July 2008 - xmonad - Haskell.org

Extensible programs & defaults: the Gosling Emacs experience
by Gwern Branwen 22 Feb '09

22 Feb '09

So, I happened to be reading a PhD thesis on exokernels, when I came across a reference. The context was that an exokernel is a maximally minimalistic operating system kernel; the kernel solely divides up resources among running programs. The programs get all other abstractions and standard OS services by linking in customized libraries, 'libOSes' as the developers put it. The point was that while an exokernel is designed so that any program can customize the operating system as much as possible, the defaults are still profoundly important, and the authors mentioned an Emacs retrospective which covered that. "UNIX Emacs: A Retrospective. Lessons for Flexible System Design" (by Gosling & Borenstein). I managed to get a copy, and I found some of it very instructive reading. Indeed, I find it instructive to look at various xmonad.hses after reading some excerpts: "The one point on which nearly everyone seems to agree is that the best thing about UNIX Emacs is that mlisp exists. No one even suggested that Emacs would be better without the powerful facility for extension and customization, although it is clear that such facilities, if abused, can create an environment that changes so radically from day to day as to be unusable for most people." "The integration of powerful editing facilities with a full-fledged programming language seems unquestionably useful, though it remains a matter of some debate whether this combination is best achieved by an extension language for a text editor or by implementing the text editor as a subroutine library in an existing programming language." "The key principle is that there is *simple syntax for simple operations*. This does not mean that a more complex syntax should not be available for more complex operations, only that the complexity should not be forced on the programmer in a simple context." "It didn't have to be that way. In the development of Emacs, it was far too easy to say that, since the support for the kind of basic interface was entirely customizable, it wasn't important to devote a lot of attention to getting the default interface to be correct. After all, anyone who didn't like the interface could change it. What this attitude ignored, however, was the old rule our mothers used to teach us about the lasting value of first impressions. Many people tried Emacs, couldn't stand the basic interface, and went back to their old standard editors, such as the vi editor on UNIX." "It is worth noting that this happened despite the fact that several people, independently, implemented more or less complete vi emulation packages for Emacs in mlisp. It seems that even if a package existed that was an absolutely perfect simulation of vi, most of the people who prefer vi to Emacs would stick with the clearly less powerful vi. While this is in part due to the smaller size of vi, it is also attributable to the unacceptable difficulty, in the minds of such people, of having to learn how to turn the vi emulation package on in the first place." "The clear lesson to be learned from this is that, while flexibility in such a system is indeed essential, great care must be paid to get the default behaviours to be simple and natural, and to provide very clear and simple ways to use a carefully chosen small set of the most commonly desired customizations. It may be, organizationally, that the people who build the flexible tools are not necessarily the right people to figure out which are the correct defaults and 'standard options'. The process of making such choices probably requires serious observation of users, or even controlled experiments, to compare possible system configurations." ----- I'm not sure how well XMonad works on the above criteria. It seems to me that there are a number of things which could be improved. For example, one of the most common changes is to switch the modifier from Alt to Win, for the simple reason that stealing Alt renders many programs nearly unusable. The arguments I've seen is that we should follow dwm tradition, and that we have no guarantee that Win is mapped to a real key, but is it really impossible for us to, say, autodetect whether Win is usable and only fallback to Alt? Or perhaps on running XMonad the first time with a xmonad.hs, there could be a prompt. Or... there are many ways we could tackle this issue. Another example: some function usages are copied all over the place. How many configurations have a line that looks like: > , keys = \c -> myKeys c `M.union` keys defaultConfig c Yes, it's neat that we can use basic Data.Map functions to union the default and custom keymaps (with the implication we can be flexible and combine them any other way we like), but it strikes me as wrong to have a relatively opaque task repeated time and again. Why don't we have a helper function such that we could write instead: > , keys = overrideDefaultWith myKeys Or if one is setting ManageHooks. Sure, one *could* write > , className =? "Firefox" --> doF (W.shift "web") 2, 3, 4, 6, or however many different entries one has in one's ManageHooks. But wouldn't a helper function be warranted so one could write: > , shiftClassToWS "Firefox" "web" For that matter, am I the only one who wants to be able to unfloat windows in ManageHook? Leaving aside how there is no actual unfloat function, I was eventually able, thanks to #xmonad, to write in my xmonad.hs: > className =? "defcon.bin.x86" --> ask >>= doF . W.sink But heck, do I understand that? Would someone else have any idea what that means? I mean, we're got 4 operators in there, 3 unusual functions (ask isn't even an xmonad function, it's from the State monad. I think. It seems a little much to expect customizers to understand monads, and the State monad, just to do a basic thing like 'unfloat an application when it opens'). ------ In short, perhaps a goal for 0.9 could be to make customizing XMonad easier on the xmonad.hs level. I think a second goal would be to change defaults in the XMonad core, and to perhaps add in some extensions by default - but that's an entirely other discussion. I'm not sure how people would react if I suggested making SmartBorders the default for the fullscreen layout. :) -- gwern Echelon Herald Islamic VHF CTP BATF POCSAG MDA USCG burhop

