With some themes, including the default one, window borders are 1px wide and you have to put your cursor on this single pixel line to be able to resize. It feels very impractical and is a constant annoyance if you're this kind of user resizing windows frequently. I'm aware of this page: http://xubuntu.org/news/window-resizing-in-xubuntu-and-xfce, that tries to tell users that the problem is not a problem and listing other ways to resize. While these alternate ways are more or less ok and currently I'm using Alt+right-click, they can't beat a proper resize border with a reasonable width (5px) in usability, for me and the people I'm trying to convert to XFCE, and certainly a lot of other non-geek people who won't remember the Alt+RMB way or simply don't want to have to look for the Alt key every time. What would work IMO would be to separate the resize border from the visual border and always have a 5px wide resize zone bordering the window contents.
If you need more arguments for this enhancement proposal: 1) Xfce is trying to be user friendly 2) Click & drag borders to resize windows is user friendly 3) 1 pixel wide resize borders are not user friendly Conclusion: make 5 pixel wide resize borders, this is user friendly. Btw: Is there a better place to make suggestions? Seeing the HUGE list of bugs left in the "NEW" state for the xfwm package feels like this place is ignored.
Seriously, that's just a themeing issue. Xfce comes with dozens of themes by default (in a separate package), some of which have more than 5 pixels borders, I would be really surprised if none of those match your requirements. And even if there's none, you can always design your own, it's very straightforward. Or get one from some online web site that list xfce themes. Or bug your distribution packager so that he changes the default theme, because the default that ship upstream are most likely to be changed by your packager anyway (or at least it's what is expected from packagers, branding). And if none of all this works for you, you know you can use Alt+right click to resize your windows from anywhere within the window.
(Note that I agree with you myself, I do prefer themes with larger borders, but ppl seem to like thinner border more, for some reason)
"Note that I agree with you myself" Thanks for your answer but this makes me wonder even more why, once again, a dev is rejecting a valid request for improvement with an answer redirecting to bad workarounds. This behavior is all too common and puting users off from making suggestions and bug reports and scaring away potential contributors (like me). I wish open source devs were as open as the software they make. Anyway, so... you're acknowledging that many people like thin borders. But they like thin **visual** borders ! I highly doubt that they also like that it makes resizing harder... People will continue to make themes with thin borders since they seem to like it a lot, so we need to fix the usability issue that comes with it. Personally I don't care wether the borders look thin or fat, but if I like the rest of the theme (the colors, the buttons, etc.), I expect to be able to use it without it making a very often used functionnality unusable. When this theme I like happens to be the default theme of Xubuntu, a major Xfce based distribution, it makes me even more curious as to why this usability issue hasn't found a solution yet. Now, for the sake of completeness, I have tried your workarounds : 1) I'm going to the Appearance menu of the settings manager, I'm in the Style tab, I indeed have a huge list of styles (I believe these are themes) to choose from. I'm thankful for it. I'm trying them all one by one. Result: none of them changed the border size. 2) I don't want to design my own. I like some of the themes in here, I want to be able to use them. I'm using Xfce because it's supposed to be user friendly. I want it to be user friendly. I want the issue fixed for everyone because I feel it has a lot more value than fixing it only for myself. 3) I don't want to search for themes online, for the same reasons as above. 4) I will bug my distribution manager if the issue isn't fixed upstream, that is, here. I do hope it will be fixed upstream. 5) I know I can use Alt+right-click, you know I know, you know my reasons why I prefer what I'm asking for. Now, here's another possible solution: make the border size configurable in the appearance settings window. While doing so, you could also make a lot of other theme settings easily customizable from this window. This isn't a perfect solution though, because first-time Xubuntu (and other thin borders theme defaulting distros) will still be confronted to the issue and be annoyed by it until they scavenge through the settings menu, which a lot of users won't do for many reasons of their own.
Forget the last solution proposal: it won't fix the issue for those many who like thin borders but don't like thin resize zones.
