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Added additions by Salva Peiro, added two paragraphs by myself, corected some keybindings and clarified some things.

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doc/guide_en.tex
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%guide to wmii-3
%Copyright (C) 2005, 2006 by Steffen Liebergeld
%Copyright (C) 2005, 2006 by Steffen Liebergeld, Salva Peiro
%This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
%modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
@ -15,21 +15,35 @@
%Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
%02110-1301, USA.
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article} %options given to article are inherited to all packages
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\usepackage[left=3cm,top=2cm,right=2cm,bottom=3cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[a4paper,dvipdfm]{hyperref}
%\usepackage[dvipdfm]{hyperref} %uncomment to disable clickable links
%\usepackage{ngerman}
\usepackage{times}
\usepackage{indentfirst,html,moreverb}
% remove this if you want, it's just a matter of imposed imperialist cultures
% so if I'm given the chance to choose i choose to indent the first paragraph
% (I learn this way in the school, and don't want to relearn the british way)
\newcommand{\hrefx}[1]{\href{#1}{#1}} % hrefs and 's' for simple and explicit
\newenvironment{itemize*}
{\begin{itemize}
\setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}
\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}}
{\end{itemize}}
\date{\today}
\author{Steffen Liebergeld}
\title{A Guide to wmii-3}
%\email{stepardo@gmail.com}
\author{
Steffen \\ Liebergeld \\ \emph{author}
\and
Salvador \\ Peir\'o \\ \emph{inquisitor}
}
\title{A Guide to wmii-3%
\thanks{This work was partly funded by the EEE \emph{(European Easter's Egg)}
commission. thanks to the wmii community in particular all the people in the Credits section} \\
\small{(\emph{when did wmii got lost?})}
}
%\email{stepardo@gmail.com et saoret.one@gmail.com}
\begin{document}
@ -54,25 +68,30 @@
Wmii-3 is a new kind of window manager. It is designed to have a
small memory footprint, be extremely modularised and have as
little code as possible, thus ensuring as few bugs as possible. In
fact, one of our official goal is to not to exceed 10000 lines of
code.
fact, one of our official goal is to not to exceed $10 K$ lines of
code~\footnote{
the $10 K$ SLOC restriction benefits that it's easier
to read/understand, thus it's easier to use and get used to it.}.
Wmii tries to be very portable and to give the user as many
freedom as possible.
Wmii-3 is the third mayor release of the second generation of the
window manager improved \footnote{The ii is actually a roman
letter for the number 2}. Wmii first introduced a new paradigm in
version 2.5, namely the dynamic window management.
window manager improved~\footnote{ the ii is actually a roman
letter for the number 2.}. Wmii first introduced a new paradigm
in version 2.5, namely the dynamic window management, that
overcomes the limitations imposed by the WIMP paradigm (see also
the companion \emph{wmii.tex}).
\subsection{Target audience}
I presume the reader already has some experiences with Unix, knows
all the basic terminology like files or editors. It is helpful if
you know what a socket and a network protocol is.
I presume the reader already has experience with Unix, knows all
the basic terminology and concepts like files or editors. It is
helpful if you know what a socket and a network protocol is.
The best audience is always the audience that is open minded
against new ideas, and is willing to spend some time learning it.
I hope you are open minded against new ideas, and willing to spend
some time learning it~\footnote{remember the refrain:
\emph{``nobody can teach you what you don't want to know''.}}.
\section{Configuration and install}
@ -80,57 +99,76 @@
Wmii is licensed under the MIT/X Consortium License, which
basically means it is free software, and you are free to download
it free of charge
\footnote{Please have a look at http://wmii.de/repos/wmii/LICENSE
for details} .
You may download it from http://wmii.de/
from \hrefx{http://wmii.de} free of charge~\footnote{ please have
a look at \hrefx{http://wmii.de/repos/wmii/LICENSE.} for
details}.
\subsection{Configuration and Installation}
Unpack it:
First of all, have a look if there are binary packages of wmii in
your distribution. Debian, Ubuntu and gentoo should already have
good packages. If you found a package to trust, you may now safely
skip this paragraph.
