WindowMaker-0.80.2: description + notes

GNU Window Maker
X11 Window Manager

http://windowmaker.org
ftp://ftp.windowmaker.org

by
Alfredo K. Kojima
Dan Pascu

Web/FTP Master
Phillip Smith

Congratulations! You have purchased an extremely fine device that would give you thousands of years of trouble-free service, except that you undoubtably will destroy it via some typical bonehead consumer maneuver. Which is why we ask you to PLEASE FOR GOD'S SAKE READ THIS OWNER'S MANUAL CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU UNPACK THE DEVICE. YOU ALREADY UNPACKED IT, DIDN'T YOU? YOU UNPACKED IT AND PLUGGED IT IN AND TURNED IT ON AND FIDDLED WITH THE KNOBS, AND NOW YOUR CHILD, THE SAME CHILD WHO ONCE SHOVED A POLISH SAUSAGE INTO YOUR VIDEOCASSETTE RECORDER AND SET IT ON "FAST FORWARD", THIS CHILD ALSO IS FIDDLING WITH THE KNOBS, RIGHT? AND YOU'RE JUST NOW STARTING TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS, RIGHT??? WE MIGHT AS WELL JUST BREAK THESE DEVICES RIGHT AT THE FACTORY BEFORE WE SHIP THEM OUT, YOU KNOW THAT?

-- Dave Barry, "Read This First!"

Description

Window Maker is the GNU window manager for the X Window System. It was designed to emulate the look and feel of part of the NEXTSTEP(tm) GUI. It's supposed to be relatively fast and small, feature rich, easy to configure and easy to use, with a simple and elegant appearance borrowed from NEXTSTEP(tm).

Window Maker was designed keeping integration with GNUstep in mind and is the "official" window manager for it. It is also part of the GNU project (www.gnu.org) Read more about GNUstep further on this file.

Hints (information given by applications to integrate well with the window manager) for Motif(tm), OPEN LOOK(tm), KDE and GNOME are also supported. So you can replace any of the window managers for these environments with Window Maker while keeping most, if not all, of the native window manager functionality.

Window Maker was previously called WindowMaker.

Window Maker has no connection with Windowmaker, the software for making windows and doors.

Documentation

Read before asking.

Tutorial

There's a tutorial maintained by Georges Tarbouriech at: http://www.linuxfocus.org/~georges.t/

User Guide

The Window Maker User's Guide can be downloaded from the official ftp or web sites. It can also be viewed in HTML format in: http://people.delphi.com/crc3419/WMUserGuide/index.htm

The User Guide explains how to use Window Maker, the configuration files and options.

man pages

Type "man wmaker" in the shell prompt to get general help about Window Maker

Directories & Files in the Source Tree

HELP ME!!!

There is a mailing list for discussing Window Maker at wm-user@windowmaker.org To subscribe to it, send a message containing: subscribe in the subject of the message to wm-user-request@windowmaker.org

If you got a problem, ask there (after reading the docs, of course). The people there is more likely to be able to answer your questions than we are. For bug reports use the BUGFORM.

If you have a problem with a precompiled version of Window Maker (rpm, deb etc), first ask the person who made the package.

IMPORTANT NOTE: when asking for help (in the mailing list or to the developerts, directly) *always* send information about the system you are using. You can use the system information section at the end of BUGFORM as a guideline. Another thing: please don't send HTML mail.

There is also a #windowmaker IRC channel at openprojects. To join there, connect your irc client to irc.openprojects.net, irc.linux.com or some other server of that network.

GNUstep

GNUstep is a complete object-oriented development system, based on the OpenStep specification released by NeXT(tm) (now Apple(tm)) and Sun(tm). It will provide everything one needs to produce cross-platform, object-oriented, graphical (and non-graphical) applications; providing among other things, base system libraries, a high-level GUI application framework that uses a Display PostScript(tm)-like imaging model (DGS), objects for accessing relational databases, distributed objects and a graphical development environment, with tools like interface modeller, a project management system (project center) and other tools.

The GNUstep development system will be used to create a user environment, with everything needed for a complete graphical user interface, such as a file viewer, text editors and other applications. Note that the user environment (or "desktop environment") is only a small part of the whole GNUstep project and therefore it does not "compete" with other projects like KDE or GNOME, simply because they are completely different things.

