Interface WM [Was: RE: Window managers and GNUstep]

[Mondragon, Ian]

i just started rewriting my own objc window manager, Interface, last week &
began debugging it last night.  i had been offering the source for a *very*
volatile & buggy version of it a loooooong time ago (even had a
*screenshot*...hahaha), but some problems with my dsl company killed my web
site for a while & i haven't reposted the source.  the older version was an
objc rewrite of AEWM...i've rewritten it to incorporate stuff from alloywm
(mainly more usable titlebars & such).  i started playing around with an
NSWindow extention to handle the titlebars a while ago (to create a more
*pure* GNUstep window manager), but never finished it.  right now i'm just
concerned about getting Interface to a more stable point.

i'll re-create a page on my website (http://www.dragonhelix.org) tonight
specifically for Interface.

- ian

ps - please cc me at < copal @ dragonhelix.org > with any
comments/questions/suggestions.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pascal Bourguignon [SMTP:pjb@informatimago.com]
> Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2002 1:10 AM
> To:   anstouh@yahoo.com.au
> Cc:   discuss-gnustep@gnu.org
> Subject:      Re: Window managers and GNUstep
> 
> 
> 
> > From: <anstouh@yahoo.com.au>
> > 
> > Both AfterStep and GNU Window Maker make a reference to GNUstep on their
> > webpages but neither use GNUstep (although they both store user data in
> > ~/GNUstep). GWorkspace seems to have support for things normally left to
> > window managers (a root menu, application launching stuff and the
> process
> > list stuff).
> > 
> > I was wondering if there was going to be a GNUstep window manager? 
> 
> "May be".
> 
> It would  be meaningfull in  a pure GNUstep environment,  perhaps like
> SimplyGNUstep.
> 
> 
> > Is that what GWorkspace is supposed to be in the end? 
> 
> One  thing that  must be  understood, is  that window  manager is  a X
> notion. When GNUstep is (will be?) running with other back-ends, there
> would be no window manager.
> 
> GWorkspace is not a window manager,  it's a mainly a file browser. You
> can think of  it as a GUI  shell. The only feature it  should take off
> from WindowMaker is the dock.
> 
> If there was no WindowMaker to  draw the window frame (title bar, grow
> bar), it would be the job of the NSWindow class to draw this stuff. In
> the case of GNUstep menus, it's  actually done by the NSMenu class (or
> one class that is hidden behind  NSMenu, I've not looked at the actual
> implementation), because WindowMaker does  not provide exactly what is
> needed for NeXTSTEP-like application menus.
> 
> In NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP,  the NSWindow class implements  the window frame
> drawing,  while leaving  a  few things  to  the windowPackage.ps  like
> moving the  window, so  it can  be done even  when the  application is
> suspended.
> 
> Now, if the NSWindow class  implemented this window frame drawing code
> (and dragging/resizing of the windows),  we could use a minimal window
> manager or even do without any window manager.
> 
> BUT, the reason a window manager such as Window Maker is needed anyway
> in a X environment, is to be  able to run other X applications with at
> least windows looking like on NeXTSTEP.
> 
> 
> > GNU Window Maker seems to
> > have some level of GNUstepity in it---a GNUstep application's appicon,
> for
> > example, shows the main menu when you right-click it. Is it intended
> that
> > GNU Window Maker be made to use GNUstep? (I don't know, some sort of
> merge
> > between WINGs and GNUstep... although I guess WINGs will no longer be
> > NGs then.)
> 
> Putting the window  frame drawing in NSWindow, while  clean, would not
> remove the need to have it at the window manager level for the other X
> applications. Then  what would  be the use  to rewrite  WindowMaker in
> Objective-C with GNUstep? Note  that even on NeXT, windowPackage.ps is
> not written in Objective-C but in Postscript.
> 
> The menu shown with right click  on a WindowMaker appicon is not "the"
> main menu. It's  a menu managed by WindowMaker,  (Keep on top, Launch,
> Bring Here, Hide, Setting..., Kill).
> 
> The menu shown with right click  on a GNUstep appicon is the main menu
> of this application.
> 
> Once  again, the  use of  WindowMaker here  is to  provide functionaly
> needed to run  X applications. It had had to be  modified to have good
> integration with GNUstep applications,  and things will probably still
> evolve.
> 
> 
> > Mostly, I like GNU Window Maker. There are some things about it---for a
> > start, it doesn't have an identical look and feel---that I'm not too
> fond
> 
> By default yes, I don't like it either. But you can revert to good old
> NeXTSTEP look with WPref.app (eight pane, Titlebar Style).
> 
> 
> > of, and things like how GWorkspace has the fiend and GNU Window Maker
> has
> > the clip. I wouldn't mind seeing the two brought together (although they
> > don't necessarily have to be the same application, they could just work
> > together.)
> > 
> > Tristan
> 
> 
> -- 
> __Pascal_Bourguignon__              (o_ Software patents are endangering
> ()  ASCII ribbon against html email //\ the computer industry all around
> /\  and Microsoft attachments.      V_/ the world http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/
> 1962:DO20I=1.100  2001:my($f)=`fortune`;  http://petition.eurolinux.org/
> 
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