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pogeymanz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 1,020

Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

I'm bored and I think I found my perfect openbox setup, which means it's time to tinker with something else.

I want to try a tiler, but I don't know anything about them. So, I need you good people to help me make a choice.

Here are the questions:

1. What are all the different TWMs? I don't even know the names of any of the popular ones (except awesome, which is easy to remember)

2. Which are easier to configure? How so?

3. Which are easier to get used to using? Why?

4. Which are the most useful once you finally get used to it?

5. Which are the prettiest?

Last edited by pogeymanz (2008-07-20 17:37:11)

COMMUNISTCHINA

Member

Registered: 2008-06-16

Posts: 122

Website

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiling_win … gers_for_X

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heleos

Member

From: Maine, USA

Registered: 2007-04-24

Posts: 678

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

1. Popular ones include: Awesome, Xmonad, dwm, wmii

2. Awesome3 uses lua, Awesome2 uses just a config file, xmonad uses haskell, dwm uses c, I've never used wmii, but I think its ruby? or maybe thats just wmii-ruby It all depends on which language you're most comfortable using. Awesome 2.3 would probably be easiest if you don't know a language.

3. They are all about the same. I think a lot of them borrow features and keybindings from eachother.

4. They all can be very useful, and extensible through the language of choice.

5. They all seem to look about the same to me...

peets

Member

From: Montreal

Registered: 2007-01-11

Posts: 936

Website

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

Awesome, xmonad and dwm use a similar tiling algorithm involving a "master pane".
Other tiling wms include wmii, ratpoison, ion3 and stumpwm.

I find wmii's tiling algo is easy to get used to, but I don't understand how to configure it.
awesome is supposed to be easy to configure, but I've never tried it.
Xmonad and stumpWM offer endless customisation, but you must know Haskell and Lisp, resp.

Prettiness comes easy with tiling WMs: most of them offer no window decoration save a thin border around clients. What isn't there can't be ugly! I just concentrate on having nice ~/.Xdefaults and gtk theme.

pauldonnelly

Member

Registered: 2006-06-19

Posts: 776

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

Wmii uses a columnar layout with multiple columns on the screen, each of which can hold several vertically stacked windows. It's like the Acme text editor.

Ratpoison (and StumpWM, its superior successor) are more like screen for X. Generally one uses one full-screen window at a time, although it supports both horizontal and vertical recursive division of panes. That's more of a headache than I want, so back when I used it I bound my F-keys to select windows 1-12 and stayed full-screen unless I wanted to drag between two windows. With StumpWM you could write your own custom pane-management code if you like the general idea but want some automation.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

Yeah right! We're not your personal search engine.

Cmon, this is just lazy.

I'm bored and I think I found my perfect openbox setup, which means it's time to tinker with something else.

If you're bored....

1) Google & read the description on their websites
2) Try them yourself! That's what I did with all the WM's I try. Asking people is utterly pointless as everyone has their own needs and uses, especially with tiling wm's!
3) Search the forums. "tiling wm" gives a massive search result

Heck. If you'd just gone and looked at 'awesome' you'd have found it was forked off dwm (HINT) ages ago. And if you'd looked at dwm, you'd have found references to wmii (HINT). And if you had googled like you should have and looked the first ones, undoubtedly you would have heard about ion or ratpoison (HINT).

Can anyone find me where the nearest australia post mail box is? I can't be bothered looking on their website...

Last edited by iphitus (2008-07-21 07:46:28)

pogeymanz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 1,020

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

Hey, come on. No need to get angry. Besides, if you had something better to do, you wouldn't have posted a rant at me. So don't pretend I've wasted your time.

I actually did read some wiki entries on them. The problem is that they all seem the same from reading those. I'm not too lazy to do a little searching, but I guess I am too lazy to just try them all at once.

Besides, I'm afraid that I would have an unpleasant experience if I just jumped in with one (I'm just not that type of person).

I just wanted to hear a few personal accounts. DWM's website is not going to tell me that out of dwm, ratpoison, ion, awesome, and wmii that wmii is the easiest to configure and get used to. But maybe someone who has used a few can share his/her experience.

No, I didn't search the forums; so if I missed out on some answers, that's my fault. I certainly didn't mean to PO anybody. And sometimes people like to give reasons that they like their favorite *insert object*.

dhave

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

From: Outside the matrix.

Registered: 2005-05-15

Posts: 1,112

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

All the OP's questions except the first are asking for subjective opinions, so I don't see a problem with his posting them here.

His first question ("What are all the different TWMs?") he probably could have gotten an answer to by googling, but some people much prefer a bit of social interaction (albeit electronic) to dealing with an automated search engine. I don't necessarily think that means he's lazy.

Last edited by dhave (2008-07-21 16:42:35)

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iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

Sorry pogeymanz. I see a lot of these threads and they've always got on my nerves a tad. It's really not hard to try a couple and give them a good fair go, and it's the only way you'll really find out whether you like them or not.

N30N

Member

Registered: 2007-04-08

Posts: 273

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

I've never used wmii, but I think its ruby? or maybe thats just wmii-ruby

wmii uses a virtual file system that can be controlled by what ever scripting/programming language you like best.

dhave

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

From: Outside the matrix.

Registered: 2005-05-15

Posts: 1,112

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

I've never used wmii, but I think its ruby? or maybe thats just wmii-ruby

wmii uses a virtual file system that can be controlled by what ever scripting/programming language you like best.

This is a question I was searching for answer to not long ago and couldn't find in the wmii docs. What's the advantage in having a special virtual file system for a window manager?

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Mr.Elendig

#archlinux@freenode channel op

From: The intertubes

Registered: 2004-11-07

Posts: 4,092

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

I'm bored and I think I found my perfect openbox setup, which means it's time to tinker with something else.

I want to try a tiler, but I don't know anything about them. So, I need you good people to help me make a choice.

Here are the questions:

1. What are all the different TWMs? I don't even know the names of any of the popular ones (except awesome, which is easy to remember)

2. Which are easier to configure? How so?

3. Which are easier to get used to using? Why?

4. Which are the most useful once you finally get used to it?

5. Which are the prettiest?

1. TWM = Tabbed Window Manager  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twm

2. Not mutch difference between the most used ones. 'Just try them yourself(tm)'

3. See 2.

4. See 2.

5. See 2, also the look depends more on you than the wm.

Also I somewhat agrea with iphitus, just read up about them on their homepages and on reviews, and try them out yourself. It's just like music, taste differs.

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N30N

Member

Registered: 2007-04-08

Posts: 273

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

What's the advantage in having a special virtual file system for a window manager?

You can see and interact all of the settings and the wonderful event system while wmii is running, I think this is the main reason for the lack of documentation. This is a source of great power as you can use your preferred language to control it and also easily get other programs to interact with it.

dhave

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

From: Outside the matrix.

Registered: 2005-05-15

Posts: 1,112

Re: Describe different tiling WM's to me, please.

What's the advantage in having a special virtual file system for a window manager?

You can see and interact all of the settings and the wonderful event system while wmii is running, I think this is the main reason for the lack of documentation. This is a source of great power as you can use your preferred language to control it and also easily get other programs to interact with it.

O.K., thanks for the clarification. This is pretty far above my competence level, but I'm glad there are people out there who can take advantage of these features.

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