Re: tlug: Window Managers

[ABE Shige <sabe@example.com>]

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tlug note from ABE Shige <sabe@example.com>
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Alan B. Stone wrote:
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------
> tlug note from "Alan B. Stone" <stoneab@example.com>
> --------------------------------------------------------
> Hi all,
> 
> I was reading some things on the web this evening, and ran across a
> window manager called WindowMaker.
> 
> Has/does anyone use this window manager?  If so, what are the
> differences between it and AfterStep?
> 

Hello.  I posted a message about WindowMaker on the list last week,
during the discussion about AfterStep.  First off, WindowMaker was
written completely from scratch, by Alfredo K. Kojima of Brasil.

I feel that WindowMaker does a _much_ better job of emulating the user
interface of NeXTSTEP that AfterStep ever will.

Here are some features:

Dock
----

WindowMaker has a true 'Dock' that you can drag and drop Application
Icons to configure.  At this time, some applications like Netscape don't
provide the correct information to create an app. icon, but you can
force nearly any application to dock using the 'dockapp' utility.

This isn't really the fault of WindowMaker, but work is being done to
fix it.


I18N Multi-Byte Support
-----------------------

Has built in support for multi-byte character sets.  It works great with
Japanese and probably with Korean, Chinese, etc. as well.


Multi-Language Messages
-----------------------

WindowMaker just introduced menus and error messages in Japanese,
Portuguese and German in addition to English.  Since is was just added
last week, the installation of locale messages is still a bit tricky
(should be fixed soon)


Tear-off and Pinnable Menus
---------------------------

Sub-menus can be torn off and placed anywhere on the screen.  This is
useful for keeping, say, the "Image Viewers" menu on screen, when
looking at images.


A Smart Window Manager
----------------------

Unlike AfterStep and other FVWM-based window managers, WindowMaker is
aware of windows that can't be resized or closed.  In these cases,
WindowMaker simply doesn't place these buttons on the titlebar.  Its a
relatively trival feature, but no other 'free' window manager that I
know of does it.

Also, transient windows (such as the download window in Netscape) by
default appear on top of their parents.  The transient widndow gets the
focused title bar state (coloration), and the parent gets a special
titlebar to differentiate it from a regular unselected window.

You can also 'hide' applications.  This iconifies the app and all its
transients into one icon.  


Multiple-Window select
----------------------

You can select multiple windows at once, so you can move them together
or move them to another workspace.


Many More Features
------------------

WindowMaker has a very large number of features and short-cuts.  But
many haven't been adaquately documented yet.  There's definately much
more than first meets the eye.

For example, if you want the Dock on the left side, you just grab the
top button and move it across.  It'll remember where you like it upon
restart.

Also, if you are resizing menus, there is a nifty 'technical
drawing'-style geometry display.  This is activated by hitting the shift
button while resizing or by setting it as default in the preferences.


Status
------

While officially in development, it is extremely stable.  Probably more
so than AfterStep 1.0.  Quite a few AfterStep users have switched to
WindowMaker in the past weeks.  Compared to AfterStep, WindowMaker is
missing some cosmetic features like pixmaps in title bars, but little
else.

Since its developed from scratch, some nice FVWM features aren't
available yet, such as a pager.  Currently, WindowMaker has separate
'workspaces' but no utility to see what's on each one yet.

Also, it may be a little harder to set up than AfterStep, but progress
is being made to make it easier to install.


Resources
---------

http://www.helix.net/~tannoy/wmaker/

Nice introductory page for potential WindowMaker users.  There are some
feature highlights in:

  http://www.helix.net/~tannoy/wmaker/about.html


http://home.abac.com/jfr/windowmaker/

Has some links to other WindowMaker pages.


http://www.inf.ufrgs.br/~kojima/wmaker/index.html

The author's web page, a bit sparse compared to fan pages.


http://www.eosys.com/mailing-list/WMaker-Info.html

Join the WindowMaker mailing list!


Comments
--------

WindowMaker is currently at version 0.5.0.  Just for reference, I've
been using WindowMaker since 0.0.3 (1997.2)  On average, a new version
is released weekly.

You may have noticed that there is a close relationship between
WindowMaker and AfterStep.  Until the end of last year, Mr. Kojima was
one of the head developers of AfterStep.  He's responsible for much of
the recent cosmetic work: gradients, pixmaps in titlebars, wharf
enhancements etc.

When it came time to add functionality, AfterStep and FVWM in general
are very difficult to change.  It was decided that even to add a feature
such as tear-off menus, it would be easier to start from scratch.  Since
its start, WindowMaker has been more about functionality than cosmetics,
yet WindowMaker looks as good or even better than AfterStep, in my
opinion.

If you feel adventurous, please give WindowMaker a try.  If you have any
questions, feel free to write me or the mailing list.


Thanks,
Shige
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