Re: New idea (was: Re: Package managment idea...)

[Matthew Berg <wdomburg pce net>]

Havoc Pennington wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 27 Dec 1998, Matthew Berg wrote:
> >
> > Actually, I was kind of thinking about trying to write the "Ultimate
> > Window Manager" for integration into desktop environments.  Considering
> > that projects like GNOME already provide their own application lanchers,
> > pagers, etc, and traditional window managers usually provide their own,
> > I was thinking about writing a window manager core that would merely
> > provide hooks for external modules to provide the window frames, app
> > menus, etc, etc.
> >
> > The idea being that this would allow a replacement of the modules in
> > order to make it look and feel however you want, without the need to go
> > window manager hopping like people do now.
> >
> 
> This is exactly what Enlightenment is. :-) Well, maybe it provides default
> modules for all those things instead of merely providing hooks, but all
> the things you mentioned are configurable and it works with the external
> Gnome pagers and launchers.
> 
> Scwm also lets or will let you replace all that stuff, but modules are
> written in Scheme instead of C.
> 
> Havoc

This is why I don't use E - 

  [root@damballah share]# ldd /usr/bin/enlightenment
	libFnlib.so.0 => /usr/lib/libFnlib.so.0 (0x40007000)
	libttf.so.2 => /usr/lib/libttf.so.2 (0x4000f000)
	libXtst.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXtst.so.6 (0x40026000)
	libesd.so.0 => /usr/lib/libesd.so.0 (0x4002b000)
	libaudiofile.so.0 => /usr/lib/libaudiofile.so.0 (0x40030000)
	libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x4003d000)
	libImlib.so.1 => /usr/lib/libImlib.so.1 (0x40056000)
	libjpeg.so.62 => /usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62 (0x4007f000)
	libtiff.so.3 => /usr/lib/libtiff.so.3 (0x4009d000)
	libpng.so.2 => /usr/lib/libpng.so.2 (0x400c8000)
	libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x400e2000)
	libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x400f0000)
	libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x400fc000)
	libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x40104000)
	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x40118000)
	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x401af000)
	/lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x2aaaa000)
  [root@damballah share]# 

Well, there's that and 

  -rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       287227 Dec 16 21:08
/usr/bin/enlightenment
                                     ------

And of course, there's no way (as far as I can tell) to change the
keybinding without hitting the source code.  And only the beginnings of
root menus.  And the fact that it currently doesn't work on anything
less that 15bpp.

What I want is something where the main executable is as light and fast
as possible and is completely seperated from the GUI.  That way I have
the choice of loading a module that allows for funky (often ugly)
desktops, or something simple clean and memory efficient. 

And by concentrating on the core system and basic modules first, the
development cycle could be cut down considerably. 

In any case, I have to bone up on lower level X programming.  :)  Any
suggestions for good material?

  Matthew Berg