Xmonad/Notable changes since 0.9

This page is for keeping a record of significant changes in darcs xmonad and xmonad-contrib since the 0.9 release. See 'darcs changes' for more details about miscellaneous feature enhancements, and documentation and bug fixes not noted here.

The idea is to put here a list of things which a user upgrading from 0.9 to the current darcs version might like to know, so that they are sure to be included in the next release change log.

Updates that require changes in xmonad.hs

Simplified interface for X.A.SpawnOn and X.H.DynamicHooks

Since contrib modules can now store custom state in XState, the additional IORef parameters are no longer required: Users have to remove the first parameter to the respective functions. The functions mkSpawner and initDynamicHooks are also no longer necessary and have been removed. The same applies to XMonad.Hooks.DynamicHooks. See below for examples.

X.A.OnScreen changes

The type of onScreen has been changed to allow more general onScreen functions. The new onScreen takes any function that modifies the stack and runs it on the given screen. Since XMonad can not guess what you'd like to do with the focus after running this function, onScreen also accepts a code>Focus data which tells XMonad how to act. See below for detailed examples. The more common "end user" functions like viewOnScreen and greedyViewOnScreen didn't change in their interface though.

Detailed examples regarding changes to xmonad.hs

XState details

Since contrib modules can now store custom state in XState, the additional IORef parameters are no longer required: Users have to remove the first paramter to the respective functions. The functions mkSpawner and initDynamicHooks are also no longer necessary and have been removed.

Example:

-- Old code:
 sp <- mkSpawner
 ..
  [((mod1Mask,xK_k), shellPromptHere sp defaultXPConfig
   ..]

The above has to be changed to:

  -- no mkSpawner line
  ..
  [((mod1Mask,xK_k), shellPromptHere defaultXPConfig)
   ..]

The same applies to XMonad.Hooks.DynamicHooks.

OnScreen details

The type of onScreen has been changed to allow more general onScreen functions. The old onScreen was very limited. Basicly the only working function derived from onScreen was viewOnScreen, since the greedyViewOnScreen never worked as supposed to, and any other function wouldn't work either.

The new onScreen takes any function that modifies the stack and runs it on the given screen. Since XMonad can not guess what you'd like to do with the focus after running this function, onScreen also accepts a Focus data which tells XMonad how to act.

Comparison:

---- Old version ----

-- Old type of onScreen:
onScreen :: (WorkspaceId -> WindowSet -> WindowSet) -- ^ default action
         -> ScreenId                                -- ^ screen id
         -> WorkspaceId                             -- ^ index of the workspace
         -> WindowSet                               -- ^ current stack
         -> WindowSet

-- The old implementation of viewOnScreen was:
viewOnScreen :: ScreenId -> WorkspaceId -> WindowSet -> WindowSet
viewOnScreen sc i = onScreen view sc i


---- New version ----

-- The new Focus data:
data Focus = FocusNew                       -- ^ always focus the new screen
           | FocusCurrent                   -- ^ always keep the focus on the current screen
           | FocusTag WorkspaceId           -- ^ always focus tag i on the new stack
           | FocusTagVisible WorkspaceId    -- ^ focus tag i only if workspace with tag i is visible on the old stack

-- New type of onScreen:
onScreen :: (WindowSet -> WindowSet) -- ^ function to run
         -> Focus                    -- ^ what to do with the focus
         -> ScreenId                 -- ^ screen id
         -> WindowSet                -- ^ current stack
         -> WindowSet

-- A few example implementations (don't worry - they're already built in):
viewOnScreen           :: ScreenId -> WorkspaceId -> WindowSet -> WindowSet
viewOnScreen sc i       = onScreen (view i) (FocusTag i) sc
greedyViewOnScreen     :: ScreenId -> WorkspaceId -> WindowSet -> WindowSet
greedyViewOnScreen sc i = onScreen (greedyView i) FocusCurrent sc