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small changes to dwm.1, rearranged order within main event loop
[dwm.git] / dwm.html
1 <html>
2         <head>
3                 <title>dwm - dynamic window manager</title>
4                 <meta name="author" content="Anselm R. Garbe">
5                 <meta name="generator" content="ed">
6                 <meta name="copyright" content="(C)opyright 2006 by Anselm R. Garbe">
7                 <link rel="dwm icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
8                 <style type="text/css">
9                         body {
10                                 color: #000000;
11                                 font-family: sans-serif;
12                                 margin: 20px 20px 20px 20px;
13                         }
14                 </style>
15         </head>
16         <body>
17                 <center>
18                         <img src="dwm.png"/><br />
19                         <h3>dynamic window manager</h3>
20                 </center>
21                 <h3>Description</h3>
22                 <p>
23                 dwm is a dynamic window manager for X11.
24                 </p>
25                 <h4>Background</h4>
26                 <p>
27                 As founder and main developer of wmii I came to the conclusion that
28                 wmii is too clunky for my needs. I don't need so many funky features
29                 and all this hype about remote control through a 9P service, I only
30                 want to manage my windows in a simple, but dynamic way. wmii never got
31                 finished because I listened to users, who proposed arbitrary ideas I
32                 considered useful. This resulted in an extreme <a
33                 href="http://www.jwz.org/doc/cadt.html">CADT</a> development model,
34                 which was a mistake. Thus the philosophy of dwm is simply <i>to fit my
35                 needs</i> (maybe yours as well). That's it.
36                 </p>
37                 <h4>Differences to ion, larswm, and wmii</h4>
38                 <p>
39                 In contrast to ion, larswm, and wmii, dwm is much smaller, faster and simpler.
40                 </p>
41                 <ul>
42                         <li>
43                         dwm has no Lua integration, no 9P support, no editable
44                         tagbars, no shell-based configuration, no remote control, and comes
45                         without any additional tools like printing the selection or warping
46                         the mouse.
47                         </li>
48                         <li>
49                         dwm is only a single binary, it's source code is intended to never
50                         exceed 2000 SLOC.
51                         </li>
52                         <li>
53                         dwm is based on tagging and dynamic window management (however
54                         simpler than ion, wmii or larswm). It manages windows in
55                         tiling and floating modes. Either mode can be applied dynamically,
56                         depending on the application in use and the task performed.
57                         </li>
58                         <li>
59                         dwm doesn't distinguishes between layers, there is no floating or
60                         tiled layer. Wether the clients of currently selected tag are in
61                         tiled mode or not, you can re-arrange all clients on the fly.
62                         Popup- and fixed-size windows are treated floating, however. 
63                         </li>
64                         <li>
65                         dwm is customized through editing its source code, that makes it
66                         extremely fast and secure - it does not process any input data
67                         which hasn't been known at compile time, except window title names
68                         and status text read from standard input. You don't have to learn
69                         Lua/sh/ruby or some weird configuration file format (like X
70                         resource files), beside C to customize it for your needs,
71                         you <b>only</b> have to learn C (at least editing header files).
72                         </li>
73                         <li>
74                         Because dwm is customized through editing its source code, it's
75                         pointless to make binary packages of it. This keeps its userbase
76                         small and elitist. No novices asking stupid questions.
77                         </li>
78                         <li>
79                         dwm uses 1-pixel borders to provide the maximum of screen real
80                         estate to clients. Small titlebars are only drawn in front of
81                         unfocused clients.
82                         </li>
83                         <li>
84                         dwm reads from standard input to print arbitrary status text (like
85                         the date, load, battery charge). That's much simpler than
86                         larsremote, wmiir and what not...
87                         </li>
88                         <li>
89                         It can be downloaded and distributed under the conditions
90                         of the <a href="http://10kloc.org/cgi-bin/hgwebdir.cgi/dwm?f=f10eb1139362;file=LICENSE;style=raw">MIT/X Consortium license</a>.
91                         </li>
92                         <li>
93                         Optionally you can install <b>dmenu</b> to extend dwm with a wmii-alike menu.
94                         </li>
95                 </ul>
96                 <h4>Links</h4>
97                 <ul>
98                         <li><a href="http://10kloc.org/cgi-bin/man/man2html?query=dwm">Man page</a></li>
99                         <li><a href="http://10kloc.org/shots/dwm-20060810a.png">Screenshot of tiled mode</a> (20060810)</li>
100                         <li><a href="http://10kloc.org/shots/dwm-20060810b.png">Screenshotof floating mode</a> (20060810)</li>
101                         <li><a href="http://10kloc.org/download/poster.ps">A4 poster (PostScript)</a></li>
102                         <li>Mailing List: <a href="http://10kloc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dwm">dwm at wmii dot de</a> <a href="http://10kloc.org/pipermail/dwm/">(Archives)</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.window-managers.dwm">(GMANE Archive)</a></li>
103                         <li>IRC channel: <code>#dwm</code> at <code>irc.oftc.net</code></li>
104                 </ul>
105                 <h3>Download</h3>
106                 <ul>
107                         <li><a href="http://10kloc.org/download/dwm-0.9.tar.gz">dwm 0.9</a> (15kb) (20060815)</li>
108                         <li><a href="http://10kloc.org/download/dmenu-0.4.tar.gz">dmenu 0.4</a> (7kb) (20060815)</li>
109                 </ul>
110                 <h3>Development</h3>
111                 <p>
112                 dwm is actively developed in parallel to wmii. You can <a href="http://10kloc.org/cgi-bin/hgwebdir.cgi/dwm">browse</a> its source code repository or get a copy using <a href="http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/">Mercurial</a> with following command:
113                 </p>
114                 <p>
115                 <code>hg clone http://10kloc.org/cgi-bin/hgwebdir.cgi/dwm</code>
116                 </p>
117                 <p>
118                 <code>hg clone http://10kloc.org/cgi-bin/hgwebdir.cgi/dmenu</code>
119                 </p>
120                 <h3>Miscellaneous</h3>
121                 <p>
122                 You can purchase this <a href="https://www.spreadshirt.net/shop.php?op=article&article_id=3298632&view=403">tricot</a>
123                 if you like dwm and the dwm logo, which has been designed by Anselm.
124                 </p>
125                 <p><small>--Anselm</small></p>
126         </body>
127 </html>