For all those who are still reading this, let me tell you you are
on the good side because if you grab the sources and compile them
you'll benefit from having everything in it's original place, so
it'll ease your use of wmii.
\begin{enumerate}
\item Uninstalling a previous version:
\begin{verbatim}
cd /path/to/wmii-previous
make uninstall && make clean
\end{verbatim}
In case you're installing a newer version of wmii, this is the
first thing you should do otherwise you'll end up messing
binaries, configuration files and manual-pages of different and
thus incompatible versions, to do this run the above commands.
\item Unpack it:
\begin{verbatim}
tar xzf wmii-3.tar.gz
cd wmii-3
\end{verbatim}
Edit the configuration:
\item Edit the configuration:
\begin{verbatim}
vim config.mk
\end{verbatim}
The most important variable to set is the PREFIX, which states,
where you want wmii-3 to be installed to.
Run make and make install:
The most important variable to set is the \verb+PREFIX+, which
states, where you want wmii-3 to be installed to.
\item Run make and make install:
\begin{verbatim}
make && make install
\end{verbatim}
Now you have to tell the X-Server to start wmii as your default
window manager. You may do that by editing the file
\emph{~/.xinitrc}.
\item Instruct the X-Server to start wmii as your default window
manager. You may do that by editing the file \emph{\~{}/.xinitrc}.
\begin{verbatim}
#!/bin/sh
exec wmii
\end{verbatim}
Make sure that the \emph{~/.xinitrc} is executable:
Make sure that the \emph{\~{}/.xinitrc} is executable:
\begin{verbatim}
chmod a+x ~/.xinitrc
chmod u+x ~/.xinitrc
\end{verbatim}
\end{enumerate}
And you are finished. Please note that we do not use the autoconf
tools for various reasons, you may read about it here
\footnote{
http://www.ohse.de/uwe/articles/aal.html \linebreak[4]
http://lists.cse.psu.edu/archives/9fans/2003-November/029714.html
} . Please don't ask us to use autoconf, we won't do it.
tools for various reasons, you may read about it here~\footnote{
\hrefx{http://www.ohse.de/uwe/articles/aal.html} \linebreak[1] and
\hrefx{http://lists.cse.psu.edu/archives/9fans/2003-November/029714.html}
} . Please don't ask us to use autoconf, we won't do it.
\section{Terminology}
@ -141,22 +179,19 @@
\subsection{Clients}
A client is a program, that draws a window to the
screen
\footnote{Actually it is the program that requests the xserver
to draw the window. But never mind;-)}
. For example your browser or your xterm is a client.
screen~\footnote{ Actually it is the program that requests the
X-server to draw the window. But never mind;-)}. For example your
browser or your xterm is a client.
\subsection{Focus}
In X11, exactly one client gets the users input. If you write some
command in your xterm, this xterm has the focus, whereas all the
other windows do not react on the input you give
\footnote{Actually
this is not precise at all, because some programs catch input
before it is sent to the focussed client. But you do not need to
know about this..}
We will say from now on, that the xterm has the
focus.
other windows do not receive/react on the input you
give~\footnote{ Actually this is not precise at all, because some
programs catch input before it is sent to the focused client. But
you do not need to care about this.}. We will say from now on,
that the xterm has the focus.
\subsection{Events}
@ -167,10 +202,10 @@
\subsection{Tags}
Tags are names you can give for clients. That allows you to group
clients. In wmii, there are no workspaces anymore. Instead, we
simply show only one tag at one time. Thus, if you name a client
"web-browser" and request the wm to only show the tag
Tags are names/labels you can give for clients. That allows you to
group clients. In wmii, there are no workspaces anymore. Instead,
we simply show only one tag at one time. Thus, if you name a
client "web-browser" and request the wm to only show the tag
"web-browser", you will only see that one client. If you tag a
xterm with the same tag, it will also be shown, when your first
client with the tag "web-browser" is visible. It is also possible
@ -178,12 +213,15 @@
\subsection{View}
When you request the window manager to only show windows with one
particular tag, you may call this a view. You might imagine, that
this somewhat resembles the "workspace" of other window managers.
