[xmonad] xmonad vs. full screen

[Thomas Friedrich]

Hi everyone,

In earlier versions of xmonad, when pressing the full screen button 
while watching a flash-movie, a new window would be opened, integrated 
in whichever layout one was using at the time, and the video, now 
running in "full-screen-mode", would take as much screen-real-estate as 
xmonad was willing to let it have.

This behavior has changed with recent versions of xmonad (or at least 
the version that I am currently running).  A new window with the movie 
is still created, however, the movie now runs with the same resolution 
as the screen.  For example, if you're running the Tiled-layout and 
start a flash-movie within Firefox, you would see the Firefox-window on 
the right and the video-window on the left, however, now the movie being 
cut off in the middle.  (I also have the issue that when the 
video-window is loosing focus, it disappears, e.g. when moving the mouse 
out of the window, or when changing layouts, or when switching workspaces.)

I was always thinking of the old behavior of xmonad as a feature.  A 
program running in "full-screen" would optimize itself according to the 
real-estate you -- as a user -- are willing to give to it.  This had 
great advantages.  You could watch a taped university lecture on youtube 
in full-screen WHILE looking things up on the web, etc.  This is not 
possible anymore, as each program running in "full-screen-mode" actually 
thinks that it would have the *full screen* available.

So, I have two questions.

1)  I compiled xmonad from source.  Where in the code would I need to 
change what to get the old behavior back, handling full-screen movies?  
I would be really thankful, if someone could point me into the right 
direction.  Where to look, what to change, etc.?  Or even better, is it 
possible to trigger this within ones xmonad.hs?  Thanks so much for help.

2)  I would propose going back to the old behavior of handling 
full-screen-programs in xmonad.  It really should be the *user* who 
decides how "full-screen" a full-screen-program shall be.  Isn't this 
also more following the philosophy of xmonad?  You as a user decide, 
what is happening on your screen?  It might be not as intuitive, when 
switching to xmonad and you are used to other WMs, where full-screen 
means *full screen*.  I really miss that functionality, now that its 
gone.  What do you think?

Cheers,
Thomas