mantis-wm - X11 window manager

andreas-volker · 2012-06-03 03:14:20

I introduce you a window manager I made couple months ago, I have never used any dynamic or automatic window manager before, so perhaps it does not behave exactly as one may expect, feel free to correct me about anything, as long as you give the rationality for it.
I have been using manual and stacking (floating) wm only and I end up doing the same tasks over and over again, but I also felt in a cage using anything automatic.
I could implement a minimal wm of my own, but as I am also new to programming, create something with a specific goal is way too easy, a more general program would be more educational and then mantis-wm was created.
The gimmick is that the user create any layout it wants, overlapping, tiling, etc.
Also have 3 layers of windows: sink, normal and float.
Sink windows stays below every other window, useful for panels and such.
Normal windows are the regular ones, staying above sink but below float.
Float windows stays above all, useful for popup, transient, etc.
The program is obviously for lazy users like me, being as such, it is keyboard-driven and can change a whole work enviroment into another using a single keystroke.
Mantis tries to be simple, complete, general, configurable and correct, anything wrong must be pointed out and corrected (except const-correctness, I am not even thinking about it right now).
It is not correct in the EWMH standard though, as the standard does not help anything but reparenting stacking wm, but I ignored some parts and adapted few ones, so it should work with most programs, but ignores a lot of requests, so it should work with ewmh programs but not ewmh tools. There is already a lot of functionality with the wm, I see no reason to enable other programs to do mantis' job.
I am looking forward a default rc, as it can behave completly different depending on the configuration. A good default would be good for new people testing it, but I can not foresee what most people want out of box, so I am stucked with it.
I deeply hate virtual desktops, but I know most people can not work without it, so i searched a bit and found about dwm tag system, it was pretty easy and superior to desktops, but I did not copied that out (remember: educational goals, rather than results), and as I did not use dwm either, the behaviour of tags may be wierd, lacking or something else.
The mantis-wm was created in April, I've being busy in May, so even though it is not that new, stupid and critical bugs may exist, simply execute it within a loop, if it ever segfaults you will be safe.
I am probably forgetting about obvious things, so just ask and I will try to be as much helpful as I can.

The project is hosted on github, leave any feedback, bug report, criticism, new ideas.

git clone git://github.com/andreas-volker/mantis-wm.git
cd mantis-wm
mkdir ~/.mantis-wm
cp mantisrc ~/.mantis-wm/
make clean install

Edit: I have just read the forum rules, so I added the proper code tag around the commands, as it should be.

Last edited by andreas-volker (2012-06-03 19:04:21)

nem · 2012-06-03 12:35:50

hej!

sounds interesting. i'll play around with it a bit the next time. also added an aur package for the masses mantis-wm-git

regards

Last edited by nem (2012-06-03 14:32:40)

andreas-volker · 2012-06-03 19:17:53

Thank you nem for the AUR package, I am not sure if the pkgbuild should also move the default resource file (mantisrc) or not, because the path could be changed by the user at compile time, therefore moving to a useless place, but it could also be convenient in first time installs.
Heck, I don't distribute and know nothing about it, so I will stop opining about that, you decide.

nem · 2012-06-03 21:06:15

i won't move anything by hand in the package process (especially not to home). you could install a default rc to /etc and in case an rc exists in home, that one has priority.
the user has to take care for customization himself (creating the rc in home in the first place. also it's mentioned in the readme/documentation. everyone should read that anyway ).

regards.

Last edited by nem (2012-06-03 21:14:54)

JackH79 · 2012-06-03 21:57:59

Since you're not set on where to put the rc file just yet. May I most humbly suggest $XDG_CONFIG_HOME, ie. ~/.config/
Thanks

andreas-volker · 2012-06-05 02:03:59

A sample inside /etc looks good, as my problem was the uncertainty about the resource path. Also, a env var exclusive to config path seems convenient, storing everything wherever one wants, okay, I will implement something based on the suggestions, thank you both.

Edit: Done. Now it copies a sample inside /etc/mantis-wm/ and the user's rc can be defined using environment variables, e.g. $HOME/path/file, It is defaulted to "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mantis-wm/mantisrc".

Last edited by andreas-volker (2012-06-05 02:43:35)

JackH79 · 2012-06-05 07:28:35

Excellent. Thanks very much.
If my computer hadn't given up the will to live a little longer, I'd try it right now.

Army · 2012-06-05 10:01:01

I gave it a short try, not bad!! Mantis really feels nice.

But I won't leave dwm

Arch Linux

#1 2012-06-03 03:14:20

mantis-wm - X11 window manager

#2 2012-06-03 12:35:50

Re: mantis-wm - X11 window manager

#3 2012-06-03 19:17:53

Re: mantis-wm - X11 window manager

#4 2012-06-03 21:06:15

Re: mantis-wm - X11 window manager

#5 2012-06-03 21:57:59

Re: mantis-wm - X11 window manager

#6 2012-06-05 02:03:59

Re: mantis-wm - X11 window manager

#7 2012-06-05 07:28:35

Re: mantis-wm - X11 window manager

#8 2012-06-05 10:01:01

Re: mantis-wm - X11 window manager

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