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darcs patch: keyActions moved to XState
by Marco Túlio Gontijo e Silva 10 Feb '09

10 Feb '09

Tue Jul 15 11:34:36 BRT 2008 Marco Túlio Gontijo e Silva <marcot(a)riseup.net> * keyActions moved to XState

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darcs patch: Improvements in documentation (and 3 more)
by Marco Túlio Gontijo e Silva 07 Feb '09

07 Feb '09

Tue Jul 8 21:24:25 BRT 2008 Marco Túlio Gontijo e Silva <marcot(a)riseup.net> * Improvements in documentation Mon Jul 14 12:26:31 BRT 2008 Marco Túlio Gontijo e Silva <marcot(a)riseup.net> * XMonad.Actions.Plane: removed unneeded hiding Mon Jul 14 12:32:48 BRT 2008 Marco Túlio Gontijo e Silva <marcot(a)riseup.net> * XMonad.Config.Gnome: using XMonad.Actions.Plane Mon Jul 14 12:36:01 BRT 2008 Marco Túlio Gontijo e Silva <marcot(a)riseup.net> * XMonad.Actions.Plane.planeKeys: function to make easier to configure

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darcs patch: XMonad.Actions.DynamicKeys: utilities to update key bi...
by Marco Túlio Gontijo e Silva 07 Feb '09

07 Feb '09

Thu Jul 10 19:04:10 BRT 2008 Marco Túlio Gontijo e Silva <marcot(a)riseup.net> * XMonad.Actions.DynamicKeys: utilities to update key bindings at runtime

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xmonad-contrib patch
by Lanny Ripple 07 Feb '09

