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#1 2009-08-07 14:05:43

mateusz.f
Member
Registered: 2009-04-17
Posts: 46

new window manager (LameWM written in Java)

Hi,

I'm Arch user from about 4 months. During this time I learnt many useful apps, and I enjoy the KISS philosophy. What interests me most are window managers. I have come from Gnome -> XMonad -> Awesome 3 -> ION3, and I like the last one most.
As a user I think XMonad thru ION support nice levels of configurability. Still, I am a Java programmer (sic). Haven't found any Java WM that would suit my needs. So I decided to reinvent the wheel once again smile.
As I have no background with X programming I will be starting from very beginning, trying to do anything at all.

If anyone knows of attempts to programming X WM using Java, I'll be very grateful for info. I didn't decide whether I will use JNI, some ready (if there is any) Java X lib or even try to implement X client protocol. Either way it will be done on low level and will be encapsulated.

My goal is to achieve something like ION, however it may take long, as I don't have very much time for this.


Any comments appreciated,
Matt

PS. My initial name for this project is LameWM (because of Java usage ;p)

Last edited by mateusz.f (2009-08-07 14:19:27)

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#2 2009-08-07 14:16:50

Trent
Member
From: Baltimore, MD (US)
Registered: 2009-04-16
Posts: 990

Re: new window manager (LameWM written in Java)

The Escher project (escher.sourceforge.net) has some ability to provide Java bindings for X, but it is quite old.  There is a link to a window manager on that page, but it's broken.

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#3 2009-08-07 14:18:55

mateusz.f
Member
Registered: 2009-04-17
Posts: 46

Re: new window manager (LameWM written in Java)

Trent: Thanks, I'll check it.

Git repository (currently empty) for LameWM will be:

http://github.com/mateusz-f/LameWM

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#4 2009-08-07 22:36:50

mintcoffee
Member
From: Waterloo, ON
Registered: 2007-10-05
Posts: 120
Website

Re: new window manager (LameWM written in Java)

I think it's a great idea to write a WM using Java.. however, it might be worthwhile learning another JVM language like Scala or Clojure. A WM written in Scala would definitely attract more community participation since it's one of the "hot" languages today.


Arch on a Thinkpad T400s

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#5 2009-08-07 22:40:10

mateusz.f
Member
Registered: 2009-04-17
Posts: 46

Re: new window manager (LameWM written in Java)

mintcoffee:

Scala is not a problem, I have some experience with Scala, except to some advanced type system things I can use it comfortably. However I don't have X experiences so if I want to write something nice for the beginning I need to have high refactoring abilities. Only Java gives me this option currently. When I will know how to use X protocol, I will definetely (no doubts) rewrite it in Scala.

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