Programmatically creating X11 window to span multiple displays

wealthychef · 01-31-2014, 10:38 PM

I'm having the exact problem described here. How to make X11 window span multiple monitors
I have six monitors and am trying to create a window larger than the size of one of the monitors. It keeps getting resized by the window manager.
Apologize if I should post within that thread, the etiquette is not clear to me.
Anhow, I do the following in my code:

Code:

/* Pass some information along to the window manager to size the window */
  sizeHints.flags = USSize; //  | PMinSize;
  sizeHints.width = sizeHints.base_width = width; 
  sizeHints.height = sizeHints.base_height = height; 
  // sizeHints.min_width = width;
  // sizeHints.min_height = height;
  // sizeHints.max_width = mScreenWidth;
  // sizeHints.max_height = mScreenHeight;
  if (geometry->x != DONT_CARE && geometry->y != DONT_CARE) {
    sizeHints.x = geometry->x;
    sizeHints.y = geometry->y;
    sizeHints.flags |= USPosition;
  }

  XSetNormalHints(mDisplay, mWindow, &sizeHints);


  SetTitle(suggestedName); 
  XSetStandardProperties(mDisplay, mWindow, 
                         suggestedName.toAscii(), suggestedName.toAscii(), 
                             None, (char **)NULL, 0, &sizeHints);
  /* Bring it up; then wait for it to actually get here. */
  XMapWindow(mDisplay, mWindow);

The problem I'm having is that if I set min_width and min_height, the user cannot resize the window, which is not what I want. But if I don't, then when I do any X11 call later, such as

Code:

  XGetWindowAttributes(mDisplay, mWindow, &win_attributes);

the window manager resizes my window to fit into one monitor instead of being larger than the monitor. I cannot just get a window of the desired size for some reason. Note that WidthOfScreen and HeightOfScreen give me the combined width and height of all monitors as expected.
Can anyone help? I hope I'm explaining myself clearly enough.

wealthychef · 02-07-2014, 10:00 AM

I "solved" this with a workaround. For certain circumstances, when it is more important that a window open with a size bigger than a certain monitor, then I use the PMinSize flag combined with sizeHints.min_width and min_height to force the window to not shrink. In this case, the tradeoff is that the user cannot shrink the window too. But I allow the user to click a button that allows them to shrink the window if desired.

mjolnir · 02-07-2014, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wealthychef

I "solved" this with a workaround. For certain circumstances, when it is more important that a window open with a size bigger than a certain monitor, then I use the PMinSize flag combined with sizeHints.min_width and min_height to force the window to not shrink. In this case, the tradeoff is that the user cannot shrink the window too. But I allow the user to click a button that allows them to shrink the window if desired.

Thanks for posting back a workaround.