proposal: talking to the app manager

As part of the path to better app managers, I'd like to propose
an API for apps to talk to app managers (for example, to make a
window-list applet possible).  There are two ways to do that:

1. assign a widget handle to the app manager and allow it to
receive APPMSG.  A new server resource would hold the handle of
the app manager.  This is not bad, but feels a tad kludish to me.

2. create a new request to send stuff to the app manager.

AFAICS, this API needs to have these "functions":

- register(handle):
  the widget at 'handle' will be notified when a new app is
  registered and when a running app is closed.  When this is
  called, a notification is sent back for all apps that are
  already running.  'Toolbar' apps don't cause a notification.

  Notifications can be sent via APPMSG or WE_DATA - which is better?

- unregister(handle):
  for symmetry, but perhaps it is not needed (a widget is
  'unregistered' when it is deleted).

- switch(handle):
  'handle' should be an app.  The app manager does whatever is
  necessary to ensure it is displayed: uniconifies, moves to top
  of stack, (in case of the panel appmgr) resize to nonzero, etc.

- cycle():
  display the "next" app.  The meaning of "next" is up to the
  app manager.  This could be used for example by an input
  filter that traps alt-tab.

Is this sufficient?  Does anyone have a requirement that this
doesn't meet?

[]s,
                                               |alo
                                               +----
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Eu jogo RPG! (I play RPG)         http://www.eujogorpg.com.br/
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