[Xcb] Minimalistic Window Manager

[Bart Massey]

LOL. That's fun. I haven't tried to run it yet, but I've skimmed it
and gotten it to compile. I'll try it out soon.

Some suggestions, which you may take or leave:

* I have full sympathy for your lack of sympathy for autotools, but
I'd at least supply a Makefile that uses pkg-config; should be helpful
to a lot of folks. Attached. Feel free to license the Makefile under
any OSI-approved license you like---see below.

* Putting your name in a comment on the top would be pretty cool.
Typically you'd do that with a copyright notice.

* If you don't provide some kind of license, no one can modify or
redistribute your code, and they may not be even legally entitled to
use it. I would suggest the MIT license that XCB uses. Just stick the
license in a comment in the file.

Again, thanks for posting this!

     Bart

On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 3:45 PM, Cinolt <cinolt.yk at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello XCB mailing list!
>
> I have been working on a small Window Manager these past few days that
> uses XCB entirely. I think it has some unique concepts, something
> perhaps minimalists like myself would enjoy. I was hoping somebody
> could be so nice as to glance over it, and maybe even give suggestions
> for improvement. Below is the README for your convenience, thank you
> in advance for any feedback!
>
> META
> --------------------
> Yet another minimalistic X11 WM. I made this from scratch as a hobby. Feedback
> is always appreciated :) cinolt.yk at gmail.com
>
> This is in the public domain.
>
> "swm" is not the most original untaken name out there, but this was not meant
> to go mainstream anyway. It is from "Super Window Manager", as I originally
> contrived the super key being rarely used in most X11 applications, and thought
> would be perfect for a window manager to handle.
>
> All windows under swm are intended to take up the entire screen; there are no
> window decorations whatsoever. swm is also controlled entirely by the keyboard
> (ideally with only one hand).
>
> When swm starts, it reads a runtime configuration file $HOME/.swmrc. This file
> specifies the "grabkey", as well as several "bindkeys". The grabkey is a key
> that while pressed, will take active control of the keyboard, enabling bindkeys
> to be pressed.
>
> .swmrc specifies the grabkey with a keycode. It specifies each bindkey with a
> keycode, a boolean "alpha switch", and a sh(ell) command line.
>
> Several things can happen when a bindkey is pressed:
>
> o If the bindkey is an "alphakey", then unconditionally execute its command
> line.
> o Otherwise, if the [S]hift ([S]witch) modifier is active, then move its
> assigned window, if any, to the top of the window stack.
> o Otherwise, if the [C]ontrol ([C]ommand) modifier is active, then execute its
> command line.
> o Otherwise, if the Mod_1 ([A]lt; [A]ssign) modifier is active, then assign the
> current top-level window to it.
> (The behavior is undefined when two or more of the Shift, Control, and Mod_1
> modifiers are active.)
> o Otherwise, if it is currently not assigned to a window, then execute its
> command line and designate itself to be assigned to the next mapped window.
> o Otherwise, if it is currently assigned to a window, then move its assigned
> window to the top of the window stack.
>
> swm takes input through a FIFO $HOME/.swmin, reading the first 4 bytes of each
> input, acting accordingly:
>
> quit: Quit swm
> dele: Delete top-most window
> alte: Alternate between first and second top-most windows
> circ: Circulate windows
> kill: Kill top-most window
>
> INSTALL
> --------------------
> This does not use GNU Autobloat. Use the build script provided as a starting
> point to build it for your particular system. It should build fine for any
> relatively recent (2011/11/28) UNIX-like build environment and libxcb/xcb-util.
>
> Once you've done that, make the FIFO (mkfifo $HOME/.swmin), then edit
> $HOME/.swmrc to your liking. The format is relatively simple; use the provided
> sample .swmrc and common sense. Keep in mind that keycodes vary across systems
> and that the null characters in .swmrc are intentional.
>
> Execute swm with your preferred method. One way is to have it executed in
> $HOME/.xinitrc.
>
> TODO
> --------------------
> o Maintain a local list of window stacking order rather than querying the root
> tree everytime.
> o More thorough ICCCM support
> o Fix bugs (random "phantom" window in firefox?)
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xcb mailing list
> Xcb at lists.freedesktop.org
> http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xcb
>
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