On Thu, Sep 27, 2007 at 07:25:48PM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote: > On 09/27/07 18:58, Amit Uttamchandani wrote: > >> I have to say, the screenshot has me intrigued. It's got a > >> pleasingly geeky sort of retro text GUI look, like something > >> Xerox PARC might have come up with in the 1970s. ;) > >> > > > > It is very efficient. Especially tiling modes. I can't use any > > other Windowmanager now. I just can't. With DWM, you're focused > > on the application and the task at hand. Try it out. > > With other WMs, you're not focused on the app and task?
I've not used dwm but I assume its similar to wmii being written by the same guys. I agree with Amit. With other managers one spends a lot of time dealing with manipulating the windows themselves -- maximizing, resizing, shuffling them so they fit the way you want on the screen. I personally find it particularly distracting if working on things side-by-side: manipulating check registers while reading banking websites; editing html while refreshing the page in a browser and so forth. There are other instances where I find it distracting as well. With a keyboard oriented tiling WM a few things happen. 1) the initial placement and sizing of windows is completely out of your control (you can hack scripts to get things to default the way you want, but that is doable in just about any wm). You'll say that this is already the case, and its true, but the default is pretty sensibly different. Instead of splashing the new window up on the screen willy-nilly, the new window gets its own frame and its own piece of screen real-estate without interference from the others. Unless you specifically tell the wm that you want to stack windows on top of each other (that is, perpendicular to the plane of the screen), then it will *not* do that. So, for example, if I'm working in an x-term and I want another one, when it opens, the first one gets resized to half the screen and the new one gets the other half. Open another, and they each get squeezed into 1/3, etc. Its a little wierd at first, but after practice, it really begins to shine. 2) Manipulating windows is done from the keyboard. This is a huge time/energy saver if you already are keyboard oriented. You never have to leave the keyboard to get things organised the way you like. Its similar to using screen. You toggle between windows with keystrokes, resize windows with keystrokes, split the frame with keystrokes etc. So that's all good, but the real beauty of this is that the WM actually makes the decision about how to interpret your commands (configurable, of course). When you tell it to move a window one direction or another, it just does it and maximizes everything as much as possible. There is *no* grabbing of frames, or toggle maximize or anything like that. 3) this part answers your question... once you get used to it and get it configured as you like it, your work method changes. (at least mine does). I only ever have on the screen the things I'm currently working on. I spend essentially no time manipulating windows as I've configured it to behave the way I want in terms of window placement, column and row size etc. I switch between tasks with ease without the mouse. In short, I spend more, better focused, time on the work I'm doing instead of the overhead of controlling the work environment. I know that many WMs allow keyboard control, but something like wmii, and I assume dwm, do it so much more simply and elegantly, it really is amazing. I will admit that they don't work so well with heavily mouse oriented tasks (gimp for example), but for just about anything else, its great. IMO. A
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