areawm

My history of usage of desktop environments and window managers started under a $NOTFROMREDMOND-OS with:

• KDE - which felt bloated after some time. So I switched to
• $SMALL_AND_FAST_WM. After some time the wasting of workspace made me switch to
• $SMALL_AND_FAST_TILING_WM. As time goes by the handling of some things (which are better on a floating desktop like gimp) also did't seem to be the solution (for me).

Now programs start floating and can be sent to defined areas. Programs already using an area can be focused with a keybinding. Swapping windows with windows in areas is also possible.

openbox, wmctrl (patched), xbindkeys und a few scripts do this for me.

areawm is no Windowmanager, but a script which enhance a given window manager.

The desktop is divided into so called areas. These areas have defined positions and sizes.

• to send windows to area use the option -t. Command: areactrl -t <area>
• to focus window in a area use the option -f. Command: areactrl -f <area>
• to swap windows with a window in a area use -w. Command: areactrl -w <area>

xbindkeys or another tool is used for keybindings to invoke the scripts.

~/.xbindkeysrc example:

 
"[$PATH]/areactrl -f 1" 
   Control + 1 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -f 2" 
   Control + 2 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -f 3" 
   Control + 3 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -f 4" 
   Control + 4 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -f 5" 
   Control + 5 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -f 6" 
   Control + 6 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -f 7" 
   Control + 7 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -t 1" 
   Control+Shift + 1 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -t 2" 
   Control+Shift + 2 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -t 3" 
   Control+Shift + 3 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -t 4" 
   Control+Shift + 4 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -t 5" 
   Control+Shift + 5 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -t 6" 
   Control+Shift + 6 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -t 7" 
   Control+Shift + 7 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -w 1" 
   Mod4+Control + 1 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -w 2" 
   Mod4+Control + 2 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -w 3" 
   Mod4+Control + 3 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -w 4" 
   Mod4+Control + 4 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -w 5" 
   Mod4+Control + 5 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -w 6" 
   Mod4+Control + 6 

"[$PATH]/areactrl -w 7" 
   Mod4+Control + 7 

Areas will defined in ~/.areasrc like this (notice the space at the beginning of each line):

 <x> <y> <width> <height>

Example ~/.areasrc with 6 areas:

 
 0 740 594 310 
 596 740 582 310 
 1181 740 354 260 
 0 0 1050 736 
 1056 0 624 370 
 1056 370 624 360 

Hint: a easy way to define areas is to place x-terminals and start areactrl -c or check output from wmctrl -l -G (resizehints)

more screenshots (some with configs).

• if wmctrl -l doesn't list all windows try this patch (64bit)

• enable cycle through windows in given area (maybe areas with tabbing can be realized with pekwm after this enhancement. With pekwm and fluxbox it is possible to cycle through windows (same position and size) with Mod4+Up/Down/Left/Right
• implement special-areas

• the areawm-scripts are mentioned at the Tasks from pekwm
• dynamic-x-terminal

Send feedback, improvements and critics to deifl@deifl-web.de.

… can be found on the User Configs page.

• Ralfs patched version of wmctrl: wmctrl-1.07-patched.tar.gz needed
• wmctrl.patch
• most recent Version: hg-tip
• all together: areawm-scripts-0.2.tar.gz

Old versions:

• areawm-scripts-0.1-alpha.tar.gz
• areawm-scripts-0.1.1-alpha.tar.gz
• areawm-scripts with KDE and desktop support from Ralf: areawm-scripts-0.1-alpha_kde_multiple-desktop.tgz (included since 0.1.1-alpha)
• areawm-scripts-0.2.tar.gz

Mercurial:

• click here or use:

hg clone http://deifl.modprobe.de/hg areawm

• evilareawm

• Ralf for patching wmctrl and contributing stuff and ideas
• Okraits for helping to translate

which seems to be lazy to comment here

• send windows to next/previous area [from Grauwolf]
• group the areafiles for workspaces (~/.areasrc/0) together [from Grauwolf]

To stay informed about changes there is a areawm RSS-Feed availible.