Window Maker for DEBIAN ======================= This is Debian GNU/Linux's prepackaged version of Window Maker, yet another window manager, written mostly from scratch by Alfredo Kojima in an attempt to provide as much of the useful OpenStep functionality as possible under X11. It is the natural step after AfterStep. There are some changes in the paths, added support for Debian menu system, improved user configuration (from the sysadmin point of view). To run Window Maker put this at the end of ~/.xsession: exec /usr/bin/wmaker and remove other exec lines if present. I have done my best to overcome certain glitches and gotchas regarding Window Maker installation. /usr/bin/wmaker is a shell script that tries to make sure things are properly set up. Take a look at it to see what's going on. Please read wmaker(1x). Other sources for documentation ------------------------------- * The Window Maker web site http://www.windowmaker.org/ You can find all sorts of information here. It's kept very up to date. * The Window Maker manual written by Alfredo Kojima ftp://ftp.windowmaker.org/pub/wmaker/docs/ Please note the manual documents version 0.10.x of Window Maker, and many features/changes have occured since then. To find out what has changed, please read file:/usr/share/doc/wmaker/NEWS.gz and file:/usr/share/doc/wmaker/changelog.gz. A new version of this manual is being developed. If you want to contribute to the manual please contact wm-user@windowmaker.info * The Window Maker mailing list http://www.windowmaker.org/lists.php There's a Window Maker mailing list. There you can ask questions about Window Maker and *related* applications (s/n is _way_ low nowadays due to unrelated discussions). Please read the archives before asking! * The Window Maker FAQ http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~grapeape/wmfaq.html This is NOT file:/usr/share/doc/wmaker/FAQ.gz, but another document. It contains information about several aspects of Window Maker that are not covered on the FAQ included alongside with this Readme. * The Window Maker Configuration documents ftp://ftp.windowmaker.info/pub/wmaker/docs/WindowMaker-*-Config.txt.gz This documents the files found on ~/GNUstep/Defaults/. It's kept as up to date as possible. As a sidenote, I can't package these files with wmaker because they don't have a copyright statement that permits redistribution. IF YOU ARE UPGRADING FROM 0.6.3 or earlier ------------------------------------------ * The directory name has changed form gnustep to GNUstep * The format of the style files and Window Maker file has changed. IF YOU ARE UPGRADING FROM 0.14.1 or earlier (but newer than 0.6.3) ------------------------------------------------------------------ * The Fiend has been renamed to Clip (in order to avoid hurting certain people's feelings... does that ring a bell or what?!?). Look up "Fiend" in the dictionary... therefore, every keyword on Defaults/WindowMaker that says "Fiend" has to be replaced by "Clip". The installation package tries to fix this globally, i.e, both in the system wide files and the user's files. * The ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Style directory is no longer called that, but "Styles" instead. Update accordingly. The wrapper script tries to be smart about this... IF YOU ARE UPGRADING FROM 0.15.0 or earlier ------------------------------------------- * WindowPlaceOrigin syntax changed. The old was: WindowPlaceOrigin = "64, 64" The new one is: WindowPlaceOrigin = (64, 64) The installation package also fixes this. IF YOU ARE UPGRADING FROM 0.17.3 or earlier ------------------------------------------- * Please note there's a new Icons directory under ~/GNUstep/Library, and a new key IconPath. Read the section on paths. IF YOU ARE UPGRADING FROM 0.17.5 or earlier ------------------------------------------- * Pandora's Box has been opened: Beware that some features of recent releases may not be compatible with those of 0.17.5; PLEASE read the NEWS file and the ChangeLog. If you don't have problems upgrading, consider it a gift from the gods. PLEASE NOTE: WPrefs is a work in progress. SAVE YOUR CONFIGURATION. READ THE READMEs. * Please note that WPrefs' Menu Guru REQUIERES a menu in "Property List" format to work properly. It's very likely that you have an old format menu. There's a script called wm-oldmenu2new alongside this file that converts your menu to the new format. It's a hack, it won't be