Flwm, wmx window managers

December 09, 2009 — BarryK

Jemimah is using Flwm, so I took a look at it. First I compiled FLTK, version 1.1.10rc3:

# ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --disable-gl --enable-xdbe --enable-xft --enable-threads --enable-xinerama --enable-largefile

Then Flwm (which needs FLTK):
I edited config.h:

#define CLICK_TO_TYPE 1
#define TITLE_FONT "DejaVu Sans"
#define MENU_FONT "DejaVu Sans"

# ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --host=i486-t2-linux-gnu

...there were some compile errors, had to do a couple of hacks to get it to compile. Fltk was linked statically and I got a 'flwm' executable at 202KB.

I also got Flwm out of CVS, noticed the code is quite old, like 2000. It appears to be based on an old version of wmx. I thought it would support Xft (as wmx does) which is why I specified 'DejaVu Sans' font, but it only displays a bitmap font.

wmx version 7 is more recent code and does support Xft. It does not use FLTK. The executable is 140KB. I'm running it now, but it lacks the extra title-bar buttons that the Flwm developer put in, which makes it awkward to use -- like, how to maximise a window? -- you need to know a key-combination, can't do it with the mouse.

One interesting feature of both of these is they have the title bar on the side of the window, which might be good for small widescreen netbooks.

Flwm: http://flwm.sourceforge.net/
wmx: http://xwinman.org/wm2.php

Comments

fltk
Username: Jemimah
You'll need to use my patched version of Fltk 1.1.9 to build Flwm with XFT support. I updated a patch I found on the Gentoo forums for version 1.1.7, since 1.1.9 has a couple more theme options. I've also patched it to support alt-tab window switching which doesn't work by default with 1.1.9. Sources are here: http://drop.io/jemimah/ Flwm is not EWMH compliant at all, and I've considered fixing that. But the whole point of using Flwm is so you don't need a panel or pager or other extra window manager furniture, therefore the benefit of adding the compliance is rather minimal compared to the amount of effort it would be.

Re: sources
Username: BarryK
"Jemimah, Regarding the sources at http://drop.io/jemimah/, if I click on any of those files, nothing happens. Left-click, right-click, clicking on the other little symbols, nothing. Does it need a particular web browser? I'm using SeaMonkey 2.0.

drio.io
Username: Jemimah
"It works for me in Seamonkey 2. It needs flash I think. Does these links work better? http://drop.io/jemimah/asset/fltk-1-1-9-jemimah-flwm-patches-tar-gz http://drop.io/jemimah/asset/xftflwm-jemimah-fluppy-patches-tar-gz

wmx
Username: Jemimah
"If anyone wants to try Wmx, Musher0 has packaged it here http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=39411 I spent some time looking at the source to see if more buttons could be added, but I must admit my understanding was totally defeated by the low level xlib code. Wmx has a really cool look, so I may revisit that project after I've leveled-up as a programmer.

Re: drop.io
Username: BarryK
"No... [code]# wget http://drop.io/jemimah/asset/fltk-1.1.9-jemimah-flwm-patches.tar.gz --2009-12-10 09:17:54-- http://drop.io/jemimah/asset/fltk-1.1.9-jemimah-flwm-patches.tar.gz Resolving drop.io (drop.io)... 75.101.147.64 Connecting to drop.io (drop.io)|75.101.147.64|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found 2009-12-10 09:18:06 ERROR 404: Not Found.[/code] My SM2 has Flash 9. Is anyone else able to download Jemimah's packages?

Yaf-splash
Username: BarryK
"Jemimah, You mentioned, I think, that yaf-panel is based on yaf-splash. Regarding yaf-splash, one thing that would make it look really nice is Xft support ...would that be easy to do?

It works for me
Username: Jos
� Luis Lorente"Barry, I was able to download the files on the site http://drop.io/jemimah/ with firefox and for the two links that were attached as http://drop.io/jemimah/asset/fltk-1-1-9-jemimah-flwm-patches-tar-gz http://drop.io/jemimah/asset/xftflwm-jemimah-fluppy-patches-tar-gz I did not have any issue with those.

wget
Username: Jos
� Luis Lorente"It looks that I have the same issue as Jemimah, for the las two links I used wget. [code]yurfader@ACER-One-laptop:~$ wget -c --tries=0 http://drop.io/jemimah/asset/xftflwm-jemimah-fluppy-patches-tar-gz --2009-12-09 17:16:10-- http://drop.io/jemimah/asset/xftflwm-jemimah-fluppy-patches-tar-gz Resolviendo drop.io... 75.101.147.64 Conectando a drop.io|75.101.147.64|:80... conectado. Petici�n HTTP enviada, esperando respuesta... 200 OK Longitud: 123919 (121K) [text/html] Guardando: �xftflwm-jemimah-fluppy-patches-tar-gz� 100%[======================================>] 123,919 113K/s en 1.1s 2009-12-09 17:16:12 (113 KB/s) - `xftflwm-jemimah-fluppy-patches-tar-gz' guardado [123919/123919] yurfader@ACER-One-laptop:~$ wget -c --tries=0 http://drop.io/jemimah/asset/fltk-1-1-9-jemimah-flwm-patches-tar-gz --2009-12-09 17:16:31-- http://drop.io/jemimah/asset/fltk-1-1-9-jemimah-flwm-patches-tar-gz Resolviendo drop.io... 75.101.147.64 Conectando a drop.io|75.101.147.64|:80... conectado. Petici�n HTTP enviada, esperando respuesta... 200 OK Longitud: 123924 (121K) [text/html] Guardando: �fltk-1-1-9-jemimah-flwm-patches-tar-gz� 100%[======================================>] 123,924 114K/s en 1.1s 2009-12-09 17:16:34 (114 KB/s) - `fltk-1-1-9-jemimah-flwm-patches-tar-gz' guardado [123924/123924] [/code]

Yes, works
Username: BarryK
"Ha ha, when Jemimah posted that there were typos, I thought she meant the dashes, and I replaced them with dots, so the filename is correct. But, leaving the dashes there, it does download -- that is, I get a web page with a download button that works.

yaf-splash
Username: Jemimah
"I've mirrored the files here if anyone else has issues. http://download.tuxfamily.org/fluppy/ Web-2.0-free, raw html. ;) I did try adding XFT to yaf-splash, but I was on an airplane at the time with no net access, so I did not succeed. It's probably worth another shot. I think I ran into problems with the Shape-Extension stuff. It would look a lot nicer.

Tags: quirky