The view concept refers to the tags that you want to view at a
given time, so when you request the window manager to only show
windows with one particular tag, you may call this a view. You
might imagine, that this somehow resembles the "workspace" of
other window managers.
You might have different views with only one of them visible at a
particular time.
particular time. Thus, the concept of ``view'' is completely
virtual.
Views are defined by the tags only, so if you don't have a tag of
a particular name, you don't have a view of that name. Similarly,
@ -207,7 +245,7 @@
much vertical space in a column. The second is to have each client
maximised in the column, showing only one of them at a time, while
hiding the others. And last but not least you may have the clients
stacked, which means have to one client use as much space as
stacked, which means to have one client use as much space as
possible and to show only the title-bars of the other windows.
\section{Getting started}
@ -221,34 +259,33 @@
On a special note, the \emph{MOD} key I am referring to may resemble
different keys on different platforms. It is what X knows as the
\emph{Meta} or \emph{Alt} key. Most probably, this is the \emph{Alt}
key left of the space-bar on your keyboard.
\emph{Mod1} or \emph{Alt} key. Probably this is the key labelled with
\emph{Alt} at the left of the space-bar on your keyboard.
The notation \emph{MOD+Key} means to press \emph{MOD}, hold it and
to press \emph{Key}.
The notation \emph{MOD}-\emph{Key} means to press \emph{MOD}, hold
it and to press \emph{Key}.
All key combinations may be freely configured, but for the sake of
simplicity I'll stick with the default bindings for this
introduction. You may find out how to alter the bindings in the
``Scripting wmii''-Chapter.
introduction. You may find out how to alter the bindings in the
section \ref{sec:scripting}.
\subsection{First steps}
You may now start your X session. Since it is the first time you
start wmii, a window with some tutorial messages will occur. You
are free to read it, but you may also follow the beginners guide
:-)
start wmii, a window with a little tutorial will show up. You are
free to read it, but you may also follow the beginners guide :-)
First of all, press \emph{MOD+t} to start an xterm. It will take
half of the vertical space, so you now have two equally big
windows. If you press \emph{MOD+t} again, you have three windows
that are equally big.
First of all, press \emph{MOD-Enter} to start an xterm. It will
take half of the vertical space, so you now have two equally big
windows. If you press \emph{MOD-Enter} again, you have three
windows that are equally big.
To switch between the three windows, you may now press
\emph{MOD+Tab}, which cycles the focus between the three windows.
\emph{MOD-j}, which cycles the focus between the three windows.
You may also press \emph{MOD+k} to switch to the window above or
\emph{MOD+j} to switch to the window below the current.
You may also press \emph{MOD-k} to switch to the window above or
\emph{MOD-j} to switch to the window below the current.
Now have a look at the title-bars of those windows. They show some
important information: the first term is the name of the tag of
@ -259,7 +296,8 @@
things are names of the different tags you gave to your windows,
with the current view highlighted. Then it shows the title of the
focused window. On the right side it shows some system status
information like the load and the current time.
information like the load and the current time (see subsection~%
\ref{subsec:status} for details).
\subsection{Using Columns}
@ -269,8 +307,8 @@
In wmii columns are defined by its clients. Thus you need a client
to create a new column. That is why you may now focus a client of
your choice and press \emph{MOD+n}. As you see, wmii created a new
column by dividing the view horizontally in two equally big
your choice and press \emph{MOD-Shift-l}. As you see, wmii created
a new column by dividing the view horizontally in two equally big
spaces. The last focused client has been put into the new column.
If you close the last window of a column, the column will vanish
@ -280,16 +318,16 @@
It should be clear, that you really need at least two clients to
have two columns.
If you press \emph{MOD+Tab} to change focus, you will see that
wmii actually cycles the focus in the current column only. That is
why you need commands to change the current column.
