Years ago, when I used
> Windows, I would always run my Squeak images full-screen because there
> is something zen-like about being totally immersed into the image
> environment - it can be nicer experience than running with OS window
> and the start-bar cruft showing.
> 
> But now I'm using Linux and, under that VM, full-screen mode does not
> allow any other windows to be displayed over full-screen Squeak.  For
> example, I can't press Alt+Tab to bring my command-window to the top,
> it appears for a split second but then Squeak paints right back over
> it, but without keyboard focus!  The only way to access any other
> program is to bring Squeak out of full-screen mode.
> 
> Which is why the button to go full-screen was recently put to the
> upper-right corner - to facilitate the constant switching needed to be
> able to run full-screen.
> 
> However, there is a danger with going full-screen.  Cog is not very
> friendly to being interrupted - doing so often seems to lock the image
> - and this is a bad situation in full-screen mode since you can't get
> to any other windows to kill the process.  The only option is a
> hard-power off - an ungraceful shutdown - losing all unsaved data in
> all applications - ouch!
> 
> Would it be difficult for the Linux VM to behave similarly to the
> Windows VM w.r.t. full-screen mode?

It's much harder under Linux than on Windows or Mac because there is a gazillion of window managers, not a single UI. Making it work in a specific environment might be doable. In particular if you could point out another program that does it the way you like - do you know any? You could inspect its window properties using xprop.

- Bert -