07 Feb '09

Hi all, Just wanted to say Thanks! to everyone for XMonad. I've got it running with gnome for the panels but it blows the gnome WM out of the water. I did run across some functionality I wanted that didn't exist so I wrote it up (attached). On reflection I should have added a long patch message. I found WindowGo for runOrRaise but often I want to pull a window (browser, mail, etc) to my current workspace instead of going to the one it's in. copyOrRun (and underlying copyMaybe) do that. Cheers, -ljr New patches: [XMonad.Actions.CopyWindow runOrCopy lan3ny(a)gmail.com**20080602205742] { hunk ./XMonad/Actions/CopyWindow.hs 5 --- Copyright : (c) David Roundy <droundy(a)darcs.net>, Ivan Veselov <veselov(a)gmail.com> +-- Copyright : (c) David Roundy <droundy(a)darcs.net>, Ivan Veselov <veselov(a)gmail.com>, Lanny Ripple <lan3ny(a)gmail.com> hunk ./XMonad/Actions/CopyWindow.hs 20 - copy, copyToAll, copyWindow, killAllOtherCopies, kill1 + copy, copyToAll, copyWindow, runOrCopy + , killAllOtherCopies, kill1 hunk ./XMonad/Actions/CopyWindow.hs 25 +import Control.Monad (filterM) hunk ./XMonad/Actions/CopyWindow.hs 55 +-- Instead of copying a window from a workset to a workset maybe you don't +-- want to have to remember where you placed it. For that consider: +-- +-- > , ((modMask x, xK_b ), runOrCopy "firefox" (className =? "Firefox")) -- @@ run or copy firefox +-- hunk ./XMonad/Actions/CopyWindow.hs 68 --- > , ((modMask x, xK_v )", windows copyToAll) -- @@ Make focused window always visible +-- > , ((modMask x, xK_v ), windows copyToAll) -- @@ Make focused window always visible hunk ./XMonad/Actions/CopyWindow.hs 74 --- | copy. Copy the focussed window to a new workspace. +-- | copy. Copy the focused window to a new workspace. hunk ./XMonad/Actions/CopyWindow.hs 94 + +-- | runOrCopy . runOrCopy will run the provided shell command unless it can +-- find a specified window in which case it will copy the window to +-- the current workspace. Similar to (i.e., stolen from) "XMonad.Actions.WindowGo". +runOrCopy :: String -> Query Bool -> X () +runOrCopy action = copyMaybe $ spawn action + +-- | copyMaybe. Flatters "XMonad.Actions.WindowGo" ('raiseMaybe') +copyMaybe :: X () -> Query Bool -> X () +copyMaybe f thatUserQuery = withWindowSet $ \s -> do + maybeResult <- filterM (runQuery thatUserQuery) (allWindows s) + case maybeResult of + [] -> f + (x:_) -> windows $ copyWindow x (currentTag s) + } Context: [Add missing xfce module to .cabal Don Stewart <dons(a)galois.com>**20080602174219] [Use lines instead of columns in configuration (similar to GNOME and KDE) Malebria <malebria(a)riseup.net>**20080526225337] [Bug correction when areasColumn > 1 Malebria <malebria(a)riseup.net>**20080526223220] [more documentation for WindowNavigation and UrgencyHook Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080525050231] [X.A.WindowNavigation: add logHook for better state tracking Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080525032325] [doco tweaks Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080524211849] [made fadeInactiveLogHook take an argument amount to fade Justin Bogner <mail(a)justinbogner.com>**20080523213937] [add FadeInactive to fade out inactive windows using xcompmgr Justin Bogner <mail(a)justinbogner.com>**20080523205838] [add close window functionality to EwmhDesktops Justin Bogner <mail(a)justinbogner.com>**20080523185908] [Add XMonad.Actions.Plane Malebria <malebria(a)riseup.net>**20080523004357] [Default Xfce config, this time with me holding the copyright, maintainership, etc. Ivan.Miljenovic(a)gmail.com**20080522105316] [StackTile: minor documentation fix Joachim Fasting <joachim.fasting(a)gmail.com>**20080521182637 That '[]' in the example seems incorrect ] [StackTile acura(a)allyourbase.se**20080520195559 A simple patch to get a dishes like stacking, but with the ability to resize master pane. ] [revamp Search.hs to export a replacement for simpleEngine gwern0(a)gmail.com**20080519190912 It's called searchEngine now, and is a wrapper around the SearchEngine type. Different type as well ] [sp ShowWName.hs gwern0(a)gmail.com**20080519190520] [remove ScratchWorkspace. David Roundy <droundy(a)darcs.net>**20080516185729 It's ugly code, and I'd be surprised if anyone actually uses it. I see no reason to continue to maintain it. ] [Fixed location of xmonad.conf Roman Cheplyaka <roma(a)ro-che.info>**20080518204602] [add site name in search prompt dialog zhen.sydow(a)gmail.com**20080518101357] [add youtube to search engines zhen.sydow(a)gmail.com**20080513212508] [SwapWorkspaces: swapTo Next|Prev Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080518024121] [UrgencyHook: removeVisiblesFromUrgents -> cleanupUrgents Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080515164436 Now only removes windows based on SuppressWhen setting. ] [Added XMonad.Config.PlainConfig: proof-of-concept GHC-less plain text configuration file parser Braden Shepherdson <Braden.Shepherdson(a)gmail.com>**20080517222916 An example of the config file format can be found in the Haddock. Notably missing features are docks and more layouts than just the standard three. ] [XMonad.Hooks.SetWMName: Update documentation to reflect the addition of startupHook. lithis <xmonad(a)selg.hethrael.org>**20080516221011] [I no longer use ScratchWorkspace. David Roundy <droundy(a)darcs.net>**20080516185715] [fix bug in smartBorders when combined with decorated windows. David Roundy <droundy(a)darcs.net>**20080516184855] [decent documentation for UrgencyHook Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080515082222 Blame it on lack of sleep. Or perhaps the causation is the reverse. ] [X.A.WindowNavigation: currentPosition and setPosition share the same `inside` logic, now Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080515062211 Aside from documentation, this is pretty much usable, now. ] [X.A.WindowNavigation: have currentPosition handle axes independently Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080515053330 This improves some subtle interactions between mod-j/k and mod-w/a/s/d, though that might not become very apparent until I fix setPosition. ] [fix compile warnings in BoringWindows Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080515051728] [add BoringWindows module to make certain windows skipped when rotating focus. David Roundy <droundy(a)darcs.net>**20080514162846] [UrgencyHook: some documentation (more is needed) Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080514080104] [UrgencyHook: got rid of the need for instances to know about suppressWhen Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080514072217 This changes the API a little bit, but that's what you get for using a day-old feature from darcs. ] [move AppLauncher from Actions module to Prompt module zhen.sydow(a)gmail.com**20080513201252] [X.A.WindowNavigation: comment cleanup Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080513091313] [windowRect now compensates for border width Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080513090151 Odd that I have to do (Rectangle x y (w + 2 * bw) (h + 2 * bw)) -- you'd think the window would be centered within the bordered area. ] [X.A.WindowNavigation: update TODO Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080513044229] [X.A.WindowNavigation: minor cleanup Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080512170410] [X.A.WindowNavigation: simplify inr somewhat Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080512090647] [X.A.WindowNavigation: clarity Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080512085338] [X.A.WindowNavigation: ugh, typo Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080512082228] [X.A.WindowNavigation: implement swap, extract withTargetWindow commonality Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080512064715 Why doesn't mapWindows exist already? ] [add more flexible withWindowNavigationKeys Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080512050637 Names aren't permanent yet, so don't cry if they change. ] [X.A.WindowNavigation: TODO Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080511222116] [X.A.WindowNavigation: add withWindowNavigation, for easy setup Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080511220458 This should be more flexible than it is -- I've got an idea, but am interested to hear others. ] [X.A.WindowNavigation: fix currentPosition Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080511212128 Now properly deals with an unitialized state (e.g. from a restart) or an inconsistent state (e.g. from using mod-j/k). Deserves cleanup. ] [X.A.WindowNavigation: add TODOs Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080511211326] [X.A.WindowNavigation state is now workspace-specific Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080511071656 racking up some code debt, here... ] [X.A.WindowNavigation: minor doco changes Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080506074235] [add draft XMonad.Actions.WindowNavigation Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080504050022 This is an experiment with replacing the WindowNavigation LayoutModifier with one that simply adds keybindings and stores state in an IORef. Credit to droundy for the original code -- hopefully I'm not butchering it. The end intent is to add Xinerama support, but it'll be a little while before I get there. ] [new contrib module to launch apps with command line parameters zhen.sydow(a)gmail.com**20080513134754] [pull suppressWhen logic into main WithUrgencyHook handler Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080513075247 In order for this to work, I added a new UrgencyHook method to communicate the SuppressWhen value. I'm not sure if this is actually better than just providing a convenience function, but it's an easy switch. ] [add suppressWhen option to dzenUrgencyHook Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080513054615] [WindowNavigation: extract navigable function Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080422045248] [UrgencyHook: doc typo Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080512052137] [UrgencyHook: extract whenNotVisible Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080512041852] [SpawnUrgencyHook, FWIW Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080512040449] [make UrgencyHook an EventHook Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080512024822 This gets rid of the stupid bug that led to a need for the clearBit hack, and allowed me to simplify the types (since EventHooks aren't required to parameterize on the window type). Config files need not change, unless they declare instances of UrgencyHook, in which case, they should remove "Window" as is seen in this patch. ] ['xmobar' function added to DynamicLog for running xmobar with some defaults Ivan N. Veselov <veselov(a)gmail.com>**20080508194918] [HintedTile: Fix mistake in documentation. lithis <xmonad(a)selg.hethrael.org>**20080508003552] [Use gnome-session-save for the mod-shift-q binding Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080507082205] [Use the named constant 'none' rather than 0 Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080507081854] [HintedTile: Improve documentation. lithis <xmonad(a)selg.hethrael.org>**20080508000245] [Whitespace only Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080507031306] [Add a binding for Gnome's "Run Application" dialog Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080507031127] [Add