1 Window Maker for DEBIAN
2 =======================
4 This is Debian GNU/Linux's prepackaged version of Window Maker, yet
5 another window manager, written mostly from scratch by Alfredo Kojima
6 in an attempt to provide as much of the useful OpenStep functionality
7 as possible under X11. It is the natural step after AfterStep.
9 There are some changes in the paths, added support for Debian menu
10 system, improved user configuration (from the sysadmin point of view).
12 To run Window Maker put this at the end of ~/.xsession:
16 and remove other exec lines if present. I have done my best to
17 overcome certain glitches and gotchas regarding Window Maker
18 installation. /usr/bin/wmaker is a shell script that tries to
19 make sure things are properly set up. Take a look at it to see what's
20 going on. Please read wmaker(1).
23 Other sources for documentation
24 -------------------------------
26 * The Window Maker web site
27 http://www.windowmaker.org/
29 You can find all sorts of information here. It's kept very up to
32 * The Window Maker manual written by Alfredo Kojima
33 ftp://ftp.windowmaker.org/pub/wmaker/docs/
35 Please note the manual documents version 0.10.x of Window Maker, and
36 many features/changes have occurred since then. To find out what has
37 changed, please read file:/usr/share/doc/wmaker/NEWS.gz and
38 file:/usr/share/doc/wmaker/changelog.gz. A new version of this manual is
39 being developed. If you want to contribute to the manual please
40 contact wm-user@windowmaker.info
42 * The Window Maker mailing list
43 http://www.windowmaker.org/lists.php
45 There's a Window Maker mailing list. There you can ask questions about
46 Window Maker and *related* applications (s/n is _way_ low nowadays
47 due to unrelated discussions).
49 Please read the archives before asking!
51 * The Window Maker FAQ
52 http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~grapeape/wmfaq.html
54 This is NOT file:/usr/share/doc/wmaker/FAQ.gz, but another document.
55 It contains information about several aspects of Window Maker that are
56 not covered on the FAQ included alongside with this Readme.
58 * The Window Maker Configuration documents
59 ftp://ftp.windowmaker.info/pub/wmaker/docs/WindowMaker-*-Config.txt.gz
61 This documents the files found on ~/GNUstep/Defaults/. It's kept as
62 up to date as possible.
64 As a sidenote, I can't package these files with wmaker because they
65 don't have a copyright statement that permits redistribution.
70 Debian prepackaged version of Window Maker will search
71 ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker and /usr/share/WindowMaker (in that order)
72 for its configuration files. It will read defaults from files in
73 ~/GNUstep/Defaults and /etc/GNUstep/Defaults. The files in the
74 WindowMaker directories have cpp-like format and are preprocessed by
75 WindowMaker. It will read both WindowMaker directories searching for
78 WindowMaker makes a (little) difference between Pixmaps and Icons, and
79 there are two configurable options for setting the paths Window Maker
80 would search Pixmaps and Icons in, namely, PixmapPath and
81 IconPath. The compiled in defaults are:
84 "~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Pixmaps",
85 "~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Backgrounds",
86 "/usr/local/share/WindowMaker/Pixmaps",
87 "/usr/local/share/WindowMaker/Backgrounds",
88 "/usr/share/WindowMaker/Backgrounds",
89 "/usr/share/WindowMaker/Pixmaps",
90 "/usr/local/share/pixmaps",
95 "~/GNUstep/Library/Icons",
96 "/usr/local/share/WindowMaker/Icons",
97 "/usr/share/WindowMaker/Icons",
98 "/usr/local/share/icons",
102 Please note that the internal default doesn't include the "Pixmaps"
103 paths anymore, but you are free to modify your Window Maker file in any
106 Other Window Maker packages should put pixmaps in
107 /usr/share/WindowMaker/Pixmaps and icons in
108 /usr/share/WindowMaker/Icons, ONLY.
110 The structure Window Maker tries to use is like this:
125 Please note Icons are not considered Window Maker-only resources.
127 [*] these directories are OPEN_MENU'ed WITH the right
128 application. That means you can put the *file* "Great Debian Theme" on
129 Themes, it will show up in the menu, and will be opened using
130 setstyle, which installs it, i.e., sets that theme as the current
133 If you don't like the arrangement of the Appearance menu, you can put
134 a file "appearance.menu" in ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker, and it will
135 override the default one. Look at /etc/GNUstep/Defaults/appearance.menu
141 Thanks to a suggestion, there's support for Shortcuts. If you want to
142 have Shift F1 launch an XTerm, you can:
144 $ cp /usr/lib/menu/xterm /etc/menu
145 $ sensible-editor /etc/menu/xterm
151 and run update-menus.
156 This version of Window Maker is compiled with sound support. The sound
157 server is available as a separate package, but may not be in sync with
160 Changing the menus (or "WPrefs segfaults when I click the cute menu icon")
161 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
163 First of all, I have this urge to say that it doesn't segfault for
164 me. It gives me a nice warning about being unable to use my current
167 The problem is that wmaker now is capable of using a new type of menu,
168 namely a PropList menu. It looks something like this:
172 (Debian, OPEN_MENU, menu.hook),
175 (Appearance, OPEN_MENU, appearance.menu),
176 (Workspaces, WORKSPACE_MENU),
177 ("Arrange Icons", ARRANGE_ICONS),
178 ("Hide Others", HIDE_OTHERS),
179 ("Show All Windows", SHOW_ALL),
180 ("Clear Session", CLEAR_SESSION),
181 ("Save Session", EXEC, "")
183 (About..., INFO_PANEL),
187 That cute looking menu button (let's call it by its name: the Menu
188 Guru) in WPrefs expects to find a menu in this format. I considered
189 changing the menu-method to something that spits out a menu in this
190 format (it's quite easy) but there's a little tiny problem: see that
191 line that reads "OPEN_MENU" in the example above... well, it happens
192 that appearance.menu has to be in the old format. That means that if
193 I make the menu method produce a new style menu, that menu has to be
194 the root menu. And that is not a good idea (the reason is left as an
195 exercise to the reader, take into account the people that aren't using
196 menu.hook as the root menu in the first place).
198 Still want to use WPrefs to edit you menu? Cut and paste the example
199 above into ~/GNUstep/Defaults/WMRootMenu, start WPrefs, click the Menu
200 Guru (the 9th icon, left to right). Now go read the docs. That's the
201 reason they are there.
203 Marcelo E. Magallon <mmagallo@debian.org>, Thr, 1 Apr 1999 18:47:30 -0600