Rotghroth Rhapsody Prince of Kitties Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Yesterday I decided to fork the old, unmaintainted Blackbox window manager. Here is the project on Gitorious: https://gitorious.org/whackbox So far I've gotten it to compile and run successfully with -Werror -Wall. Which is not really saying much. But now that it compiles cleanly, I'm looking for features to add. There are a couple (scrolling virtual desktops and Ratpoison-style keybindings) that are definitely on my agenda, but I'm not sure what else. A more convenient way of launching programs, maybe? Any ideas before I start delving into the code again? I know there are at least a few Linux users here... I'm hoping to start with simpler ideas first, and eventually start implementing more complex ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Aran Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 That could be a fun project, but what is this window manager's special thing that makes you want to revive it? I know most of the niche ones exist for some particular design or philosophy (e.g. Xmonad), and Wikipedia says Blackbox has "particular design goals", but not what they are. Why a stacking WM, and why this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody Prince of Kitties Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 Hmm. Good question. I'm not really sure. I chose a stacking WM because tiling WMs are problematic for me in a lot of ways; otherwise there's no particular goal, or reason for me to use Blackbox as a base. Which come to think of it may not be a good thing. I will say that I'm aiming roughly for something in a weird area between Ratpoison, Fvwm, and Fluxbox, i.e. - Stacking window management - Simple to configure - Supporting several different use patterns - Reasonable default configuration - Supporting keybindings in a way that prevents clobbering I'm interested in borrowing a bunch of features from Fvwm's set, but I'm not sure which ones would make the most sense. (Thanks for getting my to clarify this BTW, that was helpful.) Edit: actually come to think of it I have a good reason for using Blackbox: it is by far the fastest window manager I know of. (Whether it will still be when I'm done with it is of course an open question.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Is the speed of a window manager still even an issue these days? Are you trying to do Massively Multiplayer Online Window Management, or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody Prince of Kitties Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 Yes, if you're using a netbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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