7 <http://windowmaker.org>
8 <ftp://ftp.windowmaker.org>
25 Congratulations! You have purchased an extremely fine
26 device that would give you thousands of years of trouble-free
27 service, except that you undoubtably will destroy it via some
28 typical bonehead consumer maneuver. Which is why we ask you
29 to PLEASE FOR GOD'S SAKE READ THIS OWNER'S MANUAL CAREFULLY
30 BEFORE YOU UNPACK THE DEVICE. YOU ALREADY UNPACKED IT, DIDN'T
31 YOU? YOU UNPACKED IT AND PLUGGED IT IN AND TURNED IT ON AND
32 FIDDLED WITH THE KNOBS, AND NOW YOUR CHILD, THE SAME CHILD WHO
33 ONCE SHOVED A POLISH SAUSAGE INTO YOUR VIDEOCASSETTE RECORDER
34 AND SET IT ON "FAST FORWARD", THIS CHILD ALSO IS FIDDLING
35 WITH THE KNOBS, RIGHT? AND YOU'RE JUST NOW STARTING TO READ
36 THE INSTRUCTIONS, RIGHT??? WE MIGHT AS WELL JUST BREAK THESE
37 DEVICES RIGHT AT THE FACTORY BEFORE WE SHIP THEM OUT, YOU
39 -- Dave Barry, "Read This First!"
45 Window Maker is the GNU window manager for the X Window System. It was
46 designed to emulate the look and feel of part of the NEXTSTEP(tm) GUI. It's
47 supposed to be relatively fast and small, feature rich, easy to configure and
48 easy to use, with a simple and elegant appearance borrowed from NEXTSTEP(tm).
50 Window Maker was designed keeping integration with GNUstep in mind and is the
51 "official" window manager for it. It is also part of the GNU project
52 (www.gnu.org) Read more about GNUstep further on this file.
54 Hints (information given by applications to integrate well with the window
55 manager) for Motif(tm), OPEN LOOK(tm), KDE and GNOME are also supported.
56 So you can replace any of the window managers for these environments
57 with Window Maker while keeping most, if not all, of the native window manager
60 Window Maker was previously called WindowMaker.
62 Window Maker has no connection with Windowmaker, the software for
63 making windows and doors.
71 * README files all over the source tree have info related to the stuff
74 * INSTALL has installation instructions and some troubleshooting tips.
75 You're meant to read it before installing. it was not written just to
76 fill up space in the package...
78 * FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions. READ IT!!! FAQ.I18N is for
79 internationalization related questions.
81 * NEWS: list user visible changes from the previous version. Read it if
84 * MIRRORS: some alternative places where you can get Window Maker,
85 including platform specific packages of Window Maker.
87 * BUGFORM: use it to send bug reports. Please do use it.
89 * ChangeLog: what changed from the previous version?
92 * BUGS: list of known bugs
96 There's a tutorial maintained by Georges Tarbouriech at:
98 http://www.linuxfocus.org/~georges.t/
103 The Window Maker User's Guide can be downloaded from the official ftp
105 It can also be viewed in HTML format in:
106 http://people.delphi.com/crc3419/WMUserGuide/index.htm
108 The User Guide explains how to use Window Maker, the configuration files
114 Type "man wmaker" in the shell prompt to get general help about Window Maker
118 Directories & Files in the Source Tree
119 ======================================
121 * Install is a script for configuring and compiling Window Maker in a easy
122 way (not that the normal way is difficult, but...).
124 * AUTHORS: the credits
126 * TODO: plans for the future
128 * contrib/ has some contributed patches that are not supported by Window Maker
129 because they conflict with design filosophies of the developers or some
132 * util/ has various utility programs.
134 * WPrefs.app/ is the configuration program.
136 * src/wconfig.h has compile time options you can change to select some
137 options/features and other stuff.
139 * WINGs/ NEXTSTEP lookalike widget library
141 * wrlib/ image processing library
143 * po/ has message catalogs wich are the translated versions of the messages
144 displayed by Window Maker.
