simple acting window managers

simple acting window managers

[Arnold Robbins]

John Mackin (now no longer on the net, I believe) put together a window
manager that looks very ``blit'' like. He did this using gwm (the generic
window manager) which allows you to customize the window manager's behaviour
by writing scripts in WOOL (Windows Object Oriented Lisp).  (E.g., gwm
comes with both twm and mwm emulations, which I haven't tried.)

His code relies on gwm 1.7i, which is somewhat behind the current version
of gwm (1.7o, I believe).  He also included a blit.bdf file for a font that
looks an awful lot like the original font in the rom of the DMD 5620.
(Whether the blit font is a bug or a feature is a matter of opinion --
personally, I much prefer the Plan 9 fonts Matty's distributing.)

I have been using his code for ~ a month or so and it's nice and simple,
and although not exactly blindingly fast, it's not intorlerably slow either.

ANYWAY, ``can you get this?''  The answer is yes. As of today, it could
still be ftp'ed from the root directory of ftp.civil.su.oz.au, in the
file gwm-dist.tar.  If it ever disappears from there, I'll make it available.

This file is not compressed, since its major contents are the compressed
gwm distribution.  Basically, get it, untar gwm, apply John's patch, and then
build.  Follow the rest of his instructions to install the stuff.

You will have to manually patch John's gwm code to a) use the pelm.latin1.9
fonts in the menus instead of the blit font, and b) use 9term as the
default terminal emulator (John used xterm).  This is not hard, and if
pressed, I will supply a patch to the mailing list.  You will also have to
supply an `rxterm' program that spawns xterms on remote systems. This is
also not hard to do.  You're better off using it with R5 than R4 - under R4
I've had weird behaviour dealing with colormaps and stuff. (I'm not an
X jock, so I can't be more specific.  When it comes to X, I type 'make' and
pray that it works. :-)

9wm exists, but it is apparently in rather ``alpha'' shape at the moment.
(I was told that it was crashing daily.)  I don't have a copy of it, and
don't know what the scoop is on its progress.  Until it happens, John's
blit+gwm is probably a good bet for most folks.  In between it, 9term, and
sam, I feel like I *finally* have a clean simple windowing environment.

Enjoy,

Arnold Robbins --- Continuing Education, College of Computing
Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0280	Phone: +1 404 894 9214 (has voice mail)
E-mail: arnold.robbins@cc.gatech.edu	FAX:   +1 404 853 9378
"He's not dead, he's metaphysically challenged." - Mystery Science Theatre 3000

P.S. If someone would just port libg to MGR, we'd all be in even
better shape.

Re: simple acting window managers

[Chris Siebenmann]

 You can also get gwm-dist.tar from ftp.sys.utoronto.ca in /pub/9term.

	- cks

Rumours of my net.death (somewhat) exaggerated :)

[John Mackin]

I wanted to post a few clarifications regarding Arnold's recent
message about the gwm stuff that I've worked on.  Most of what he
says is quite correct; I just want to set the record straight
on some minor points.

First off, thanks to Arnold for his positive comments, and for
being interested in trying out the code.  I'm very pleased that
he likes it and continues to use it.

    John Mackin (now no longer on the net, I believe)

Well, I'm still (barely) here.  A little.  For another couple of
weeks...  When I have really left, I will still be mailable at
<john@physiol.su.oz.au>, although I will eventually cut down
to reading that only now and then and consequently I will be
leaving all the lists that I'm on...  but I haven't quite done
that yet.

    John Mackin ... put together a window manager that looks very
    ``blit'' like.  He did this using gwm (the generic window manager)

Credits department: I did all the initial work on this stuff, but
its further development and design was done in collaboration with
David Hogan.  Some of the newer parts (e.g., icon menus) are purely
David's.  Noel Hunt used the code for a long time and helped get
bugs out of it.

    ANYWAY, ``can you get this?''  The answer is yes. As of today, it could
    still be ftp'ed from the root directory of ftp.civil.su.oz.au, in the
    file gwm-dist.tar.

I won't remove this.  I should update it but probably won't get time.

    9wm exists, but it is apparently in rather ``alpha'' shape at the moment.

David wrote this from the ground up.  He hasn't worked on it in a while.
It's not 100% solid and is fairly incomplete, ICCC-wise, although the
basic core WM is there.

Good luck, people.  Drop me a note if you like the gwm stuff.

OK,
John.