Add first version of a website
Michael Stapelberg
parent
62c2848211
commit
a19072b714
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
|
|||
<html>
|
||||
<head>
|
||||
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf8">
|
||||
<style type="text/css">
|
||||
body {
|
||||
text-align: justify;
|
||||
max-width: 800px;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
li {
|
||||
margin-bottom: 10px;
|
||||
}
|
||||
</style>
|
||||
</head>
|
||||
<body>
|
||||
|
||||
<h1>i3 - an improved dynamic tiling window manager</h1>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>
|
||||
i3 was created because wmii, our favorite window manager at the time, didn’t
|
||||
provide some features we wanted (Xinerama done right), had some bugs, didn’t
|
||||
progress since quite some time and wasn’t easy to hack at all (source code
|
||||
comments/documentation completely lacking).
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>
|
||||
Please be aware that i3 is primarily targeted at computer geeks.
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<h2>Goals</h2>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>
|
||||
Based upon the experiences we made when wanting to hack/fix wmii, we agreed
|
||||
upon the following goals for i3:
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<ol>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
Write well readable, well <strong>documented</strong> code. Create additional
|
||||
documentation on how to extend i3 by explaining its internal workings.
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
This includes being modifyable by people who do know how to program but who are
|
||||
not necessarily familiar with all of X11’s internals. That is, document why
|
||||
things happen and when they happen so that the user gets a picture of the whole
|
||||
process a Window Manager is responsible of by just reading the source code.
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
Use xcb as far as possible (it does not provide functions for some features
|
||||
yet, like XKB) instead of Xlib. xcb has a much cleaner API and should be faster
|
||||
in quite a lot of situations.
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
Implement Xinerama correctly, that is by assigning each workspace to a
|
||||
virtual screen. Especially make sure that attaching and detaching new monitors
|
||||
like beamers works during operation and does the right thing.
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
Use the metaphor of a table for abstraction. You can create horizontal and
|
||||
vertical columns (in wmii, you can only create vertical columns). See the documentation
|
||||
for more information on how this works, it really is an important principle in i3.
|
||||
(TODO: documentation :-))
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
Implement a command mode, like in vim. You can easily combine multiple
|
||||
actions (like focusing, moving, snapping) by using the command mode.
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
Implement XRandR support for flipping monitors.
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
Do <strong>not</strong> use programs such as autoconf/automake for configuration and
|
||||
creating unreadable/broken makefiles. Instead, use a clean makefile which automatically
|
||||
enables/disables features for specific platforms. Also, document the dependencies
|
||||
properly, so that package maintainers have an easy job packaging i3.
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
Provide hooks/callbacks for other programs to integrate. Using this mechanism, one
|
||||
can easily extend i3 in whatever language, without ever touching the C code. Also,
|
||||
to communicate with a running i3 instance, messages can be sent.
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
This approach should be more lightweight than wmii’s usage of the 9P filesystem.
|
||||
Furthermore, core functionality does not depend on a separate program, so that i3
|
||||
runs faster, especially when your system is under load.
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
Be UTF-8 clean.
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
The usual elitism amongst minimal window managers: Don’t be bloated, don’t be fancy
|
||||
(simple borders are the most decoration we want to have), don’t add support for Xft
|
||||
and blurred fonts.
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
However, we do not enforce unnecessary limits such as a maximum amount of source lines
|
||||
of code. If it needs to be a bit bigger, it will be.
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ol>
|
||||
|
||||
<h3>Special Features</h3>
|
||||
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
We can bind on Mode_switch (Alt Gr). Other window managers fail to do that because
|
||||
of an X11-bug, which causes the modifier state to not be correctly set in KeyPress-
|
||||
events. We use XKB for making sure to get the correct state.
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
|
||||
<h2>Development</h2>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>
|
||||
i3 is currently developed at http://code.stapelberg.de/git. Checkouts of the master
|
||||
branch are intended to be stable and working all the time. Integration of new features
|
||||
happens in a separate branch.
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<h2>License</h2>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>
|
||||
i3 is BSD-licensed (TODO: exact license text)
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<h2>Contact</h2>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>
|
||||
Contact us at irc://irc.twice-irc.de/i3 (or, #i3 on irc.twice-irc.de, for those without
|
||||
proper URL handling setup). Feel free to ask questions, please don’t ask to ask and please
|
||||
think before you ask :-).
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
|
||||
</body>
|
||||
</html>
|
||||
Loading…
Reference in New Issue