If you press \emph{MOD-k} to change focus, you will see that wmii
actually cycles the focus in the current column only. That is why
you need commands to change the current column.
In wmii you may use \emph{MOD+l} to change to the column on the
right and \emph{MOD+h} to change to the column on the left.
In wmii you may use \emph{MOD-l} to change to the column on the
right and \emph{MOD-h} to change to the column on the left.
It is also possible to make a client swap columns. To move a
client to the column on the left, press \emph{MOD+Enter} and to
move it to the right column, press \emph{MOD+Shift+Enter}.
client to the column on the left, press \emph{MOD-Control-h} and
to move it to the right column, press \emph{MOD-Control-l}.
\subsection{What about layouts}
@ -298,19 +336,19 @@
have different columns in one view, each having another layout.
The default layout is to give each client in the column equally
much vertical space. You may enable this layout with \emph{MOD+e}
(where the ``e'' stands for equal).
much vertical space. You may enable this layout with \emph{MOD-d}
(where the ``d'' stands for default).
Another layout is the stacked layout. You enable stacking by
\emph{MOD+s}. As you see now, there in only one client using as
\emph{MOD-s}. As you see now, there in only one client using as
much space as possible, whereas you only see the title-bars of the
other clients in the column. You may still switch between the
clients in the column using \emph{MOD+Tab}.
clients in the column using \emph{MOD-Tab}.
The third layout is the max-layout, which maximises all the
clients to use all the space in the column each. Only the focused
client is visible and the other are hidden behind. You may still
switch between those clients with \emph{MOD+Tab}.
switch between those clients with \emph{MOD-Tab}.
\subsection{Float pages}
@ -330,8 +368,8 @@
To come to the point: wmii also allows you to use floating
clients. You may enable floating mode for a window by focusing it
and pressing \emph{MOD+Space}. You may bring it back into a column
(the column it came from) by pressing \emph{MOD+Shift+Space}.
and pressing \emph{MOD-Space}. You may bring it back into a column
(the column it came from) by pressing \emph{MOD-Shift-Space}.
As a side note, this floating mode is actually the zeroth column
internally. You will see later on why this was implemented this
@ -350,9 +388,9 @@
actually possible.
You may give the focused client another tag by pressing
\emph{MOD+Shift+Number}, number being one of the numbers 1 to 9.
\emph{MOD-Shift-Number}, number being one of the numbers 1 to 9.
You can then switch views by pressing \emph{MOD+Number}.
You can then switch views by pressing \emph{MOD-Number}.
Whenever a new client is created, it automatically gets the tag of
the current view.
@ -366,6 +404,32 @@
then be able to assign multiple tags to one client and to use
proper strings as tags.
\subsection{How do I close a window}
Well, first of all every X-Client should have an option to close a
window. But -as Murphy said- the world isn't like it should
be. Thus, the Window Manager has to provide a fix for this. In
wmii, we abandoned silly title-bar buttons and created a shortcut
\emph{MOD-Shift-c} to close a window.
\subsection{How do I start programs}
You may start programs out of a xterm. But in wmii, there is a
special program launcher, which is accessible per
\emph{MOD-p}. Please note, that the logic behind this program
launcher is mainly implemented in a shell-script.
You will see a list of programs. If you now start to type, the
launcher will cut that list to only show programs whose names
include the letters you typed (in that order). Whenever there is
only one option left, the launcher chooses it and you can start it
by pressing \emph{Enter}. You are free to cancel any action by
pressing \emph{ESC}.
Thus, if you want to start firefox, just type ``fire'' and press
enter\footnote{On my system it is sufficient to type ``efo'' to
start firefox;-)}.
\section{Looking under the hood}
In this chapter you will learn how wmii was designed, which ideas
@ -397,16 +461,24 @@
protocol.
The basic ideas for configuring and running wmii were taken from
Plan9 too. Like in Plan9, everything configurable in wmii is a
file. Thus, if you want to interact with a running wmii, you may
alter those files either using the shipped tool \emph{wmiir} or -
if you use fuse - you may also mount the virtual file-system of
wmii into your global name-space.