146 * docklib-x.x.tar.gz a library for writing dockapps
152 There is a mailing list for discussing Window Maker at
153 wm-user@windowmaker.org To subscribe to it, send a message containing:
155 in the subject of the message to wm-user-request@windowmaker.org
157 If you got a problem, ask there (after reading the docs, of course). The
158 people there is more likely to be able to answer your questions than we are.
159 For bug reports use the BUGFORM.
161 If you have a problem with a precompiled version of Window Maker
162 (rpm, deb etc), first ask the person who made the package.
164 IMPORTANT NOTE: when asking for help (in the mailing list or to the
165 developerts, directly) *always* send information about the system you are
166 using. You can use the system information section at the end of BUGFORM as a
167 guideline. Another thing: please don't send HTML mail.
170 There is also a #windowmaker IRC channel at openprojects. To join there,
171 connect your irc client to irc.openprojects.net, irc.linux.com or some other
172 server of that network.
178 GNUstep is a complete object-oriented development system, based on the
179 OpenStep specification released by NeXT(tm) (now Apple(tm)) and Sun(tm). It
180 will provide everything one needs to produce cross-platform, object-oriented,
181 graphical (and non-graphical) applications; providing among other things,
182 base system libraries, a high-level GUI application framework that uses a
183 Display PostScript(tm)-like imaging model (DGS), objects for accessing
184 relational databases, distributed objects and a graphical development
185 environment, with tools like interface modeller, a project management system
186 (project center) and other tools.
188 The GNUstep development system will be used to create a user environment,
189 with everything needed for a complete graphical user interface, such as a
190 file viewer, text editors and other applications. Note that the user
191 environment (or "desktop environment") is only a small part of the whole
192 GNUstep project and therefore it does not "compete" with other projects like
193 KDE or GNOME, simply because they are completely different things.
195 For more information on the GNUstep project, visit: http://www.gnustep.org
196 and http://gnustep.current.nu
199 Running multiple instances of Window Maker
200 ==========================================
202 It is not a good idea to run more than one instance of Window Maker
203 from the same user (so that wmaker will use the same configuration
204 files) at the same time. You might get unexpected behaviour when Window Maker
205 updates it's configuration files.
207 If you really desire to do this, try running Window Maker with the
208 command line option --static so that it will not update or change
209 any of the configuration files.
214 Sound is supported for Linux and FreeBSD systems with the use of a
215 separately distributed module called WSoundServer. There is also a graphical
216 configuration tool for setting up your sounds called WSoundPrefs.
217 You can download these at:
218 http://shadowmere.student.utwente.nl/
220 Note that you must compile Window Maker with the --enable-sound configure
221 flag and set the DisableSound option to NO.
227 I guess many users, mainly from the academic world, have to use
228 applications written using the OpenL**k toolkits, so having support
229 for these apps must be of some use.
231 To enable, use --enable-openlook when doing the configure. Note that
232 not everything is implemented.
234 Implemented stuff include decoration hints and the push-pin. Not implemented
235 stuff include _SUN_WINDOW_STATE (the compose led state stuff), drag and drop
236 interest stuff, header (not sure what's it) and footer strings.
238 Please give me feedback if something doesn't work. If the feature is
239 already implemented, but is not working because of a bug, I'll try to
240 have that fixed. If it's a non-implemented feature and you mention that
241 it's important (ie: not just cosmetical), I'll consider implementing it.
243 The "out" state of the pushpin is emulated as a pushed-in close button.
244 Just click on the button to make it pushed-out, which corresponds
245 to the pinned-in state of the pushpin. If you push again in the pushed-out
246 close button, it will act as a normal close button: it will close the window.
252 If you want to diminish Window Maker's memory usage and improve performance,
253 while keeping a nice appearance and good functionality, follow the items
256 - use solid textures for everything, mainly titlebars and menus. If you
257 want a nice looking desktop, use the Traditional style.
258 - turn NewStyle and Superfluous off
259 - do not bind many shortcuts in the menu and keep only the essential items
261 - turn on DisableClip
262 - edit wconfig.h and disable the NUMLOCK_HACK and the features you
263 don't use anyway (keep in mind that some of the #defines might not
264 work, as they are not fully supported). Make sure to always keep
265 NumLock and ScrollLock turned off.
266 - turn on DisableAnimations. You can also #undefine ANIMATIONS in wconfig.h
267 - strip down the default IconPath and PixmapPath entries to contain only
268 the paths that you really have in your system.
