I’d be willing to see if I can add this to EwmhDesktops if you (or someone else)
tells me:
 * How to test this easily
 * What to do with desktops that are not current or visible?

I'm curious, what do rdesktop and enso use _NET_WORKAREA for?  _NET_WORKAREA doesn't
seem to fit xmonad's multi-screen model very well.

I won't pretend to know much about it, but I believe enso uses it to figure out where
to draw its window. I don't know about rdesktop, but I included it because dons
mentioned it on irc when I brought up _NET_WORKAREA.

As I understand it, _NET_WORKAREA just indicates the usable area (minus docks, etc)
that is available to applications for each screen. I don't know how best to handle
it, or how that fits into xmonad.

I think its used by, for example, natuilus to find out where to put the icons. If
it’s just the screen minus struts (i.e. docks), it should be pretty doable. I guess
I’ll assign it to me and I’ll try to put it in EWMH.

I’d still like to have a test case so I can verify I did it properly. How does enso
behave now, and how should it, Nathan?

SpencerJanssen wrote on Mar 25, 2008: 
> I'm curious, what do rdesktop and enso use _NET_WORKAREA for?

Let rdesktop(1) say for itself:

  -g <geometry>
      Desktop   geometry   (WxH).  If  geometry  is  the  special  word
      "workarea", the geometry will be fetched from the extended window
      manager  hints  property _NET_WORKAREA, from the root window. The
      geometry can also be specified  as  a  percentage  of  the  whole
      screen, e.g. "-g 80%".

I wonder, whether I can position rdesktop window [in xmonad] using
`-g workarea' option...

/me tries

Well, rdesktop prints ``Window is missing property _NET_WORKAREA''
and starts fullscreen. I'll revert to my usual `-g 97%'.

(No comment was entered for this change.)

This may be relevant to your concerns about multi-screen model:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnome.wm-spec/1531/focus=1772