\subsection{wmiir}
Plan9 too. Like in Plan9, everything configurable in wmii has a
file-like interface, so everything is accessed consistently Thus,
if you want to interact with a running wmii, you may access those
files either using the shipped tool \emph{wmiir} or - if you use
9p2000 - you may also mount the virtual file-system of wmii under
some directory in the hierarchy maintained by the OS kernel.
\subsection{Tools}
This section gives an little overview of the tools that wmii, but
for more detailed explanations you should read the man page of each
tool, that comes with wmii.
\begin{description}
\item
\emph{wmiir} is a little tool we use to alter the files in the
virtual file-system of wmii. It basically has four tasks:
virtual file-system of wmii. It basically has four operations:
\begin{itemize*}
\item read
@ -415,120 +487,238 @@
\item create
\end{itemize*}
Wmiir needs to know the socket file of the file-system to work
on. Usually this is already defined in the environment variable
\begin{verbatim}
WMIIR_SOCKET
\end{verbatim}. If it isn't, or you want to work on another
file-system, you may specify it manually with the switch -s
socket-file.
A sample invocation would look like the following:
Wmiir needs to know the address of the file-system to work
on, so on startup wmii sets the environment variable
\verb+WMIIR_ADDRESS+ to make sure any tool wanting to
communicate with wmiiwm know it's file-system address.
This address can be:
\begin{itemize*}
\item a local unix address given with \verb+unix!/path/to/socket+
\item a tcp address given with \verb+tcp!hostname:port+
\end{itemize*}
If you want to work on another file-system, you may specify it
manually with the switch \emph{-a address}. A sample invocation
would look like the following:
\begin{verbatim}
wmiir read /
\end{verbatim}
This command actually prints the root of the virtual file-system
of wmii.
\subsection{wmiimenu}
\emph{wmiimenu} is a generic X11 menu. It is highly customisable,
\item
\emph{wmiimenu} is a generic X11 menu. It is highly adaptable,
efficient and supports user-defined contents. You may want to
learn more about it by reading the man-page.
\subsection{wmiiwarp}
\item
\emph{wmiiwarp} is a little tool to position the mouse pointer to
different places. It only takes two coordinates as arguments.
\subsection{wmiiwm}
\item
\emph{wmiiwm} is the main window manager binary. You may interact
with its virtual file-system only.
\subsection{wmiipsel}
\item
\emph{wmiipsel} prints the contents of the X clipboard to
STDOUT. This is useful for scripts.
\end{description}
\subsection{Conclusion}
By having the virtual file-system and a lightweight protocol to
fit our tools together, we are now able to fully script our window
manager. You will see some examples in the chapter ``Scripting
wmii''.
manager. You will see some examples in the section
\ref{sec:scripting}.
\section{Scripting wmii}
\label{sec:scripting}
In this chapter you will see how to script wmii. I will give you a
good starting point and give you some examples so you can start your
own examples.
In this chapter you will see how to script wmii. I will give you
some notes so you can start scripting on your own.
\subsection{Language}
You may script wmii in any programming language you want. However,
for the sake of simplicity, I'll use ``sh'' for the examples. I
chose ``sh'' because the standard startup scripts of wmii are
written in ``sh'' too.
As you've seen the only requirement for interacting with wmii is
to do operations on wmii's file-system hierarchy, and the easiest
way to do this need is by using wmiir, so shell scripting is the
easiest way of adapting wmii too fit your needs.
When you start your own experiments, just use the language you are
most comfortable with.
Given the above, you may script wmii in any programming language
you want. However, wmii's default scripts are written in a subset
of ``sh'' that is POSIX compliant so wmii is \emph{portable}. As
we don't need more complexity and wanted to give examples that
worked everywhere without dependencies on python, tcl, ruby, \dots
thus the following examples will stick with the well known ``sh''.
