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Re: Bug#678815: ITP: wmfs -- Window Manager From Scratch



2012/6/24 Thomas Koch wrote:

>> Package: wnpp
>> Severity: wishlist
>> Owner: "Mickaël Raybaud-Roig" <raybaudroigm@gmail.com>
>>
>> * Package name    : wmfs
>>   Version         : 2~beta201206
>>   Upstream Author : Martin Duquesnoy <xorg62@gmail.com>
>> * URL             : http://wmfs.info
>> * License         : BSD
>>   Programming Lang: C
>>   Description     : Window Manager From Scratch
>>
>> « WMFS2 is a lightweight and highly configurable tiling window manager
>>   for X written in C. wmfs2 is a free software distributed under the BSD
>>   license. it can be drive from keyboard or mouse and it's configuration
>>   stands in one text file easily understandable »

Users reading such description can be confused how is it different from
other existing WMs. So let's put some more details in this description:
> Its features include:
> * extendible application launcher with autocompletion (prompt).
> * built-in system tray.
> * Xinerama multi-head support.
> * extended window manager hints (EWMH) compliance.
> * editable rules for tags/clients.
> * complete mouse support.
> * on-the-fly configuration reloading.
> * dynamic tag creation/deletion.
> * statusbar with support for progressbar, color, images and status pipes.
> * manual layout: you can create/arrange layouts as you want/need.
> * tab, move and resize clients with direction.
> * themes support for statusbar and clients.
> * ”@include” support split configuration file.

At least that "statusbar" feature worth to be mentioned, since it makes
this WM unique. "EWMH", "themes" and "built-in system tray" looks also
important to me.

As a user I would also like to know:
* what's its focus model: focus-follows-mouse, click-to-focus, etc?
* does it have a GUI configuration?
* does it support workspaces?
* does it allow to move windows with mouse?
* does it support urgency hints (WM_HINTS, NET_WM_STATE_DEMANDS_ATTENTION)?
* is it just tiling? what about stacking mode or floating windows?
* is it utf8/unicode friendly? works for window titles in french or korean?
* is it translated to other languages?
* freetype/Xft or X core fonts?
* shape extension? round windows? (e.g. `xeyes`)
* how much RAM it takes?
* is it low-dependency (GTK/Qt/Tk/etc.)?

As a start point: what are its differences from i3-wm, awesome or wmii?

> I shortened the list to only include one line for each window manager
> already in Debian:
> [...]

Among those 41 WMs only 9 are tiling WMs. And just a few of those tiling
WMs are usable out-of-box without heavy configuring and long documentation
reading.

PS: IMHO, there's nothing bad in having several similar programs in
repository, as long as someone wants to maintain them. It gives additional
flexibility for users. I.e. if some of them die upstream or dropped by the
maintainer users would be able to use another one.

-- 
Just trying to help,
  Serge


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