installed anywhere else. Debian specific notes --------------------- Debian prepackaged version of Window Maker will search ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker and /usr/share/WindowMaker (in that order) for its configuration files. It will read defaults from files in ~/GNUstep/Defaults and /etc/GNUstep/Defaults. The files in the WindowMaker directories have cpp-like format and are preprocessed by WindowMaker. It will read both WindowMaker directories searching for #included files. WindowMaker makes a (little) difference between Pixmaps and Icons, and there are two configurable options for setting the paths Window Maker would search Pixmaps and Icons in, namely, PixmapPath and IconPath. The compiled in defaults are: PixmapPath = ( "~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Pixmaps", "~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Backgrounds", "/usr/local/share/WindowMaker/Pixmaps", "/usr/local/share/WindowMaker/Backgrounds", "/usr/share/WindowMaker/Backgrounds", "/usr/share/WindowMaker/Pixmaps", "/usr/local/share/pixmaps", "/usr/share/pixmaps", ); IconPath = ( "~/GNUstep/Library/Icons", "/usr/local/share/WindowMaker/Icons", "/usr/share/WindowMaker/Icons", "/usr/local/share/icons", "/usr/share/icons", ); Please note that the internal default doesn't include the "Pixmaps" paths anymore, but you are free to modify your Window Maker file in any way you see fit. Other Window Maker packages should put pixmaps in /usr/share/WindowMaker/Pixmaps and icons in /usr/share/WindowMaker/Icons, ONLY. The structure Window Maker tries to use is like this: GNUstep +.AppInfo +Defaults +Library +WindowMaker + Backgrounds [*] + IconSets [*] + Pixmaps + Sounds + Styles [*] + Themes [*] +Icons Please note Icons are not considered Window Maker-only resources. [*] these directories are OPEN_MENU'ed WITH the right application. That means you can put the *file* "Great Debian Theme" on Themes, it will show up in the menu, and will be opened using setstyle, which installs it, i.e., sets that theme as the current theme. If you don't like the arrangement of the Appearance menu, you can put a file "appearance.menu" in ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker, and it will override the default one. Look at /etc/GNUstep/Defaults/appearance.menu for an example. Shortcuts --------- Thanks to a suggestion, there's support for Shortcuts. If you want to have Shift F1 launch an XTerm, you can: $ cp /usr/lib/menu/xterm /etc/menu $ sensible-editor /etc/menu/xterm add: shortcut=Shift+F1 and run update-menus. Sound Support ------------- This version of Window Maker is compiled with sound support. The sound server is available as a separate package, but may not be in sync with the current release. Changing the menus (or "WPrefs segfaults when I click the cute menu icon") -------------------------------------------------------------------------- First of all, I have this urge to say that it doesn't segfault for me. It gives me a nice warning about being unable to use my current menu. The problem is that wmaker now is capable of using a new type of menu, namely a PropList menu. It looks something like this: ( Applications, (Debian, OPEN_MENU, menu.hook), ( WorkSpace, (Appearance, OPEN_MENU, appearance.menu), (Workspaces, WORKSPACE_MENU), ("Arrange Icons", ARRANGE_ICONS), ("Hide Others", HIDE_OTHERS), ("Show All Windows", SHOW_ALL), ("Clear Session", CLEAR_SESSION), ("Save Session", EXEC, "") ), (About..., INFO_PANEL), (Exit, SHUTDOWN) ) That cute looking menu button (let's call it by its name: the Menu Guru) in WPrefs expects to find a menu in this format. I considered changing the menu-method to something that spits out a menu in this format (it's quite easy) but there's a little tiny problem: see that line that reads "OPEN_MENU" in the example above... well, it happens that appearance.menu has to be in the old format. That means that if I make the menu method produce a new style menu, that menu has to be the root menu. And that is not a good idea (the reason is left as an exercise to the reader, take into account the people that aren't using menu.hook as the root menu in the first place). Still want to use WPrefs to edit you menu? Cut and paste the example above into ~/GNUstep/Defaults/WMRootMenu, start WPrefs, click the Menu Guru (the 9th icon, left to right). Now go read the docs. That's the reason they are there. Marcelo E. Magallon , Thr, 1 Apr 1999 18:47:30 -0600