Difference between revisions of "Xmonad"

Revision as of 20:42, 4 September 2007

xmonad: a tiling window manager

Xmonad is a tiling window manager for X. Windows are arranged automatically to tile the screen without gaps or overlap, maximising screen use. All features of the window manager are accessible from the keyboard: a mouse is strictly optional, greatly increasing productivity in X.

Description

The current release is 0.3.

Xmonad is written and extensible in Haskell, and custom layout algorithms, and other extesions, may be implemented by the user in config files. Layouts may be applied dynamically, and separate layouts can be used on each workspace. A guiding principle of the user interface is predictability: users should know in advance precisely the window arrangement that will result from any action, leading to an intuitive user interface.

Features

Automatic window tiling and management
First class keyboard support: a mouse is unnecessary
Full multihead/Xinerama support
XRandR support to rotate, add or remove monitors
Per-workspace layout algorithms
Per-screen non-built in status bars, with arbitrary geometry
Dynamic restart/reconfigure preserving workspace state
Tiny code base (~500 lines of Haskell)
Fast, small and simple. No interpreters, no heavy extension languages

Changes since the previous version

Since 0.1, the following notable features and bug fixes have appeared:

New features

XRandR support, for dynamically adding, removing or rotating monitors
State-preserving dynamic restart
Popup, customisable status bar support
Multiple clients may appear in the master pane
mod-shift-j/k, to swap windows with their neighbours
mod-n, to resize windows
User-specified layout algorithms may be written in config files
All layouts may be 'mirrored' (rotated)
configurable window border size and colour

Design changes

Reimplemented core of xmonad with a 'zipper' data type to track focus by construction. We believe this is a first.
Use of Neil Mitchell's 'catch' program to verify pattern match safety
Use of ReaderT and StateT to partition read-only and modifiable values
Custom layout messages handled with open data type simulation
More QuickCheck properties

Bug fixes

numlock handling is fixed

Links and other information

More information, screenshots, documentation and community resources are available from:

   http://xmonad.org

Xmonad is available from hackage, and via darcs. Happy hacking!

Credits

The xmonad team

Spencer Janssen
Don Stewart
Jason Creighton

Other contributers

Xmonad has also received patches from Alec Berryman, Chris Mears, Daniel Wagner, David Glasser, David Lazar, David Roundy, Joe Thornber, Miikka Koskinen, Neil Mitchell, Nick Burlett, Robert Marlow, Sam Hughes, Shae Erisson

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 <center>'''xmonad: a tiling window manager'''</center>
+'''Home''': http://xmonad.org
 Xmonad is a tiling window manager for X. Windows are arranged automatically to tile the screen without gaps or overlap, maximising screen use. All features of the window manager are accessible from the keyboard: a mouse is strictly optional, greatly increasing productivity in X.
 ==Description==
-The current release is 0.2.
+The current release is 0.3.
 Xmonad is written and extensible in Haskell, and custom layout algorithms, and other extesions, may be implemented by the user in config files. Layouts may be applied dynamically, and separate layouts can be used on each workspace. A guiding principle of the user interface is predictability: users should know in advance precisely the window arrangement that will result from any action, leading to an intuitive user interface.