some keybindings to the Kde config Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080507022658] [Indentation Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080507022553] [Add ToggleStruts to the desktop config Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080507022516] [Refactor my config Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080507021504] [Add XMonad.Config.Kde Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080507020833] [Don't move the pointer if the user is moving the mouse Klaus Weidner <kweidner(a)pobox.com>**20080417022234 This patch depends on the following xmonad core patch: Remember if focus changes were caused by mouse actions or by key commands If the user was moving the mouse, it's not appropriate to move the pointer around in resonse to focus changes. Do that only in response to keyboard commands. ] [Missing pragmas Don Stewart <dons(a)galois.com>**20080506053402] [Add full documentation Don Stewart <dons(a)galois.com>**20080505210546] [minor cleanup on getName Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080504054923] [bug doco for UrgencyHook Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080426203638] [NamedWindows: when converting the text property, handle the empty list. Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080502104249 This fixes a "Prelude.head" exception observed with windows that have no title. Reproduce by placing several windows in the tabbed layout, then starting 'xterm -name ""'. Thanks to Andrea for pointing out the issue. ] [Fix issue #179 by handling events correctly Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it>**20080501062357] [My monitor is larger now :) Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080430083026] [manageHooks for my config Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080430082536] [Remove redundant type signature Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080430082447] [Add XMonad.Config.Desktop and XMonad.Config.Gnome Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080430082253] [Alphabetize exposed-modules Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080430035453] [new contrib layout: XMonad.Layout.SimplestFloat - A floating layout like SimpleFloat, but without decoration joamaki(a)gmail.com**20080424220957] [stricitfy some gap fields Don Stewart <dons(a)galois.com>**20080427191247] [XMonad.Hooks.ManageHelpers: quick&dirty support for _NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080426132745] [XMonad.Hooks.Script: haddock fixes Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080426132629] [Error fix for Tabbed when tabbar always shown Ivan.Miljenovic(a)gmail.com**20080424063135] [remove my config file -- the wiki is where its at. Don Stewart <dons(a)galois.com>**20080419195650] [tweaks to docs for SimpleDecoration Don Stewart <dons(a)galois.com>**20080418215155] [Allow tabbar to always be shown. Ivan.Miljenovic(a)gmail.com**20080415043728 Patch take 4, hopefully the final version. Includes droundy's suggestions. ] [polish Don Stewart <dons(a)galois.com>**20080418033133] [Script-based hooks Trevor Elliott <trevor(a)galois.com>**20080416213024] [Don't strictify the Display component, this triggers a bug in GHC 6.6 Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080416185733] [Fix to IM modifier. Roman Cheplyaka <roma(a)ro-che.info>**20080414232437 Avoid differentiating integrated stack by using StackSet.filter. ] [IM layout converted to LayoutModifier, which can be applied to any layout Ivan N. Veselov <veselov(a)gmail.com>**20080413205824] [stictify some fields Don Stewart <dons(a)galois.com>**20080413070117] [strictify some fields Don Stewart <dons(a)galois.com>**20080413065958] [Fix window order in EWMH Joachim Breitner <mail(a)joachim-breitner.de>**20080411134411 For pagers to draw the stacking order correctly, the focused window has to be the last in the list. Thus put an appropriate implementation of allWindows into the Module. This does not work perfectly with floating windows. ] [remove myself as maintainer of CopyWindow. David Roundy <droundy(a)darcs.net>**20080409144333 I'm not sure who's maintaining this, but it's not me. ] [XMonad.Util.WindowProperties: add WM_WINDOW_ROLE as Role Roman Cheplyaka <roma(a)ro-che.info>**20080409174935] [Generalize copyWindow, minor style change Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080408210050] [XMonad.Actions.CopyWindow: added copyToAll and killAllOtherCopies functions Ivan N. Veselov <veselov(a)gmail.com>**20080408195111] [XMonad.Actions.UpdatePointer: doc fix Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080407152741] [XMonad.Util.Font: minor reformatting Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080406020935] [DynamicLog: resolve merge conflict Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080406020527] [Encode the entire DynamicLog output, instead of just window title. lithis <xmonad(a)selg.hethrael.org>**20080329031537] [DynamicLog: add support for UTF-8 locales when compiled with XFT or UFT-8 support Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it>**20080313102643] [XMonad.Util.Font: don't call setlocale; core does it for us Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080406013123] [XMonad.Util.NamedWindows: fix imports Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080326172745] [Changed getName to use locale-aware functions Mats Jansborg <mats(a)jansb.org>**20070819132104 Rewrote getName using getTextProperty and wcTextPropertyToTextList. ] [Added next-window versions of the raise* functions. Ian Zerny <ian(a)zerny.dk>**20080405182900] [XMonad.Layout.Master: initial import Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080404220734] [update contrib for