You are the WM(blog.z3bra.org)
blog.z3bra.org
You are the WM
http://blog.z3bra.org/2015/01/you-are-the-wm.html?hn
15 comments
I'm a big fan of z3bra's posts. They focus on the unix way, minimalism, and understand your tools.
Another good link is http://blog.z3bra.org/2014/03/toolbox.html where he describes some unusual but useful commands.
Another good link is http://blog.z3bra.org/2014/03/toolbox.html where he describes some unusual but useful commands.
I was forced to be minimal 10 years ago with my laptop having 256M RAM. This WM would have been my choice then. Instead I used Ion3 after trying my way through many others like ratpoison, waimea and so forth.
But now I have 8-16G or more RAM in my computers. I also tend to have a nice graphics chip, even if it's from Intel it's better than what I had 10 years ago. So why bother with this type of minimalism if you don't need it?
But now I have 8-16G or more RAM in my computers. I also tend to have a nice graphics chip, even if it's from Intel it's better than what I had 10 years ago. So why bother with this type of minimalism if you don't need it?
I recently switched back to xmonad and then ratpoison because I'm more interested in getting work done than watching the pretty animations.
For less extreme cases, you can also use xwit(1).
It's written against an obsolete windowing model for a deprecated window system.
What's needed is a successor written as a Wayland compositor and tools that communicate via a d-bus interface to instruct the compositor where to place the windows.
What's needed is a successor written as a Wayland compositor and tools that communicate via a d-bus interface to instruct the compositor where to place the windows.
What's needed is a successor written as a Wayland compositor and tools that communicate via a d-bus interface to instruct the compositor where to place the windows.
Poe's Law really has me here.
Poe's Law really has me here.
I think that's more like Poettering's Law.
Hrm. "Poe" + "ttering".
"tering" is a Dutch word having meanings of "damnit" or "uncountable".
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tering! https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tering
"tering" is a Dutch word having meanings of "damnit" or "uncountable".
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tering! https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tering
I think he's sincere.
Initially I thought this was based on wmctrl[0] which is a nice piece of software. It allows you to do some fancy window manager scripting in bash, even when running GNOME Shell.
[0]: http://linux.die.net/man/1/wmctrl
[0]: http://linux.die.net/man/1/wmctrl
I read VM in the title. Very disappointed.
You certainly can be the VM on a microkernel which supports external pagers.
I did too and I've read this post before...
"You are the WM" until you automate everything with scripts as the author seems to have done (because, why wouldn't you automate?). Then it's "You just wrote your own WM, in bash."
I'm tempted to try this because it's just so UNIXy, but I probably have "better" ("important" and less fun) things to spend time on.
I'm tempted to try this because it's just so UNIXy, but I probably have "better" ("important" and less fun) things to spend time on.
Okay, so I know I'm a little odd, but my immediate reaction to this:
“Oh snap! I should totally uninstall my WM!”
“Oh snap! I should totally uninstall my WM!”
I'm not surprised people hate window managers when they all suck and don't even have basic features RISC OS had in 1990
What features? I've never used RISC OS.
Most importantly it doesn't have raise-on-click, which allows you to actually use overlapping windows, because who has infinite screen space? Now you can use overlapping windows drag and drop actually works, can't drop if the window you just dragged from now covers it. So there's drag and drop load and save, no save-as boxes.
Secondly window moving/resizing, 1. windows aren't full screen, 2. you can drag the title bar with the 3rd mouse button to keep the z-order the same. 3. if you try to drag to resize off the side of the screen, the window moves in the opposite direction so it still gets bigger. 4. 3rd button click on a scroll arrow goes in the opposite direction, 3rd button drag on a scroll bar allows 2d movement.
Thirdly: No menu bars, everything is a pop up menu, an infinitely large Fitts target. Also you can 3rd button click on a menu to keep it open so you can select another menu option.
Fourthly: The taskbar shows applications, not windows, to open a new document you click the taskbar icon. Drag to taskbar icon opens file in that application, drag to a window on that application inserts/merges/etc. Application level tasks on on the taskbar menu, quit, preferences. Document level tasks are in the document menu.
Obviously this requires application support, can't do it with just an X11 window manager. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROX_Desktop uses some of the ideas, although the project seems dead.
Secondly window moving/resizing, 1. windows aren't full screen, 2. you can drag the title bar with the 3rd mouse button to keep the z-order the same. 3. if you try to drag to resize off the side of the screen, the window moves in the opposite direction so it still gets bigger. 4. 3rd button click on a scroll arrow goes in the opposite direction, 3rd button drag on a scroll bar allows 2d movement.
Thirdly: No menu bars, everything is a pop up menu, an infinitely large Fitts target. Also you can 3rd button click on a menu to keep it open so you can select another menu option.
Fourthly: The taskbar shows applications, not windows, to open a new document you click the taskbar icon. Drag to taskbar icon opens file in that application, drag to a window on that application inserts/merges/etc. Application level tasks on on the taskbar menu, quit, preferences. Document level tasks are in the document menu.
Obviously this requires application support, can't do it with just an X11 window manager. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROX_Desktop uses some of the ideas, although the project seems dead.
Feh. If it doesn't have pie-shaped menus, it's lame.[1]
[1] http://www.crynwr.com/piewm/index.html~
[1] http://www.crynwr.com/piewm/index.html~
If you own a smartphone, or any other device using an ARM processor (and others), then yes you have https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_instruction_set_comput...
I'm fairly certain the GP meant the literal RISC OS system by Acorn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RISC_OS
A nice illustration of the UNIX philosophy applies to window managers. Also, a nice illustration of why non-UNIX IPC or protected procedures are much more efficient.
Or you can just run FVWM2, and get everything offered here (including the fine grain control), plus a bunch of goodies for theming, window decoration, window buttons, pagers, virtual desktops, button panels, etc.
How does this compare to XMonad?
I like minimalism, but IMO the closest you can get to this idea without wasting time reinventing the wheel is a tiling windows manager. I have been using i3 for about 3 years now and can't imagine going back.
Just switched to OSX for work, and i3 is the only part of my workflow I can't replace. I dearly dearly miss it.
http://www.hammerspoon.org/ allowed me to write a small i3 replacement, it's not as complete, but it's mine
Would you mind sharing your implementation? Even if it's messy, it would be more helpful than nothing at all.
I use divvy which is no where near a replacement for a tiling wm, but it does allow me to quickly resize windows in a grid.
http://mizage.com/divvy/
http://mizage.com/divvy/
I use Amethyst[1] when I'm on OS X
[1]: http://ianyh.com/amethyst/
[1]: http://ianyh.com/amethyst/
> Just switched to OSX for work
Ouch! The pain I see the guys go through in the office who have OS X is unenviable. I'm very happy with Debian on my laptop. Everything works, it works well, and most importantly it works to my specifications.
Ouch! The pain I see the guys go through in the office who have OS X is unenviable. I'm very happy with Debian on my laptop. Everything works, it works well, and most importantly it works to my specifications.
Moom (http://manytricks.com/moom) is what I use to get some of the tiling experience on OS X.
I just stopped using OS X for work, and I'm much happier... If I had to use OS X again, I'd be dearly tempted to fullscreen a Linux VM.
In case this is useful to others:
I have to use Windows 7 at work. I recently found bug.n, a flexible tiling window manager made with AutoHotkey.
https://github.com/fuhsjr00/bug.n