Re: changing window managers in debian 6.0.4

[Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com>]

This is a sort of subquery to the question of how to change window
managers.  (And thanks again Johan, Camaleón, and Indulekha for your
earlier help.)

So the question is: supposing you compile a window manager yourself,
so that it does not come from the packaging system.

What is the standard best way of setting this new window manager as yours?

It certainly won't exist in any of the lists on the login page, since
debian could not know about it.

So, i googled around, and there's this page
    http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/doc/debian/ch-X.html
which recommends just making an executable file
    /home/USER/.xsession
and putting in a sequence of commands there---which
could just be the path to your window manager.

I tried this, and . . . . it works.

But i feel a little uneasy about this, like this is not a best practice,
or some newer release of debian may break it.

(Note that the window manager i built is WindowMaker 0.95.2 which
is a few revisions ahead of the squeeze version.  And although it
certainly works, and i can launch applications, it doesn't look at all
like the squeeze version.  For example, it has a solid light purple
background, instead of the debian swirls.)

Thanks in advance for any info.

dan