applySizeHints changes Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080404220558] [XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks: haddock fix Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080404220532] [MultiToggle/Instances: ghc 6.6 can't parse LANGUAGE pragma Brent Yorgey <byorgey(a)gmail.com>**20080404200157] [Document _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW behaviour more exactly Joachim Breitner <mail(a)joachim-breitner.de>**20080404072944] [_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW moves windows if necessary Joachim Breitner <mail(a)joachim-breitner.de>*-20080402143811 This makes EWMH behave a bit more like metacity: If _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW is received and the window is not on the current worspace, it is brought here (instead of the workspace switched to the other one). So for example, if you click on the pidgin icon in the panel and the buddy list is already open some where it is moved here. ] [onstart=lower, solves floating dzen issue Don Stewart <dons(a)galois.com>**20080403203425] [some bang patterns Don Stewart <dons(a)galois.com>**20080403172246] [have 'dzen' use autoStruts to detect the gaps Don Stewart <dons(a)galois.com>**20080403003130] [Actions/Search.hs: add dictionary.com search Brent Yorgey <byorgey(a)gmail.com>**20080402150521] [_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW moves windows if necessary Joachim Breitner <mail(a)joachim-breitner.de>**20080402143811 This makes EWMH behave a bit more like metacity: If _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW is received and the window is not on the current worspace, it is brought here (instead of the workspace switched to the other one). So for example, if you click on the pidgin icon in the panel and the buddy list is already open some where it is moved here. ] [HintedGrid: guesstimate window flexibility and layout rigid windows first Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080402042846] [HintedGrid: try both bottom-up/top-down window placement to minimize unused space Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080402012538] [Grid/HintedGrid: use an ncolumns formula inspired by dwm's "optimal" mode Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080402012126] [XMonad.Layout.Gaps: new contrib module for manual gap support, in the few cases where ManageDocks is not appropriate (dock apps that don't set STRUTS properly, adjusting for a display that is cut off on one edge, etc.) Brent Yorgey <byorgey(a)gmail.com>**20080402003742] [improve WindowGo.hs Haddock formatting gwern0(a)gmail.com**20080401023130] [forgot a haddock for getEditor in Shell.hs gwern0(a)gmail.com**20080401022012] [WindowGo.hs: +raiseBrowser, raiseEditor gwern0(a)gmail.com**20080401021740 Specialize runOrRaise in the same way as with Actions.Search, for one's browser and one's editors. ] [RunOrRaise.hs: FF 3 doesn't use the "Firefox-bin" classname gwern0(a)gmail.com**20080401015049] [Search.hs: remove an argument from selectSearch and promptSearch gwern0(a)gmail.com**20080401013947 The new getBrowser function allows us to mv the old selectSearch and promptSearch aside as too-general functions, and replace them with new versions, which employ getBrowser to supply one more argument. This allows us to replace the tedious 'selectSearch google "firefox"; selectSearch yahoo "firefox"...' with shorter 'selectSearch google' and so on. One less argument. Also, update the docs. ] [Shell.hs: +getBrowser, getEditor, helper function gwern0(a)gmail.com**20080401013447 The helper function asks the shell for the value of a variable, else returns the second argument. getBrowser and getEditor obviously specialize it for two particular possibly queries ] [XMonad.Layout.HintedGrid: initial import Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080401231722] [Documentation improvement. Roman Cheplyaka <roma(a)ro-che.info>**20080401134305] [Remove broken link to screenshot. Roman Cheplyaka <roma(a)ro-che.info>**20080331210854] [MultiToggle: add new XMonad.Layout.MultiToggle.Instances module for common instances of Transformer, update MultiToggle docs accordingly Brent Yorgey <byorgey(a)gmail.com>**20080331201739] [XMonad.Actions.CycleRecentWS: initial import Michal Janeczek <janeczek(a)gmail.com>**20080331111906] [XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks: export checkDoc Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080331012911] [XMonad.Layout.Grid: fix indentation Lukas Mai <l.mai(a)web.de>**20080330004859] [move Direction type from WindowNavigation to ManageDocks (ManageDocks will move into the core, taking Direction with it) Brent Yorgey <byorgey(a)gmail.com>**20080331010127] [ManageDocks: clean up + add more documentation Brent Yorgey <byorgey(a)gmail.com>**20080331002929] [Util.Run, Hooks.DynamicLog: re-export hPutStrLn and hPutStr from Util.Run for convenience, and update DynamicLog documentation to show proper imports Brent Yorgey <byorgey(a)gmail.com>**20080328205446] [ManageDocks: add avoidStrutsOn, for covering some docks and not others by default. Brent Yorgey <byorgey(a)gmail.com>**20080327203940] [ManageDocks: add ability to toggle individual gaps independently Brent Yorgey <byorgey(a)gmail.com>**20080327111722] [PerWorkspace: add modWorkspace(s) combinators, for selectively applying layout modifiers to certain workspaces but not others Brent Yorgey <byorgey(a)gmail.com>**20080326214351] [Haddock fix Roman Cheplyaka <roma(a)ro-che.info>**20080330134435] [Remove stale status gaps code Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080329230737] [TAG 0.7 Spencer Janssen <sjanssen(a)cse.unl.edu>**20080329202416] Patch bundle hash: 5157bf911d10104199e1082ce9ab21409a87d1bd

