4.3BSD-UWisc/man/cat1/xwm.1
XWM(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XWM(1)
NAME
xwm - X Window System, window manager process
SYNOPSIS
xwm [ -cfgmrsz ] [ +_f_u_n_c_t_i_o_n ] [ @_d_e_l_t_a ] [ fn=_f_o_n_t ] [
fi=_f_o_n_t ] [ _h_o_s_t:_d_i_s_p_l_a_y ]
DESCRIPTION
The window manager allows you to use the mouse to push a
window to the top or bottom of the stack, turn a window
into an icon, resize a window, move a window elsewhere
on the screen, attach the keyboard to a window (hierarchy)
and circulate the window hierarchy. The window manager
only manipulates top-level windows (i.e., direct decendents
of the root window), not their subwindows, so in the
following, references to window refer only to top-level win-
dows.
Since _x_w_m does not have a window of its own it
steals certain button/key combinations and interprets them
as operations on existing windows. The key combination
is specified on the command line with some subset of the
options: `c' (control), `s' (shift), `m' (meta) and `n'
(no-key). For example, if you specify the options -cm then
the Control and Meta keys must be down at the time a mouse
button is depressed. If no combination is specified in
the command line, Meta is the default. If `n' is specified
anywhere in the option list all keys will be ignored.
For each mouse button, a different command is performed
depending on whether the button is `clicked' or `moved',
i.e., whether the mouse is moved between the press and
release of the button. Some actual movement is allowed
before the mouse is really considered to have moved,
the amount of movement is settable (see below). The
mouse buttons perform the commands described below. For
any of these commands, if you press a button to start a
command, and then want to abort the command, simply press
one of the other buttons before releasing the first
button. As each command is being performed the mouse
cursor will be changed to indicate which command is in
effect.
If the left button is clicked in a window it will `push'
the window you are pointing at to the bottom of any stack of
overlapping windows. If clicked on the root window a
`circulate down' operation will be performed on the root
window moving the top most window in the hierarchy to
the bottom. For any of these operations the mouse cursor
will be a `dot'.
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The left button will also `iconify' the window you point at
if it is pressed down and then moved. When you release
the button, the window will be made into an icon at the
current mouse location. If the window being iconified
has its own icon, then that icon will be used. If not _x_w_m
will create and maintain its own text icon using the
name of the window as the initial text. For any of
these operations the mouse cursor will be an `icon' cursor.
The name displayed in an _x_w_m owned text icon can be edited
at any time by placing the mouse cursor in the
icon and typing. Note: Modifying text displayed in an icon
window will modify the name of the window associated with
that icon. The delete key deletes the last character,
Control-U deletes the entire name, any other printing
characters are appended to the current name. When the mouse
cursor in an _x_w_m text icon it will be a `text' cursor (`I
bar' cursor).
If you click the middle button on an icon, the window you
iconified will reappear in its previous position on the
screen and the icon will disappear. For this operation
the mouse cursor will be an `arrow cross' cursor.
The middle button is used to resize a window by moving a
corner or an edge. If you press it on a window, a rubber
banded outline of the window will be displayed (and a
grid if you specify the `g' option explained below) and mov-
ing the mouse will change its size, leaving the opposite
corner or other edges fixed. The corner or edge to be
moved depends on the where the mouse is when the button is
pressed. Imagine the window divided with grid of nine rec-
tangles (the same grid that the `g' option displays). If
the mouse is in one of the four corner rectangles or
the center rectangle, then the corner closest to the mouse
will be moved; otherwise, the closest edge will be moved.
When the button is released, the window will be
resized. For these operations the mouse cursor will be an
`arrow cross' cursor.
The middle button can also be used to focus keyboard
input to a specific window i.e., keyboard input will go to
the specified window (hierarchy) even when the mouse
is outside the window. If the 'f' option is specified
clicking the middle button twice on a window will attach
the keyboard to that window. Clicking the middle button on
the background will detach the keyboard from any window
(actually, it attaches it to the background window). For
this operation the mouse cursor will be an 'arrow cross'
cursor.
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The right button, if clicked in a window, will `pull' the
window you are pointing at to the top of any stack of
overlapping windows. If clicked on the root window a
`circulate up' operation will be performed moving the
bottom most window in the hierarchy to the top. For these
operations the mouse cursor will be a `circle' cursor.
The right button will also move the window you are pointing
at if it is pressed down and then moved. An outline of
the window (and a grid if you specified the 'g' option) will
appear, and will move with the mouse cursor. When you
release the right button, the window will be moved to the
current location of the outline. For this operation the
mouse cursor will be a 'circle' cursor.
OPTION SUMMARY:
c The `c' (control) option specifies that the Control
key must be held down for _x_w_m to listen to mouse
button operations.
f The `f' (focus) option specifies that a double-click
on the middle button will focus keyboard input
events to the specified window.
g The (grid) option turns on a tick-tack-toe
like grid that will be displayed inside the `win-
dow box' during window movement and resize opera-
tions.
m The `m' (meta) option specifies that the Meta key
must be held down for _x_w_m to listen to mouse button
operations.
n The `n' (no-key) option specifies no keys may be
down when performing mouse button operation.
r The `r' (reverse) option indicates that icons should
be displayed as white text on a black back-
ground, rather than black text on a white back-
ground.
s The `s' (shift) options indicates that the Shift key
must be held down for _x_w_m to listen to mouse button
operations.
z The `z' (zap) option turns on a special `zap' effect
that is intended to draw your attention to icons
as they are created and windows as they are moved.
ARGUMENT SUMMARY:
+_f_u_n_c_t_i_o_n
This argument allows you to specify a cursor
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display function. It should be followed by an
integer specifying the code of the display function.
See the Xlib document for details of available
functions. The default function is GXcopy.
@_d_e_l_t_a This argument allows you to specify a mouse _d_e_l_t_a
value. This value determines how far the mouse must
move with a button down before the iconify, move
and change operations begin. The default is 5 pix-
els. Note that if you define a large delta, you
can still make fine adjustments by first moving
far away and then moving back.
fn=_f_o_n_t This argument allow you to specify a text _f_o_n_t
to be used in pop up information display. The
default font is 6x10.
fi=_f_o_n_t This argument allow you to specify an icon text
font. The default font is 6x10.
_h_o_s_t:_d_i_s_p_l_a_y
This argument allow you to specify the the host and
display number on which _x_w_m will operate. For
example `xwm orpheus:1' would start up the window
manager on display one on the machine orpheus. By
default, _x_w_m uses the host and display number
stored in the environment variable DISPLAY, and
therefore this argument is not normally specified.
The window manager can be running anywhere, and you
can run more than one manager per display (provided
that they do not attempt to use the same mouse but-
ton / key combinations, see below).
X DEFAULTS
BodyFont
Set the default font for information display.
IconFont
Set the default font for text icons.
InternalBorder
Set the space between the text and window border in
text icons.
BorderWidth
Set the border width of text icons.
ReverseVideo
Display text icons in reverse video?
ENVIRONMENT
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DISPLAY To get default host and display number.
SEE ALSO
X(1), X(8C)
AUTHOR
Copyright 1985, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Tony Della Fera, DEC MIT Project Athena
Based upon previous `xwm' by Bob Scheifler, MIT Laboratory
for Computer Science
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