some basic xmonad questions
i recently saw xmonad mentioned on reddit, but there was a quick followup that it was not quite ready for public use. has this changed? i am a current dwm user and generally love the tiling concept, although i do not care for dwm's source code-based config system. will xmonad support a plain-text conf file? beyond being written in haskell, are there any compelling features in xmonad (planned or to-date) to differentiate it? how does xmonad compare to dwm with regards to system resrouce use? thanks! brad
clawsie:
i recently saw xmonad mentioned on reddit, but there was a quick followup that it was not quite ready for public use. has this changed?
It's ready for public use -- indeed all the developers are using it. Currently we're in the middle of a 'freeze': just bug fixes till release 0.1 comes out in a week or so.
i am a current dwm user and generally love the tiling concept, although i do not care for dwm's source code-based config system. will xmonad support a plain-text conf file?
It uses a plain text Haskell config file, and supports dynamic reloading of this file (mod-ctrl-shift-q). That is, its a strongly statically typed config language, with first class functions and data types, compilable to native code :-)
beyond being written in haskell, are there any compelling features in xmonad (planned or to-date) to differentiate it?
Xinerama support, tiny code base (~400 lines), ease of modification, QuickCheck properties for internal systems.
how does xmonad compare to dwm with regards to system resrouce use?
Roughly identical, maybe 200k more heap. Note that we use more efficient data structures internally (O(log n) maps in preference to lists). 31747 dons 2 0 3432K 1892K sleep poll 0:05 0.00% xmonad Cheers, Don
On Thu, Apr 12, 2007 at 10:04:27PM -0700, brad clawsie wrote:
i recently saw xmonad mentioned on reddit, but there was a quick followup that it was not quite ready for public use. has this changed?
Depends. I haven't started hacking xmonad yet, but out of xmonad, fvwm2, ion, ion3, ratpoison, sawfish, and twm I find xmonad by far the easiest to use :)
i am a current dwm user and generally love the tiling concept, although i do not care for dwm's source code-based config system. will xmonad support a plain-text conf file?
NEVER!!! :) OK, it might. but it really doesn't need one, haskell's syntax is nice enough that the config file doesn't really smell like Haskell. Here's a sample line: , ((modMask, xK_t ), spawn "sleep 0.1 ; exec /home/stefan/chvt 1")
beyond being written in haskell, are there any compelling features in xmonad (planned or to-date) to differentiate it?
Much less code (~500 lines), Xinerama support, very active real-time user support community in #haskell.
how does xmonad compare to dwm with regards to system resrouce use?
The difference between C and Haskell is neglible compared to the all-surpassing bloat of Xlib. Spencer Janssen has received a SoC grant to write a Haskell binding for the much-leaner second generation XCB library, so chances are Xmonad will soon use much less resources than dwm. Stefan
participants (3)
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brad clawsie -
dons＠cse.unsw.edu.au -
Stefan O'Rear