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system-config-lvm crashes in xmonad, not in metacity
by intrigeri 10 Jan '09

10 Jan '09

Hello, I’m using xmonad built from Darcs around 20080701, with libghc6-x11-dev 1.4.1-1 from Debian Lenny. Running system-config-lvm (Debian package 1.4.1-1) from a terminal (either as a non-privileged user or using gksudo) opens a system-config-lvm window, a dialog box making me wait a bit while « Reloading LVM. Please wait. », then briefly displays what seems to be the program main window, then crashes and the window disappears. This has been filed as a Debian bug against system-config-lvm, and then closed, since I this crash was not reproducible when using Gnome/Metacity instead of xmonad : http://bugs.debian.org/488512 Here is the output on the console : /usr/share/system-config-lvm/cylinder_items.py:1032: GtkWarning: gdk_pixbuf_scale_simple: assertion `dest_width > 0' failed scaled_pixbuf = self.pixbuf.scale_simple(pixmap_width, height, gtk.gdk.INTERP_BILINEAR) Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/Volume_Tab_View.py", line 454, in on_tree_selection_changed self.on_best_fit(None) File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/Volume_Tab_View.py", line 536, in on_best_fit self.display_view.draw() File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/renderer.py", line 590, in draw self.display.draw(self.da, self.gc, (10, y_offset)) File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/cylinder_items.py", line 920, in draw self.cyl_upper.draw(pixmap, gc, (x, y)) File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/cylinder_items.py", line 305, in draw CylinderItem.draw(self, dc, gc, (x, y)) File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/cylinder_items.py", line 120, in draw child.draw(dc, gc, (x, y)) File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/cylinder_items.py", line 305, in draw CylinderItem.draw(self, dc, gc, (x, y)) File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/cylinder_items.py", line 120, in draw child.draw(dc, gc, (x, y)) File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/cylinder_items.py", line 311, in draw cyl_pix = self.cyl_gen.get_cyl(dc, self.get_width(), self.height) File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/cylinder_items.py", line 1039, in get_cyl pixmap.draw_pixbuf(gc, scaled_pixbuf, 0, 0, 0, 0, -1, -1) TypeError: GdkDrawable.draw_pixbuf() argument 2 must be gtk.gdk.Pixbuf, not None The program 'system-config-lvm.py' received an X Window System error. This probably reflects a bug in the program. The error was 'BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)'. (Details: serial 4910 error_code 11 request_code 53 minor_code 0) (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously; that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it. To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.) Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/system-config-lvm.py", line 173, in <module> runFullGUI() File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/system-config-lvm.py", line 158, in runFullGUI blvm = baselvm(glade_xml, app) File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/system-config-lvm.py", line 108, in __init__ self.volume_tab_view = Volume_Tab_View(glade_xml, self.lvmm, self.main_win) File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/Volume_Tab_View.py", line 133, in __init__ self.prepare_tree() File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/Volume_Tab_View.py", line 215, in prepare_tree self.mirror_sync_progress.initiate() File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/Volume_Tab_View.py", line 579, in initiate if self.crank(): File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/Volume_Tab_View.py", line 588, in crank self.forked_command.fork() File "/usr/share/system-config-lvm/execute.py", line 134, in fork os.write(self.fd_write_out, out) OSError: [Errno 32] Relais brisé (pipe) Could this be a xmonad bug ? Bye, -- intrigeri <intrigeri(a)boum.org> | gnupg key @ http://gaffer.boum.org/intrigeri/intrigeri.asc | Every now and then I get a little bit restless | and I dream of something wild.