For more information on the GNUstep project, visit: http://www.gnustep.org and http://gnustep.current.nu

Running multiple instances of Window Maker

It is not a good idea to run more than one instance of Window Maker from the same user (so that wmaker will use the same configuration files) at the same time. You might get unexpected behaviour when Window Maker updates it's configuration files.

If you really desire to do this, try running Window Maker with the command line option --static so that it will not update or change any of the configuration files.

Sound support

Sound is supported for Linux and FreeBSD systems with the use of a separately distributed module called WSoundServer. There is also a graphical configuration tool for setting up your sounds called WSoundPrefs. You can download these at: http://shadowmere.student.utwente.nl/

Note that you must compile Window Maker with the --enable-sound configure flag and set the DisableSound option to NO.

OpenL**k support

I guess many users, mainly from the academic world, have to use applications written using the OpenL**k toolkits, so having support for these apps must be of some use.

To enable, use --enable-openlook when doing the configure. Note that not everything is implemented.

Implemented stuff include decoration hints and the push-pin. Not implemented stuff include _SUN_WINDOW_STATE (the compose led state stuff), drag and drop interest stuff, header (not sure what's it) and footer strings.

Please give me feedback if something doesn't work. If the feature is already implemented, but is not working because of a bug, I'll try to have that fixed. If it's a non-implemented feature and you mention that it's important (ie: not just cosmetical), I'll consider implementing it.

The "out" state of the pushpin is emulated as a pushed-in close button. Just click on the button to make it pushed-out, which corresponds to the pinned-in state of the pushpin. If you push again in the pushed-out close button, it will act as a normal close button: it will close the window.

Performance Tuning

If you want to diminish Window Maker's memory usage and improve performance, while keeping a nice appearance and good functionality, follow the items bellow:

Keyboard Mouse Control

Many people ask about adding keyboard control of mouse, like in fvwm, but Window Maker will not have such feature. The XKB extension supports mouse simulation from the keyboard, in a much more powerfull fashion than any simulation done by a window manager.

To enable it, hit the Control+Shift+NumLock or Shift+NumLock key combination. You should hear the speaker beeping. To disable it, do the same thing.

To control the mouse the numeric keypad is used as follows:

The above key values work in a XFree86 3.2 (X11R6.1) X server but your milleage may vary.

How to make a gdb backtrace

Backtraces can help us fix bugs that make Window Maker crash. If you find a bug that crashes Window Maker, please send a backtrace with your bug report.

To make a usefull backtrace, you need a core file with debugging information produced by Window Maker when it crashes. It should have been installed without stripping too.

To compile wmaker with debugging information: 

./configure
make CFLAGS=-g
If you get the dialog window telling you that wmaker crashed and asks you what to do, tell it to "Abort and leave a core file". 
script
cd src
gdb .libs/wmaker path_to_the_core_file
Then, in the gdb prompt type "bt". Quit from gdb by typing "quit" and then, in the shell prompt, type "exit".

The file named typescript will contain the backtrace.

Copyrights & Disclaimers

Window Maker is copyrighted by Alfredo K. Kojima and is licensed through the GNU General Public License. Read the COPYING file for the complete license.

The icons that are distributed with this program and were made by Marco van Hylckama Vlieg, are licensed through the GNU General Public License. Read the COPYING file for the complete license.

The icons listed in COPYING.WTFPL and are distributed in this program and were made by Banlu Kemiyatorn (]d), are licensed through the "do What The Fuck you want to Public License". Read the COPYING.WTFPL file for the complete license.

NeXT, OpenStep and NEXTSTEP are a trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

The authors reserve the right to make changes in the software without prior notice.

Authors

Alfredo K. Kojima (kojima@windowmaker.org)
Dan Pascu (dan@windowmaker.org)
]d (id@windowmaker.org)

Please don't ask us questions before reading the documentation (esp. the FAQ, this file and INSTALL files) and about "cool" things you see in people's desktop screenshots.

The AUTHORS file contains a list of the people who have contributed to the project. The name of people who have helped with localization (translation) can be found in po/README and Window Maker/README

If you have any comments, fixes and bug reports (filled BUGFORMs) send them to developers@windowmaker.org

To auto-install this package, go back and click on the respective install icon.