WINDOWLAB(1x)

📦
version 1.40+git20240604.1cba02c · 3 versions
, in ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

🌸 WINDOWLAB(1x) 🌸

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're about to talk about windowlab — the little X11 window manager with main character energy. this is the manual page for it, and yes, we're going through every single line. no skimming. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

windowlab — a window manager for X11 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

windowlab [options...]

that's it. that's the whole vibe. you run it, it manages your windows. iconic. ✨

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

windowlab is a small and simple window manager of novel design. like, actually novel. not in a "we redesigned the same thing" way.

Here's the whole personality:

  • it's got a click-to-focus policy, but not a raise-on-focus policy. so you click a window and it gets focus — but it does not jump to the front. respectfully, it stays where it is. 😌
  • it has a window resizing mechanism that lets you change one or many edges of a window in a single action. one action. slay.
  • it has an innovative menubar that shares the same part of the screen as the taskbar. same real estate, two jobs, she's multitasking. 👑

Window titlebars are prevented from going off the edge of the screen by constraining the mouse pointer, and when appropriate the pointer is also constrained to the taskbar/menubar, which makes target menu items easier to hit. the pointer literally gets gently escorted to where it needs to be. so thoughtful. 🥹

WindowLab places a taskbar at the top of the screen and adds a titlebar to the top of each window. These titlebars consist of a draggable area, and three icons on the right hand side. When you left click them:

  • it hides the window 🙈
  • it toggles the window's Z order Amiga style — if it's not at the front, it brings it to the front, otherwise it sends it to the back 🔄
  • it closes the window 💀

Another way to toggle a window's Z order (depth) is by double left clicking on the draggable part of its titlebar. two clicks, new depth. no cap.

Windows' titlebars are prevented from leaving the screen and cannot overlap the taskbar. boundaries, bestie. we love to see them.

The taskbar should list all windows currently in use. Left clicking on a window's taskbar item will give that window focus and toggle its Z order (depth). two things at once, because why not. ✨

to resize the active window: hold down alt and push against the window's edges with the left mouse button down. that's the whole trick. 🎀

If you right click outside a client window, WindowLab's taskbar becomes a menubar. Releasing the right mouse button over a selected menu item will start a corresponding external program. 🚀

WindowLab will look in each of the following files in turn for definitions of the menu labels and commands:

  • ~/.windowlab/windowlab.menurc
  • ../etc/windowlab.menurc (from the directory containing the executable)
  • /etc/X11/windowlab/windowlab.menurc

Each line in the menurc file should have the menu label, a colon, and then the corresponding command, eg:

The GIMP:gimp

literally just label, colon, command. that's the format. you got this. 💖

New windows (that don't specify their location) are positioned according to the coordinates of the mouse — the top-left hand corner of a new window is set to the location of the mouse pointer. and if necessary the window will be moved to ensure that all of it is on the screen. she'll nudge it for you. 🫶

⌨️ keyboard controls ⌨️

WindowLab has the following keyboard controls. Hold down alt and press:

  • tab to give focus to the previous window ⬅️
  • q to give focus to the next window ➡️
  • F11 to toggle fullscreen mode on and off for non transient windows 🖥️
  • F12 to toggle the window's depth. this is the same as left clicking a window's middle icon 🔄

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -font font-spec — Draw window titles with the font defined by font-spec. your titles, your typeface, your rules. ✨
  • -border color, -text color, -active color, -inactive color, -menu color, -selected color, -empty color — Use color for the borders, the text, the active background, the inactive background, the menubar, the selected menu item and empty parts of the screen. that's the whole palette right there. 🎨
  • -about — Print information to stdout and exit. hi, bye, here's the info. 👋
  • -display — Sets which X display will be managed by windowlab. 📺

🌈 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🌈

  • DISPLAY — Sets which X display will be managed by windowlab. same energy as -display, just from the environment instead. iykyk. 🌍

This version of WindowLab supports the Debian Menu subsystem. To update the menus, it suffices to execute the command update-menus.

If executed as root, the system setting in

/etc/X11/windowlab/windowlab.menurc

will be affected, whereas execution by any underprivileged user only effects the private resource file in

~/.windowlab/windowlab.menurc.

The following files tune the compilation of auto-generated menus:

  • /etc/X11/windowlab/debian_config, ~/.windowlab/debian_config — Debian-specific system configuration and user-specific overrides. 🛠️
  • /etc/X11/windowlab/common_menu — A common tail part, that currently encompasses About, Reload and Quit. All users get these entries included in their menu. 🫶
  • ~/.windowlab/user_menu — Menu entries hand-picked by the individual user. your menu, your choices, your era. 💖

⭐ SIGNALS ⭐

When WindowLab receives a SIGHUP signal, it will reload all relevant menu resource files, thus updating the menu bar. she refreshes on demand. ✨

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

X(7), The Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual (from the X11R6 documentation).

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Nick Gravgaard (nick at nick-gravgaard.com)

and that's the whole page, bestie. this manual page is version 1.40, written by Nick Gravgaard, and it's filed under WINDOWLAB(1x). go forth and manage some windows. periodt. 💜🦋✨

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