1 2

Ratpoison key emulation
by Gwern Branwen 22 Sep '08

22 Sep '08

Hiya everyone. So as I've long mused about, I've gotten around to seeing how difficult it'd be to do a Ratpoison style keymap for XMonad. It went reasonably well, but I've run into a number of Ratpoison commands where I can't see what to bind them to (or whether the functionality is implemented in XMC somewhere I just don't know about), so I thought I'd demonstrate what I have and see whether anyone has any suggestions. The code is as follows: {- Not implemented: C-t C-t Switch to the last window. C-t t Sometimes you need to send a C-t to the current window. This keystroke does just that. C-t A C-t C-A Rename the current window. The window's new name will prevail for the rest of its lifetime. C-t ' C-t C-' Go to a window by name. You will usually only need to type the first few characters of the window name. C-t a C-t C-a Display the current time of day. C-t : This allows you to execute a single ratpoison command. C-t i C-t C-i Display information about the current window. C-t m C-t C-m Display the last message. C-t V C-t C-V Display ratpoison's license. C-t w C-t C-w Display the list of managed windows. The current window is highlighted. C-t M-tab Switch to the last focused frame. C-t Q Kill all frames but the current one. C-t R Kill the current frame. This is a no-op if there is only one frame. C-t r C-t C-r Resize the current frame. C-t ? Display a help screen. C-t f C-t C-f select a frame by number. C-t F Indicate which frame is the current frame. C-t x C-t C-x Choose a frame and exchange the window in the current frame with the window in the chosen frame. -} -- | This list, duplicates and all is based off of -- <http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/doc/Default-Key-Bindings.html#Default Key Bindings>. ratpoisonKeys :: XConfig t -> Map (KeyMask, KeySym) (X ()) ratpoisonKeys conf@(XConfig {XMonad.modMask = m}) = M.fromList $ [ -- rebind standard -- actions -- this defines our root-key - mod-t ((m, xK_t), submap . M.fromList $ -- OK, now we can begin to list all -- the actual Ratpoison bindings -- which live in this submap. [ ((0, xK_n), next) , ((m, xK_n), next) , ((0, xK_space), next) , ((m, xK_space), next) , ((0, xK_Return), next) , ((m, xK_Return), next) , ((0, xK_p), previous) , ((m, xK_p), previous) , ((0, xK_k), kill) , ((m, xK_k), kill) , ((0, xK_K), kill) , ((m, xK_K), kill) , ((0, xK_c), spawn term) , ((m, xK_c), spawn term) , ((m, xK_exclam), prompt (term ++ " -e") defaultXPConfig) , ((0, xK_exclam), prompt ("/bin/sh" ++ " -c") defaultXPConfig) -- We call out to the shell because -- we can't use Main.hs's trick of -- "showVersion version" - we don't -- see Paths_xmonad , ((0, xK_v), version) , ((m, xK_v), version) , ((0, xK_l), refresh) , ((m, xK_l), refresh) -- This is wrong. , ((0, xK_s), sendMessage NextLayout) , ((m, xK_s), sendMessage NextLayout) , ((0 .|. shiftMask, xK_s), sendMessage NextLayout) , ((m .|. shiftMask, xK_s), sendMessage NextLayout) , ((0, xK_b), banish) , ((m, xK_b), banish) , ((0, xK_Right), sendMessage $ Go R) , ((0, xK_Left ), sendMessage $ Go L) , ((0, xK_Up ), sendMessage $ Go U) , ((0, xK_Down ), sendMessage $ Go D) , ((m, xK_Right), sendMessage $ Swap R) , ((m, xK_Left ), sendMessage $ Swap L) , ((m, xK_Up ), sendMessage $ Swap U) , ((m, xK_Down ), sendMessage $ Swap D) ] ++ [((0, k), windows $ f i) | (i, k) <- zip (XMonad.workspaces conf) [xK_1 .. xK_9] , (f, _) <- [(W.greedyView, 0), (W.shift, shiftMask)]] )] where next = windows W.focusDown previous = windows W.focusUp term = XMonad.terminal conf version = spawn "xmessage `xmonad --version`" banish :: X () banish = warpToWindow 1 1 -- lower right -- gwern Al E.O.D. Freedom Inmarsat 6 B43 ^X STARLAN FOSS NSRB

5 13

0.8 release suggestion
by Gwern Branwen 29 Jul '08

29 Jul '08

Hi everyone. So as I've occasionally said in #xmonad, I think we should consider releasing 0.8 this month or in August at least. As it is, it's currently been quite a while since the last release by XMonad standards. We usually have 1 or 2 months between a release; if you look at the months, it goes: 1 5 1 1 1 1 2. If we release July, then there will only've been 4 months, but by August, 0.8 will be contending for the longest gestation and with September will take the record. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the arguments for making a release, but I don't think we need a very long freeze. The last changes to XMonad proper were back in May, only a month or two after the 0.7 release. That seems pretty stable and well-tested to me. :) And XMC needs to be released because looking at the changelogs and <http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Xmonad/Notable_changes_since_0.7>, there've been quite a few changes; and indeed, in my experience we're starting to get darcs XMC too out of sync with the release XMC (eg. one fellow had problems with my Search module because he was following the web docs). ------ There is one thing which concerns me a little. The Notable changes page claims that 'defaultGaps has been removed, see XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks.avoidStruts, which is now the preferred method for setting gaps. ManageDocks will soon be moved into the core.'. Is this still the plan? That language has been there since March, but I haven't heard anything about this being done, or scrapped. -- gwern ~ Tools Pox mechanism Flu AK-47 keyword ETA DITSA TELINT

3 2

disable Prompt completion?
by brian 27 Jul '08

27 Jul '08

Can I turn off Prompt completion? I like being able to redo previous commands by hitting up, but find the jumpy completions window disconcerting.

2 1

Modular config
by Justin Bogner 25 Jul '08

25 Jul '08

recompile calls ghc --make, but supplies the -i argument, which suppresses including the current directory in the search path. This means that one can't break up xmonad.hs into modules in their own .xmonad directory. I don't see any particularly good reason to prevent this, so here's a patch that removes the -i argument. An equivalent change would be to change "-i" to "-i.", which explicitly sets the search path, but the ghc docs state that this is the default anyway, so I think that removing it makes more sense.

5 7