\subsection{wmiirc}
\emph{wmiirc} is a ``sh''-script, which is run on startup of
wmii. It first sets up the initial file-system, writes some values
to certain files and then starts the event loop to react on
certain events like key-presses or mouse clicks. For the basic
configuration of wmii this is probably the place to look at.
You may edit this file on the fly, which means you don't need to
stop wmii before editing. After you finished editing, you may
simply run wmiirc and the changes will take effect.
To run the altered wmiirc just go to the actions menu
\emph{MOD+Control+a} and choose \emph{wmiirc}.
% - who doesn't have a shell?, extra! we're giving them for free this week
\subsection{actions}
In wmii you may group certain tasks into \emph{actions}. Actions
are nothing more than simple executables which are located either
in your local or in your global wmii configuration directory.
are nothing more than simple scripts which are located either in
your local or in the default wmii configuration
directory~\footnote{ \texttt{\$CONFPREFIX} is set in
\emph{config.mk} and by default points to \texttt{/usr/local/etc}
or \texttt{~/.wmii-3} if you have such a directory}.
By pressing \emph{MOD-a} you can open the actions-menu. If works
similar to the program launcher, but only shows actions.
% \footbote{This is normally either ~/.wmii-3/ or
% /usr/local/etc/wmii-3}
You might want to add your own actions by writing shell scripts
and putting them into the right directory. For this you should
place a copy of the default action from the default wmii
configuration directory to your \texttt{\~{}/.wmii-3}, this way
your local copy will be executed instead.
This works because in the \emph{wmii} launcher script alters and
exports the variable \verb+\${}PATH+ as\\
\verb+\${}PATH=\~{}/.wmii-3:\${}CONFPREFIX/wmii:\${}PATH+ before
launching the wmiiwm, this way local user actions under
\verb+~/.wmii-3+ take precedence over the defaults from
\verb+\${}CONFPREFIX/wmii+ of the default actions.
You may edit this file on the fly, which means you don't need to
stop wmii before editing. After you've finished editing, you may
simply run wmiirc and the changes will take effect, to do so just
open the actions menu (via \emph{MOD-a}) and choose the
\emph{action}.
As you see, even \emph{wmiirc} is an \emph{action}. You might want
to add your own actions by writing shell scripts and putting them
into the right directory.
\subsection{wmiirc}
\emph{wmiirc} is a special ``sh''-script which is run on startup
of wmii, it's name is the result of ${}wmiirc=wmii+rc$~\footnote{
see \hrefx{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rc}.} , so as it's name
says takes care of running a set of commands for configuring
wmii. It does so by setting up the initial file-system, writing
some values to certain files and then enters the handling event
loop to react on events like key-presses, mouse clicks or
artificial events.
For the basic configuration of wmii, as changing the default
modifier key \emph{MOD=Mod1} or the navigation keys (by default
the \emph{hjkl} vim home row) this is probably the place to look
at.
\subsection{Practical execises}
\subsection{Filling the status-bar}
\subsubsection{Assigning new tags}
\label{subsec:status}
The status bar of wmii, has it's own directory \verb+/bar+ with
one subdirectory for each of the labels created. So while editing
this document the status-bar looked like:
As I told you before, you can do much more things with tags than
what you can do with the standard key-bindings. You might use
any string as a tag. You may even use more than one tag per
client. To do so, you have to seperate the tags with a ``+''.
\begin{verbatim}
$ wmiir read /bar
d-r-x------ salva salva 0 Mon Apr 17 14:19:51 2006 1
d-r-x------ salva salva 0 Mon Apr 17 14:19:51 2006 2
d-r-x------ salva salva 0 Mon Apr 17 14:19:51 2006 status
\end{verbatim}
At the same time each of the subdirectories contains two files,
\begin{verbatim}
echo -n foo+bar | wmiir write /view/sel/sel/tags
\end{verbatim}
\begin{verbatim}
$ wmiir read /bar/status
--rw------- salva salva 23 Mon Apr 17 14:22:14 2006 colors
--rw------- salva salva 23 Mon Apr 17 14:22:14 2006 data
\end{verbatim}
This command would give the current focused client the tags
``foo'' and ``bar''.
