[ANNOUNCE] Sawfish 1.8.0 Release-Candidate

[Christopher Roy Bratusek <zanghar freenet de>]

Hi folks,

in the name of the Sawfish-Team I'm proud to announce the immediate availability of

        Sawfish 1.8.0 Release-Candidate
                "Unity Without Words"

What's Sawfish?
===============

Sawfish is an extensible window manager using a Lisp-based scripting language. Its
policy is very minimal compared to most window managers. Its aim is simply to manage
windows in the most flexible and attractive manner possible. All high-level WM
functions are implemented in Lisp for future extensibility or redefinition.

These are some of the features that set Sawfish apart from other window managers:

* Powerful key-binding: Virtually every functionality provided by Sawfish can be
  bound to keys (or mouse buttons). 

* Event hooking: For many events (moving windows etc.) you can customize the way
  Sawfish will respond. 

* Window matching: When windows are created you can match them to a set of rules and
  automatically perform actions on them.

* Flexible theming: Sawfish allows for very different themes to be created and a
  variety of third-party themes are readily available.

Sawfish was formerly known as Sawmill but then renamed to Sawfish due to pending
patents on the name Sawmill. It's original Author is John Harper who got employed by
Apple which prohibited him to continue working on Sawfish (and librep/rep-gtk). In
Mid 2007 Janek 'The Re-Animator' Kozicki overtook the development of Sawfish. In Mid
2008 Christopher 'Flashrider' Bratusek overtook development of librep and rep-gtk,
followed by Sawfish and SawfishPager in December 2008.

Where to get more infos/news ?
Where to get in contact with the community?
============================

Homepage (Wiki): http://sawfish.wikia.com
Mailing-List: http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/sawfish-list
BugZilla: http://bugzilla.gnome.org
IRC: sawfish freenode
Twitter: @nanolx

Where to download?
=============

Tar/BZ2: http://download.tuxfamily.org/sawfish/sawfish/sawfish-1.8.0~RC.tar.bz2 4,0 MB
SHA1SUM: http://download.tuxfamily.org/sawfish/sawfish/sawfish-1.8.0~RC.tar.bz2.sha1

Tar/XZ : http://download.tuxfamily.org/sawfish/sawfish/sawfish-1.8.0~RC.tar.xz  2,60 MB
SHA1SUM: http://download.tuxfamily.org/sawfish/sawfish/sawfish-1.8.0~RC.tar.xz.sha1

What's the latest stable version?
=====================

Sawfish 1.7.1

When will the final version be released?
=========================

No date is set yet, expect it around Jan/Feb 2011

What's new since 1.7.0?
===============

1.8.0 "Unity Without Words"
=================

   * Notes
        - Renamed function `popup-window-menu' to
          `popup-window-ops-menu' [Teika kazura]

          Both the function and the command are renamed. The old name
          is still supported, but it's recommended to update your
          configuration.

        - User option `focus-ignore-pointer-events' is deleted. [Teika
          kazura]
          In fact, it's for internal use, and should not have been a
          user option. Use your favorite focus mode instead.

   * Build and Installation
        - Fixed installation for non-root users [Stefano Sabatini]

          Previously when installing to a private directory as an
          ordinary user, the installation failed, because some files
          were forced to be installed in /usr. This is fixed now.

        - Chooseable session files [Christopher Bratusek]

          Now you can choose what session files to install. This is
          done by a tripplet of configure-options:

             * -with/out-kde4session: enable or disable the
               installation of session files for KDE4. Default: enabled

             * -with/out-gnome2session: enable or disable the
               installation of session files for GNOME2.
               Default: enabled

             * -with/out-xdmsession: enable or disable the installation
               of session files for XDM (or other display-managers like
               KDM/GDM). Default: enabled

        - Spec-File compatibility for RHEL 6 beta [Kim B. Heino]

        - Debian-Scripts compatibility for Debian/Experimental
          [Christopher Bratusek]

   * Bug fixes
        - Poweroff-menu fix [Teika Kazura, Christopher Bratusek]

          In Sawfish-1.7.0, poweroff related items in the popup menu
          couldn't be invoked, if run without any desktop environment.
          Fixed it.

        - Correctly build SawfishPager [Christopher Bratusek]

          It is ensured that SawfishPager builds correctly, by
          improving `sawfish.pc' file.

        - KDE *.desktop files location [Teika Kazura]

          Previously, user's change of the variable
          `kde-desktop-directories' was ignored, but this is fixed.

        - Window cycle among groups [Teika Kazura]

          Some windows were skipped in window cycles among groups. This
          is fixed.

        - Cancellation of `call-command' [Teika kazura]

          It used to print an error message when you cancel an
          interactive call of `call-command' with the escape key, but
          it doesn't any more.

   * New Features
        - EdgeActions [Christopher Bratusek, Teika Kazura]

          EdgeActions is a centralized way for performing actions with
          your screen-edges. Lots of internal and user-visiable changes
          have been made.

          Internal changes:
             * Some functions have been moved from Lisp to C-Part. Also
               EdgeFlip has been highly revised, so that other technics
               (namely ViewportDrag and HotSpots) do no longer depend
               on active EdgeFlip (no more conflicts)

             * The module `sawfish.wm.edge.actions' contains the
               EdgeAction infrastructure and most options

             * The module `sawfish.wm.edge.util' contains helper
               functions for EdgeActions

             * The module `sawfish.wm.edge.subrs' contains the C-Part
               subroutines for EdgeActions

             * InfiniteDesktop is renamed to ViewportDrag (more
               self-descriptive)

             * General code-revision. Less but more powerful code is
               now in use

               User-visible changes:

             * Centralized customization ("Edge Actions" group in
               SawfishConfig)

             * EdgeFlip changes. Additionally to the above stated
               internal changes, EdgeFlip has been split into
               EdgeFlip/Viewport and EdgeFlip/Workspace, giving you
               more customizability.

