4 Window Maker X11 Window Manager
6 <http://windowmaker.org>
7 <ftp://ftp.windowmaker.org>
24 Congratulations! You have purchased an extremely fine
25 device that would give you thousands of years of trouble-free
26 service, except that you undoubtably will destroy it via some
27 typical bonehead consumer maneuver. Which is why we ask you
28 to PLEASE FOR GOD'S SAKE READ THIS OWNER'S MANUAL CAREFULLY
29 BEFORE YOU UNPACK THE DEVICE. YOU ALREADY UNPACKED IT, DIDN'T
30 YOU? YOU UNPACKED IT AND PLUGGED IT IN AND TURNED IT ON AND
31 FIDDLED WITH THE KNOBS, AND NOW YOUR CHILD, THE SAME CHILD WHO
32 ONCE SHOVED A POLISH SAUSAGE INTO YOUR VIDEOCASSETTE RECORDER
33 AND SET IT ON "FAST FORWARD", THIS CHILD ALSO IS FIDDLING
34 WITH THE KNOBS, RIGHT? AND YOU'RE JUST NOW STARTING TO READ
35 THE INSTRUCTIONS, RIGHT??? WE MIGHT AS WELL JUST BREAK THESE
36 DEVICES RIGHT AT THE FACTORY BEFORE WE SHIP THEM OUT, YOU
38 -- Dave Barry, "Read This First!"
44 Window Maker is a window manager designed to emulate the look and feel of
45 part of the NEXTSTEP(tm) GUI. It's supposed to be relatively fast and small,
46 feature rich, easy to configure and easy to use, with a simple and elegant
47 appearance borrowed from NEXTSTEP(tm).
49 Window Maker was designed keeping integration with GNUstep in mind and is the
50 "official" window manager for it. Read more about GNUstep further on this
53 \begin{marketing babble}
54 Window Maker is also KDE and GNOME compliant, which means you can use
55 it as the window manager of these desktop environments and even fully
56 replace kwm with wmaker if you use KDE. In that case, you would benefit
57 from the best of both worlds, being able to take advantage of the usability
58 and unique features of Window Maker, while still having access to KDE
59 features such as the panel, pager and tight integration with all KDE
60 applications. I've known of many cases where people keep switching KDE
61 and Window Maker depending on their mood or needs of the day, but now
62 you don't need that anymore :)
63 As GNOME components become more available, the same can be said about it.
64 \end{marketing babble}
66 Window Maker was previously called WindowMaker.
68 Window Maker has no connection with Windowmaker, the software for
69 making windows and doors.
75 * README files all over the source tree have info related to the stuff
78 * INSTALL has installation instructions and some troubleshooting tips.
79 You're meant to read it before installing. it was not written just to
80 fill up space in the package...
82 * FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions. READ IT!!! FAQ.I18N is for
83 internationalization related questions.
85 * NEWS: list user visible changes from the previous version. Read it if
88 * MIRRORS: some alternative places where you can get Window Maker,
89 including platform specific packages of Window Maker.
91 * BUGFORM: use it to send bug reports. Please do use it.
93 * ChangeLog: what changed from the previous version?
95 * BUGS: list of known bugs
100 The Window Maker User's Guide can be downloaded from the official ftp
102 It can also be viewed in HTML format in:
103 http://people.delphi.com/crc3419/WMUserGuide/index.htm
105 The User Guide explains how to use Window Maker, the configuration files
111 Type "man wmaker" in the shell prompt to get general help about Window Maker
115 Directories & Files in the Source Tree
116 ======================================
118 * Install is a script for configuring and compiling Window Maker in a easy
119 way (not that the normal way is difficult, but...).
121 * AUTHORS: the credits
123 * TODO: plans for the future
125 * util/ has various utility programs.
127 * WPrefs.app/ is the configuration program.
129 * src/wconfig.h has compile time options you can change to select some
130 options/features and other stuff.
132 * WINGs/ NEXTSTEP lookalike widget library
134 * wrlib/ image processing library
136 * po/ has message catalogs wich are the translated versions of the messages
137 displayed by Window Maker.
144 There is a mailing list for discussing Window Maker at
145 wmaker@linuxcenter.com To subscribe to it, send a message containing:
147 in the body of the message to wmaker-request@linuxcenter.com
149 If you got a problem, ask there (after reading the docs, of course). The
150 people there is more likely to be able to answer your questions than we are.
151 For bug reports use the BUGFORM.
153 If you have a problem with a precompiled version of Window Maker
154 (rpm, deb etc), first ask the person who made the package.
156 IMPORTANT NOTE: when asking for help (in the mailing list or to the
157 developerts, directly) *always* send information about the system you are
158 using. You can use the system information section at the end of BUGFORM as a
159 guideline. Another thing: please don't send HTML mail.
165 GNUstep is a complete object-oriented development system, based on the
166 OpenStep specification released by NeXT(tm) (now Apple(tm)) and Sun(tm). It
167 will provide everything one needs to produce cross-platform, object-oriented,
168 graphical (and non-graphical) applications; providing among other things,
169 base system libraries, a high-level GUI application framework that uses a
170 Display PostScript(tm)-like imaging model (DGS), objects for accessing
171 relational databases, distributed objects and a graphical development
172 environment, with tools like interface modeller, a project management system
173 (project center) and other tools.
