Thanks for weighing in on this one, roberts. That sounds like a fairly simple solution. I have a great fondness for evilwm, as I found it a welcome alternative minimalist WM to the one I had been using some time ago, ion3. I was delighted to find evilwm is part of TC, and even more delighted to learn that development on it has resumed: I actually gave up on it myself a year or so ago (moved to dwm) because I thought the project had gone moribund. I'm glad to see it's once again under development--I may well move back to it myself.
For my present project it seemed like a good fit because it's non-menued--meaning I wouldn't have to be working against the WM's design to get it to do (actually to NOT do) what I need. But as I fiddled with it today on a test system I began to wonder whether, with its lack of window decorations (I love that!), it might not be too intimidating to my lab's users. Then, when I discovered the issue with wbar I've been discussing in this thread I began to become yet more apprehensive about using it for my project. I suppose the system tweaking described by roberts that I'd have to do in order to use it would involve just about as much extra fiddling as undoing some of the unwanted features of a less minimalist WM.
So I decided to give JWM a whirl. Getting rid of the desktop pop-up menu was fairly easy. I also figured out how to manipulate or perhaps dispense with the tray. And, as expected, it plays nicer with wbar. The final result is that I'm now leaning toward using JWM for my project instead of evilwm.
Thanks for all the helpful input in this thread. I'll have to do a write-up of all this for the benefit of others who may want to use TC for a public-terminal situation such as obtains in my little lab.
James