             * HotSpots have been added. HotSpots let you call
               functions when hitting either the corners or the edges.
               By default the corners extend by 50 px in both
               directions along the edge, this value is changable.

               HotSpot functions need to be set via `~/.sawfishrc',
               like this:

               ( defvar-setq top-left-corner-function   ( lambda () (
               display-message "hello world" ) ) )

               the lambda is very important - it won't work else.
               Function names are pretty self-descriptive: position
               (eg: top-left or bottom) + variant (edge or corner) +
               "function".

             * ViewportDrag now also works while moving a window.

             * Delay-timer changes. ViewportDrag doesn't have a delay
               anymore (doesn't quite make sense).  HotSpots
               and EdgeFlip have both their own, customizable timer.

             * Actions are now split as follows:

               top-bottom (normal) top-bottom (while moving)

               left-right (normal) left-right (while moving)

               That means that you have better control what to do and
               when, as actions for when hitting the edge/corner with
               the pointer ("normal") and for when hitting the
               edge/corner while moving a window are split now.

               You can choose from the following actions:
                  → flip-viewport (traditional EdgeFlip for Viewports)

                  → flip-workspace (traditional EdgeFlip for Workspaces)

                  → viewport-drag (drag Viewport to pseudo-increase
                    it's size making it "infinite")

                  → none/hot-spots (either perform nothing or -if
                    user-set- a HotSpot function)

               By default nothing is done.

        - New function `report-commands' [Teika kazura]
          It returns the list of all commands. (*note Operations on
          Commands::).

   * Misc Changes
        - Tabs-NG [fuchur]

          Tabs-NG is a revised version of Sawfish's
          Tabbed-Windowing-System. Most changes are internal, but a few
          user-visible ones have been done, too. When a lot of windows
          are open, it should now be more responsive.

          You now no longer need to change the tab-adjustments via
          SawfishConfig, when changing or customizing tab-enabled themes
          (this is now done internally).

          Also there are now vertical and horizontal tabbar-prototypes
          available (see `DarkTab' theme), with a keymap both.  The
          window-matcher `title-position' ensures that the position of
          the title will be restored, when using the `DarkTab' theme.

          Several smaller fixes have been done. (check `ChangeLog' for
          more detailed infos)

        - The themes `Elberg-Tabbed' and `Get-S-Tabbed' have been
          updated to work with Tabs-NG. The theme `DarkTab' made by
          fuchur" is now the default theme.

        - revised `get-window-by-*' functions [Christopher Bratusek]
             * added `window-role' function (return NET_WM_ROLE)

             * added `get-window-by-role' function (takes #:regex
               switch)

             * merged `get-window-by-name-re' as #:regex switch into
               `get-window-by-name' (the old name is still supported)

             * merged `get-window-by-class-re' as #:regex switch into
               `get-window-by-class' (the old name is still supported)

             * added #:icon switch to `get-window-by-name' to get a
               window via NET_WM_ICON_NAME (can be used with #:regex
               switch, too)

        - Window-operation menu improvements [Christopher Bratusek]

             + The window-operation menu now honours window rules
               better.  For example, if you have a window with
               `fixed-size' flag, the window-operations menu-entry
               `Resize' becomes unclickable.

             + The entries for moving and copying windows to another
               workspace are now bundled in the new `Workspace'
               sub-menu.

        - `rename-window' function behavior-change [Christopher
          Bratusek] The function `rename-window' does now also change
          the _NET_WM_VISIBLE_NAME property of a window.

        - Translation related changes [Teika Kazura]

             + Added translator instructions in `po/README' file.

             + Before you run `po/make-pot' to generate `sawfish.pot',
               you now have to do `make all' at the top directory.
               Previously it was possible to produce wrong
               `sawfish.pot'.

             + The Spanish translation has been updated [gnome-es
               translation-team]

             + The German translation has been updated [gnome-de
               translation-team]

             + The Simplified-Chinese translation has been updated
               [gnome-zh_tw team]

             + The Norwegian/bokmål translation has been
               updated [gnome-no team]

             + Updated `sawfish.pot' and subsequently all `*.po'.
               Banished some bogus items in `sawfish.pot'.
               (Developer's personal extensions had sneaked in.)

        - Emacs sawfish-mode now indents `let-fluids' and let-loop
          correctly [Teika Kazura]

        - Turn `focus-ignore-pointer-events' into an internal variable
          (has wrongly been a user-option before) [Teika Kazura]

        - Documentations [Teika kazura]
             * Section on popup menus is rewritten. (*note Popup
               Menus::)

             * Correction: The function `commandp' can only take
               symbols as its argument. (*note Operations on Commands::)

        - SawfishConfig "Window rules" section changes [Teika Kazura]

          Category `Placement' is renamed to `Geometry'.  The item
          `shade-hover' is moved to `appearance' category, and
          `fixed-size' to `geometry'.

        - Deletion of outdated features in command definition [Teika
          Kazura]

          Function `define-command-args' is deleted. In `define-command'
          function, the keyword argument `doc-key' is dropped.

Have Fun,
Chris