wmii/README

Abstract
--------
window manager improved 2 (wmii) [1] is an improved, modularized and
lightweight X11 window manager which supports tabbed, tiled and
conventional window management through layouts.
wmii consists of components that are independent processes and
communicate via a socket-based virtual filesystem which is oriented
on the "everything is file" paradigm of the Plan 9 [2] operating system.
The core distribution of wmii contains the window manager itself,
a master file system routing utility (wmiifs), a generic bar (wmiibar),
a shortcut handler (wmiikeys), and a generic interaction menu (wmiimenu)
beside several tiny utilities like wmiir, wmiiplumb, and wmiiwarp.


Requirements
------------
In order to build wmii you need the Xlib header files.
Furthermore, the wmii configuration scripts rely on the 9base package [3]
which contains ports of various Plan 9 standard tools, in particular the
rc shell.


Installation
------------
Edit config.mk to match your local setup. wmii is installed into
the /usr/local hierarchy by default. If your system is Mac OS X,
then remove the '-static' flag in cmd/Makefile.

Afterwards enter the following command to build and install wmii (if
necessary as root):

    make clean install


Running wmii
------------
Add the following line to your .xinitrc to start wmii using startx:

    exec wmii

In order to connect wmii or wmiir to a specific display, make sure that
the DISPLAY environment variable is set correctly, e.g.:

    DISPLAY=foo.bar:1 exec wmii

This will start wmii on display :1 of the host foo.bar.


Configuration
-------------
The configuration of wmii is done by customizing the existing actions.
Customizing an action means copying the appropriate file from the directory
$WMII_CONFDIR (usually /usr/local/etc/wmii-3) to
$HOME/.wmii-3 and editing it to fit your needs. The action of main
interest is called 'wmiirc': it is executed on startup.


Credits
-------
Beside all thanks to the wmi contributors, the following people have
contributed especially to wmii in various ways:

- Christoph Wegscheider <christoph (dot) wegscheider (at) wegi (dot) net>
- Georg Neis <gn (at) wmii (dot) de>
- Uwe Zeisberger <zeisberg (at) informatik (dot) uni-freiburg (dot) de>
- Uriel <uriell (at) binarydream (dot) org>
- Scot Doyle <scot (at) scotdoyle (dot) com>
- Sebastian Hartmann <seb (dot) wmi (at) gmx (dot) de>
- Bernhard Leiner <bleiner (at) gmail (dot) com>
- Jonas Domeij <jonas (dot) domeij (at) gmail (dot) com>
- Vincent <10 (dot) 50 (at) free (dot) fr>
- Oliver Kopp <olly (at) flupp (dot) de>
- Sebastian Roth <sebastian (dot) roth (at) gmail (dot) com>
- Steve Hoffman <steveh (at) g2switchworks (dot) com>
- Christof Musik <christof (at) senfdax (dot) de>
- Steffen Liebergeld <perl (at) gmx (dot) org>
- Tobias Walkowiak <wal (at) ivu (dot) de>
- Sander van Dijk <a (dot) h (dot) vandijk (at) gmail (dot) com>


References
----------
[1] http://wmii.de
[2] http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/
[3] http://wmii.de/repos/9base/

--Anselm R. Garbe