Application window geometry specifier

[Python]

On Tue, Jan 12, 2021 at 06:43:39PM -0000, Grant Edwards wrote:
> And those X11 users will swear at you if you override their window
> managers configured window placement. Application code should not care
> about or try to control window geometry. Period.

I think this is just plain wrong.  If you, the user, want to override
what you, the user, configured your window manager to do, for WHATEVER
reason your little heart may desire, then the application needs to
give you an interface to request it, and rather importantly the WM must
necessarily honor it.

The policy reallly ought to be:

 - If the user took the time to specify a geometry, do what it says
   (i.e. honor the placement the application asks for)
 - If not but the window manager has something configured for that
    application/widget/whatever, do what it says
 - Otherwise, resort to the window manager's default policy

Arguably there ought to also be a way for the application to *suggest*
a default geometry that the WM can override, but obviously providing a
way to force the geometry gives rise to the opportunity for abuse by
badly behaved developers.  Don't use those apps.

Fortunately, at least historically, in practice most X11 window
managers more or less did all that anyway.  I recall that when I
switched to Gnome I had some trouble with this (as in, it just didn't
work, generally, even if the relevant app allowed you to specify
--geometry or similar), but AFAICT Gnome has long held to the notion
that Gnome Gnows better than you do how you should run your apps, so
when using Gnome all bets are off.