175 The GNUstep development system will be used to create a user environment,
176 with everything needed for a complete graphical user interface, such as a
177 file viewer, text editors and other applications. Note that the user
178 environment (or "desktop environment") is only a small part of the whole
179 GNUstep project and therefore it does not "compete" with other projects like
180 KDE or GNOME, simply because they are completely different things.
182 For more information on the GNUstep project, visit: http://www.gnustep.org
183 and http://gnustep.current.nu
186 Running multiple instances of Window Maker
187 ==========================================
189 It is not a good idea to run more than one instance of Window Maker
190 from the same user (so that wmaker will use the same configuration
191 files) at the same time. You might get unexpected behaviour when Window Maker
192 updates it's configuration files.
198 Sound is supported for Linux and FreeBSD systems with the use of a
199 separately distributed module. You can download it at:
200 http://www.frontiernet.net/~southgat/wmsound
202 Note that you must compile Window Maker with the --enable-sound configure
203 flag and set the DisableSound option to NO.
209 If you want to diminish Window Maker's memory usage and improve performance,
210 while keeping a nice appearance and good functionality, follow the items
213 - use solid textures for everything, mainly titlebars and menus. If you
214 want a nice looking desktop, use the Traditional style.
215 - turn NewStyle and Superfluous off
216 - do not bind many shortcuts in the menu and keep only the essential items
218 - turn on DisableClip
219 - edit wconfig.h and disable the NUMLOCK_HACK and the features you
220 don't use anyway (keep in mind that some of the #defines might not
221 work, as they are not fully supported). Make sure to always keep
222 NumLock and ScrollLock turned off.
223 - turn on DisableAnimations. You can also #undefine ANIMATIONS in wconfig.h
224 - strip down the default IconPath and PixmapPath entries to contain only
225 the paths that you really have in your system.
226 - do not use large images in the root background
227 - remove support for image formats you don't use
228 - to reduce memory usage, disable the icon cache, by setting the RIMAGE_CACHE
229 environment variable to 0. If you want to increase performance at the cost
230 of memory usage, set it's value to a value like the number of different
234 Keyboard Mouse Control
235 ======================
237 Many people ask about adding keyboard control of mouse, like in fvwm,
238 but Window Maker will not have such feature. The XKB extension supports
239 mouse simulation from the keyboard, in a much more powerfull fashion than
240 any simulation done by a window manager.
242 To enable it, hit the Control+Shift+NumLock or Shift+NumLock key combination.
243 You should hear the speaker beeping. To disable it, do the same thing.
245 To control the mouse the numeric keypad is used as follows:
246 - 4 (left arrow), 7 (Home), 8 (up arrow), 9 (PgUp), 6 (right arrow),
247 3 (PgDn), 2 (down arrow) and 1 (End) move the mouse to the corresponding
249 - holding one of the above keys and then holding the 5 key will move the
251 - / will select the first mouse button (left button);
252 - * will select the second mouse button (middle button);
253 - - will select the third mouse button (right button);
254 - 5 will do a click with the currently selected mouse button;
255 - + will do a double-click with the currently selected button;
256 - 0 (Ins) will click and hold the currently selected button;
257 - . (Del) will release the currently selected button that was previously
258 clicked with the 0 (Ins) key.
261 The above key values work in a XFree86 3.2 (X11R6.1) X server but your
265 How to make a gdb backtrace
266 ===========================
268 Backtraces can help us fix bugs that make Window Maker crash. If you
269 find a bug that crashes Window Maker, please send a backtrace with your
272 To make a usefull backtrace, you need a core file with debugging
273 information produced by Window Maker when it crashes. The default
274 for Window Maker is to restart another window manager when it crashes,
275 so you will not get a core file. You need to edit the src/wconfig.h
276 file *after* running configure and change the line that looks like:
278 #undef NO_EMERGENCY_AUTORESTART
282 #define NO_EMERGENCY_AUTORESTART
284 Then, in the src directory type:
288 and wait for Window Maker to be installed.
290 Once having Window Maker installed, start X and reproduce the bug so
291 that Window Maker crashes. When it does crash, type the following from
295 gdb wmaker path_to_the_core_file
297 Then, in the gdb prompt type "bt". Quit from gdb by typing "quit"
298 and then, in the shell prompt, type "exit".
300 The file named typescript will contain the backtrace.
304 Copyrights & Disclaimers
305 ========================
307 Window Maker is copyrighted by Alfredo K. Kojima and is licensed through the
308 GNU General Public License. Read the COPYING file for the complete license.
310 NeXT, OpenStep and NEXTSTEP are a trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc.
311 All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
313 The authors reserve the right to make changes in the software without prior
320 Alfredo K. Kojima <kojima@windowmaker.org>
321 Dan Pascu <dan@windowmaker.org>
322 Matt Hawkins <matt@windowmaker.org>
324 Please don't ask us questions before reading the documentation (esp. the
325 FAQ, this file and INSTALL files) and about "cool" things you see in
326 people's desktop screenshots.
329 The AUTHORS file contains a list of the people who have contributed to the
330 project. The name of people who have helped with localization (translation)
331 can be found in po/README and Window Maker/README
333 If you have any comments, fixes and bug reports (filled BUGFORMs) send them
334 to developers@windowmaker.org
342 If you use Window Maker and *really* like it, please consider making my day
343 by sending me a music CD (or a MiniDisc or even a MP3 CDR) of your favorite
344 band, singer, instrumentist, composer or whatever :^). I like listening to
345 music and would love to get new CDs, especially from other parts of the
346 world. I like almost any kind of music, from Ozzy Osbourne to Bach (mas não
347 pagode e sertanejo pelamordideus :), so I will be happy to receive just about
353 Rua Firmino O. Bimbi, 255/25B