Re: worthless window manager

[Kevin Colby <kevinc grainsystems com>]

Whoa...  lots of questions.


Vic wrote:
> 
> How do I run the setup tool for fvwm?

I am not personally aware of any, although there ought
to be, since the rc file is fairly straightforward.

> I mean how is this wm setup?
> With a script that I missed?
> Or another thingy?

"Other".  fvwm (and actually, even enlightenment and kin)
are actually setup by config files, often called rc files
because config files in Unix are often named ".<productname>rc".
Thus fvwm's config is in ".fvwmrc".  There is actually also
a system-wide default rc file named something else too.
"man fvwm" and/or "man fvwmrc" might shed light on this,
and there are countless example configs on the web.

More modern window managers come with GUI front-ends to
their own config files.  You used to just do it by hand.

> I do like the fact that it runs fast.

fvwm also doesn't do a lot of cool things enlightenment does,
but there is a price to pay for it.

> Mebbe I missed the point of these things.
> Are they strictly for *developers* purposes?

No.  Although developers certainly use them.

> Then they would be a good skeleton for experimenting
> with inventing a new window manager and/or GUI.

fvwm is quite fast and solid.  That's why so many other
window managers borrow heavily from its source.

> Like if the one who came out with that kde theme
> that looks like the mac os was messing around with
> the source of olwm and came up with it that way?

More likely he edited up a theme to look and feel like a Mac.
If you know what you want, it's not that hard.

> So conceivably someone could create an entirely 
> different wm or even GUI just by messing around with
> the source from one of these wm's?

Source editing is only needed to change the wm at a very
fundamental level--to change how it works.  If you want
to merely change aesthetic components of the desktop
(the look and feel), you can probably get what you want
simply by playing with the config.  X window managers
are _far_ more configurable than you would believe,
orders of magnitude moreso than any MS OS.

	- Kevin Colby
	  kevinc grainsystems com