(In reply to comment #4) > "Note that I agree with you myself" > Thanks for your answer but this makes me wonder even more why, once again, a > dev is rejecting a valid request for improvement with an answer redirecting > to bad workarounds. This behavior is all too common and puting users off > from making suggestions and bug reports and scaring away potential > contributors (like me). I wish open source devs were as open as the software > they make. Please, feel free to contribute code. > Anyway, so... you're acknowledging that many people like thin borders. But > they like thin **visual** borders ! I highly doubt that they also like that > it makes resizing harder... I don't have any control over what Ubuntu designers decide, I don;t work on Ubuntu, I don't even use it.... > People will continue to make themes with thin borders since they seem to > like it a lot, so we need to fix the usability issue that comes with it. Currently, decorations are part of the window that reparents the application window, how can you can make the action area larger than the actual window? One possibility would be to use shapes and input shapes, but that's would mean breaking the current implementation and all the existing themes, and possibily break compatibility with Xserver that don't implement input shape. Maybe doable, but I don;t have time to rewrite xfwm4 at this point. Feel free t osend patches to this bug report and I'll review them. > Personally I don't care wether the borders look thin or fat, but if I like > the rest of the theme (the colors, the buttons, etc.), I expect to be able > to use it without it making a very often used functionnality unusable. > > When this theme I like happens to be the default theme of Xubuntu, a major > Xfce based distribution, it makes me even more curious as to why this > usability issue hasn't found a solution yet. Again, if the Xubuntu theme does not please you, either choose another theme or complain to Xubuntu. > Now, for the sake of completeness, I have tried your workarounds : > > 1) I'm going to the Appearance menu of the settings manager, I'm in the > Style tab, I indeed have a huge list of styles (I believe these are themes) > to choose from. I'm thankful for it. I'm trying them all one by one. Result: > none of them changed the border size. What I suggesed was not a workaround, sorry. But you didn't try very hard, did you?... You're changing the GTK themes, not the *window manager* themes, not surprising it does not change the window borders. Use the window manager settings panel instead, that might work better. If you don;t have any theme listed there, then either your distribution did not package the themes or you did not install requested packages. Either way, nothing I can help with. > 2) I don't want to design my own. I like some of the themes in here, I want > to be able to use them. I'm using Xfce because it's supposed to be user > friendly. I want it to be user friendly. I want the issue fixed for everyone > because I feel it has a lot more value than fixing it only for myself. > > 3) I don't want to search for themes online, for the same reasons as above. > > 4) I will bug my distribution manager if the issue isn't fixed upstream, > that is, here. I do hope it will be fixed upstream. But again, the problem you describe comes from the theme designed by Xubuntu. Even if I /fix/ (I still don't think it's broken) the theme upstream, that makes no difference since Xubuntu is not using the default upstream theme anyway. > 5) I know I can use Alt+right-click, you know I know, you know my reasons > why I prefer what I'm asking for. > > Now, here's another possible solution: make the border size configurable in > the appearance settings window. While doing so, you could also make a lot of > other theme settings easily customizable from this window. > This isn't a perfect solution though, because first-time Xubuntu (and other > thin borders theme defaulting distros) will still be confronted to the issue > and be annoyed by it until they scavenge through the settings menu, which a > lot of users won't do for many reasons of their own. Except that this not how themes works. Please check how things work before trying to stir the development in a direction that does not match the current design.
(In reply to comment #6) > Please, feel free to contribute code. Thanks. I'm a very amateur programer though, so my contributions are more in the lines of design, suggestions, bug reports, translation... And I'm relying on you, dear highly skilled coders, to make the code. > Currently, decorations are part of the window that reparents the application > window, how can you can make the action area larger than the actual window? I count on you to find the technical solutions, because I don't have the time to learn everything about the inner workings of Xfce. I'm already doing a lot for the FLOSS community, I can't fix every issue I see by myself. > Maybe doable, but I don;t have time to rewrite xfwm4 at this point. Feel > free t osend patches to this bug report and I'll review them. I would if I had a hell of a lot of time. > But you didn't try very hard, did you?... Very hard ? No. I simply went to the obvious place to find the theming options. And again, I'm not expecting to have to try very hard to make something functional that should work fine out of the box (of a desktop that aims for user friendliness). I know you're going to once again put the responsability on Xubuntu, but Xubuntu is making a theme within the constraints you have bounded them to (I suppose). If the resulting theme makes something unusable, the issue is primarily to be sorted out by you. Of course, you will still disagree. Then I will turn to Xubuntu, will ask them to make bigger borders. They will tell me they don't feel it's an issue and/or I have to report it upstream. I will despair about the stubbornness of people and will live with an annoying usability issue until I get to fix it for myself only. Yay to individualism! > You're changing the GTK themes, > not the *window manager* themes, not surprising it does not change the > window borders. Ah. Hard to know the difference as a normal user, I hope you understand. And hard to imagine that the window decoration appearance settings aren't in the Appearance window along with the inside-of-windows appearance settings, I hope you understand this too. Now the issue is fixed for me, thank you. But it's not fixed for everyone. Will I try to insist so it finally is? I doubt so, it's too frustrating and exhausting.