269 - do not use large images in the root background
270 - remove support for image formats you don't use
271 - to reduce memory usage, disable the icon cache, by setting the RIMAGE_CACHE
272 environment variable to 0. If you want to increase performance at the cost
273 of memory usage, set it's value to a value like the number of different
277 Keyboard Mouse Control
278 ======================
280 Many people ask about adding keyboard control of mouse, like in fvwm,
281 but Window Maker will not have such feature. The XKB extension supports
282 mouse simulation from the keyboard, in a much more powerfull fashion than
283 any simulation done by a window manager.
285 To enable it, hit the Control+Shift+NumLock or Shift+NumLock key combination.
286 You should hear the speaker beeping. To disable it, do the same thing.
288 To control the mouse the numeric keypad is used as follows:
289 - 4 (left arrow), 7 (Home), 8 (up arrow), 9 (PgUp), 6 (right arrow),
290 3 (PgDn), 2 (down arrow) and 1 (End) move the mouse to the corresponding
292 - holding one of the above keys and then holding the 5 key will move the
294 - / will select the first mouse button (left button);
295 - * will select the second mouse button (middle button);
296 - - will select the third mouse button (right button);
297 - 5 will do a click with the currently selected mouse button;
298 - + will do a double-click with the currently selected button;
299 - 0 (Ins) will click and hold the currently selected button;
300 - . (Del) will release the currently selected button that was previously
301 clicked with the 0 (Ins) key.
304 The above key values work in a XFree86 3.2 (X11R6.1) X server but your
308 How to make a gdb backtrace
309 ===========================
311 Backtraces can help us fix bugs that make Window Maker crash. If you
312 find a bug that crashes Window Maker, please send a backtrace with your
315 To make a usefull backtrace, you need a core file with debugging
316 information produced by Window Maker when it crashes. It should
317 have been installed without stripping too.
319 To compile wmaker with debugging information:
324 If you get the dialog window telling you that wmaker crashed and
325 asks you what to do, tell it to "Abort and leave a core file".
329 gdb .libs/wmaker path_to_the_core_file
331 Then, in the gdb prompt type "bt". Quit from gdb by typing "quit"
332 and then, in the shell prompt, type "exit".
334 The file named typescript will contain the backtrace.
338 Copyrights & Disclaimers
339 ========================
341 Window Maker is copyrighted by Alfredo K. Kojima and is licensed through the
342 GNU General Public License. Read the COPYING file for the complete license.
344 The icons that are distributed with this program and were made by Marco van
345 Hylckama Vlieg, are licensed through the GNU General Public License. Read the
346 COPYING file for the complete license.
348 The icons listed in COPYING.WTFPL and are distributed in this
349 program and were made by Banlu Kemiyatorn (]d), are licensed through the
350 "do What The Fuck you want to Public License". Read the COPYING.WTFPL
351 file for the complete license.
353 NeXT, OpenStep and NEXTSTEP are a trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc.
354 All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
356 The authors reserve the right to make changes in the software without prior
363 Alfredo K. Kojima <kojima@windowmaker.org>
364 Dan Pascu <dan@windowmaker.org>
365 ]d <id@windowmaker.org>
367 Please don't ask us questions before reading the documentation (esp. the
368 FAQ, this file and INSTALL files) and about "cool" things you see in
369 people's desktop screenshots.
372 The AUTHORS file contains a list of the people who have contributed to the
373 project. The name of people who have helped with localization (translation)
374 can be found in po/README and Window Maker/README
376 If you have any comments, fixes and bug reports (filled BUGFORMs) send them
377 to developers@windowmaker.org
385 If you use Window Maker and *really* like it, please consider making my day
386 by sending me a music CD (or a MiniDisc or even a MP3 CDR) of your favorite
387 band, singer, instrumentist, composer or whatever :^). I like listening to
388 music and would love to get new CDs, especially from other parts of the
389 world. I like almost any kind of music, from Ozzy Osbourne to Bach (mas não
390 pagode e sertanejo pelamordideus :), so I will be happy to receive just about
396 Rua Firmino O. Bimbi, 255/25B