Editing Xmonad/Using xmonad in XFCE (section)

=== XMonad Hacking ===

[[#Using_XMonad.Config.Xfce|see also, Config.Xfce]]

It's now time to customise XMonad.  You have a wide variety of Layouts, Hooks, etc. to experiment with.  Here are some basic changes that you ''should'' make:

* Replace the old gaps setup with ManageDocks (especially since Gaps are deprecated in the current darcs version of XMonad and won't be present from 0.8 onwards).  This also involves changing the keybinding to hide/show panels.
* Use the EWMH hooks so that Xfce can obtain Workspace information from XMonad and vice versa.  This lets the Pager plugin to the panel act as a mini workspace-previewer, and let you choose which workspace to view by clicking on the pager.  Note that by using this, the pager will also automatically add/remove workspaces based upon how many workspaces XMonad has.
* Use ''mod4'' (aka the "Windows" key) as the modifier key.  Many applications - including Xfce - use the Alt key for keybindings themselve (e.g. Xfce uses Alt-F2 to show its run dialog).
* With keybindings, ''xfce4-session-logout'' to exit for the Mod-Shift-q keybinding, rather than just exiting XMonad (which will leave Xfce still running).
* Use Xfce's Terminal as the terminal program.

Here is a minimal ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs that demonstrates how to do this.  Note that it is expected that you copy and edit the sample configuration file to get the remaining keybindings present, or else use something like the EZConfig extension in the Contrib library to selectively add/edit/remove keybindings from the default list.  As it stands, this configuration file ''isn't'' sufficient, as it doesn't list all the keybindings and in fact won't compile due to the "..." present in the keybinding list.

<haskell>
import XMonad
import qualified Data.Map as M
import XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks
import XMonad.Hooks.EwmhDesktops

myTerminal = "Terminal"

myKeys conf@(XConfig {XMonad.modMask = modMask}) = M.fromList $
    [
    ...
    , ((modMask, xK_b), sendMessage ToggleStruts)
    ...
    , ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_q), spawn "xfce4-session-logout")
    ...
    ]

main = xmonad defaultConfig
              { manageHook = manageDocks <+> manageHook defaultConfig
              , logHook    = ewmhDesktopsLogHook
              , layoutHook = avoidStruts $ layoutHook defaultConfig
              , handleEventHook = ewmhDesktopsEventHook
              , startupHook = ewmhDesktopsStartup
              , modMask    = mod4Mask
              , keys       = myKeys
              }
</haskell>

If you so wish, you can also use ''xfrun4'' or ''xfce4-appfinder'' as the program launchers for the Mod-p and Mod-Shift-p keybindings instead of the default dmenu and gmrun.

Here is a complete xmonad.hs and a diff with the template xmonad.hs:
http://gist.github.com/311016 (xmonad.hs)
http://gist.github.com/311022 (diff)