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Guide to X11/Window Managers/9wm

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Type: Stacking
Language: C
Licence: 9wm

Features

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Features of the *9wm* window manager are:

  • Uses the xlib toolkit
  • Useless windowborders do not provide windowmotion
  • A rightclick on the desktop gives a contextmenu that provides windowmotion and facility to launch a terminal emulator
  • No menubar
  • No titlebars
  • No multidesk facilities
  • No maximize facility
  • No desktop shortcuts
  • No desktop wallpaper
  • No theme support
  • No xkeys support
  • A three-button mouse is required
  • Uses a clickfocus model
  • No additional taskswitching facility
  • Applications launched via a terminal only
  • Has a limit of to 32 hidden windows
  • Lightweight - Has few dependencies and rated as a pinhammer on the hammer scale
  • Supports focusstealing by failing the launch test, giving focus to window placement facility
  • Not accessibility friendly - utilizes middleclick, rightclick and has no keyboard equivalents for some operations and provides support for focusstealing

Resizing Windows

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The 9wm window manager does not provide the facility to maximize a window: windowmotion is provided via a rightlick context menu: To resize a window, rightclick desktop or window border, reshape, rightclick: border, rightclick a corner position, drag to size.

Where is 9wm on the hammer scale?

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A minimalist tool designed to do a specific job with few or no command line options.

Review

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Operation

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9wm is awkward to use because every new window has to be swept out before it can appear on the desktop and it is necessary to access a context menu on the desktop to move or resize windows. There is no facility to maximize windows.

Accessibility

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9wm is not accessibility friendly because it requires a multibutton mouse and there is no keyboard equivalents for some operations. The following [accessibility] restrictions apply to this window manager:

  • Requires a multi-button mouse
  • Requires middleclick functionality for some operations
  • Requires rightclick functionality for some operations
  • Has no keyboard equivalents for some operations

Dependencies

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9wm is dependent on the following xlib libraries:

  • libx11-6
  • libxext6

Resources used

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VIRT | RES | SHR | %CPU | %MEM
2796 | 1116 | 924 | 0.0 | 0.2
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