On Mon, Dec 07, 2009 at 07:27:31PM -0500, Gwern Branwen wrote:
Here's something I've been thinking. What if we came up with an xmonad.hs that included all the stuff everybody asks for and the obvious newbie aids like a first-run xmesage prompt? (Let's call this a standardConfig, as opposed to barebonesConfig or pimpedOutConfig.)
Then we could take the current xmonad package, rename it 'xmonad-core'*; the new 'xmonad' would be basically a cabal file depending on xmonad-core and xmonad-contrib, and an executable reading 'Main.hs...importXMonad...import XMonadContrib.StandardConfig...main = xmonad standardConfig'. (xmonad-core's executable would be left alone of course.)
If we get ambitious, the new xmonad main could do more. Perhaps we could check for XineRama in main and then modify our standardConfig to use SmartBorders or not?
I also think this is a good idea! I was playing around with the same thought, but as you said, it will need a number of people behind this effort as it requires some restructuring. Maybe one should go as far as move all the xmonad.hs-detection and -compiling code from xmonad-core to this new xmonad. Now that I think about it, it is actually necessary, isn't it? Because the standardConfig should only be invoked, if there is no user-xmonad.hs. But I think that would be a better separation anyway. Have this new xmonad be the single entry point, which decides to run a standardConfig or compile and run a xmonad.hs. Then xmonad-core could just be a library and this somewhat confusing - in my opinion at least - hybrid nature of an executable as well as a library would stop. The disadvantage would be, that you could no longer run xmonad-core on its own. You would have to write an explicit, minimal xmonad.hs. Just a few thoughts on this idea. I also remember that - I think - Don was thinking of maybe doing some sort of popularity module to figure out what stuff from contrib is used most often. I think that sort of information could be really interesting in deciding what to put into a standardConfig. But that's maybe just an optional extra step. Regards! Jan