You may now go to the new view foo by executing the following:
The first file contains the colour definitions that control how the
bar will be painted(appearance), while the second holds the data
to show (content).
So you can start your own experiments by creating a new label, and
explore and modify it by reading \& writing values to it's
\verb+colors+ \& \verb+data+ files. A nice feature of the bar
(and clients) is that they generate events corresponding to mouse
clicks on them. So you can open a terminal and launch
\verb+wmiir read /event+ and and see how the events are generated
when you click the bar, this is a mechanism that allows
controlling applications directly from the bar, when you've
finished, and don't want to look the \verb+foo+ label, just issue
a \verb+wmiir remove /bar/foo+.
If you want to know more take a look at the status script, also
look the pages at \hrefx{http://wmii.de} for good examples, some
useful ideas that are already written:
\begin{verbatim}
echo -n select foo | wmiir write /ctl
\end{verbatim}
\begin{itemize*}
\item \emph{status}: monitoring remaining battery, temperature,\dots on laptops
\item \emph{status-mpd}: controlling the running mpd
\item \emph{status-load}: show the machine load
\item \emph{status-net}: monitoring wireless network signal
\end{itemize*}
And last read the default status script and ask yourself: what it
does? \verbatiminput{../rc/status} The first line is a
\verb+xwrite+ function declaration, to save us from typing a lot,
all it does is to issue a write over the file named by first
argument. The following 3 lines take care of creating and setting
up the \verb+status+ label. And the last section is a \verb+while+
loop that \emph{tries} to write the machine's load and date
information to the bar.\\
The tricky bit here is \emph{tries}, so what could make the write
fail?, what would happen if \verb+xwrite+ wrote to a non existent
(removed) label, then it would fail, thus the condition of the
loop would be false, and the status script would end cleanly, that
makes sense because who want a program that updates a nonexistent
label.\\
\subsubsection{Filling the status-bar}
Now if we go back to the first lines of the script you can see
that there is a \verb+sleep delay+ between the removal of the
label and it's creation.
This ensures that the \verb+status+ label will not exist, so all
the writes made from a any previously running \verb+status+ script
to it will fail, so they will finish.This way we make sure that we
only run one at each time. And thus we keep the one-to-one
correspondence between label and status script.\\
Now if you think that was neat, go to a public library and pick up
a copy of for example:
% \href{http://tpop.awl.com}{The Practice of Programming} (recall I don't get a cent for this).
\subsection{Assigning new tags}
As I told you before, you can do much more things with tags than
what you can do with the standard key-bindings. You might use any
string as a tag. You may even use more than one tag per client. To
do so, you have to separate the tags with a `` ''.
\begin{verbatim}
echo -n web code | wmiir write /view/sel/sel/tags
\end{verbatim}
This command would give the current focused client the tags
``web'' and ``code''.
You may now go to the new view web by executing the following:
\begin{verbatim}
echo -n view web | wmiir write /ctl
\end{verbatim}
\section{The End}
We hope this has eased your way through wmii, because this is the
purpose of this document and so, if you've seen something that you
thing it's wrong, confusion or missing in this document, feel free
to drop us a note, by the way you consider convenient:
\href{http://wmii.de/index.php/BeginnersGuide}{direct mail},
\href{http://wmii.de/index.php/MailingList}{[wmii]} mailing-list,
\href{http://wmii.de/index.php/IRC}{\#wmii} irc channel or even
with smoke signals~\footnote{ but don't ask us for advice, here
you're on your own \texttt{;-P}.}.
Also remember that wmii is written by people with taste, so most
of the decisions made, have strong reasons supporting them, so if
you think something doesn't make sense in the picture just try to
understand it first by yourself before asking, probably you'll end
up learning a lot and if in the end it's wrong you'll provide
better feedback to solve the issue.
\section{Copyright notice}