Bare Window Manager (ex-MMWM)

Question

Working at this for a day now.
Basically it's a full screen window manager aimed to those who spend their day cycling through windows instead of having 10 onscreen at a time. It's a dumbed down version of Ratpoison's default behaviour (really dumbed down..I don't expect anyone to use it as a fulltime WM anytime soon).
For people who only use GNU Screen, Firefox  and/or Emacs all day long(like me), it could prove quite useful.
Not sure if this will ever have any type of tiling..I might make it work with some predefined layouts but not sure.
For now I'm concentrating on cleaning it a bit, adding window by number selection(right now you can only cycle through them with MOD+Tab) and I need to get it to ignore DOCK type applications(eg trays and whatnot).
Also a messaging system of some sort is a must.
So far it has keys to:
- pop a new terminal
- kill selected window
- cycle through windows
- pop a launcher menu (using dmenu by default)
- show a list of windows (working, but needs some enhancement)
Configurable options:
- launcher menu to run
- terminal to run
- font
- window list fg/bg color/selected window fg color/
- screen padding(how much space to leave unmanaged on all sides of the screen - you can see a 16 pixel gap on top of the screenie)
- window list position (one of the four corners)
Will post code as soon as I think it deserves sharing, for now here's a little "teaser"
Last edited by Wra!th (2009-05-29 05:53:02)

Answer 1

And a first release.
I'm still working hard on this so let me know what bugs you find etc.
I agree this can't compete to any WM's on the "market" but I enjoy working on it, and I use it as I type.
I changed a lot from the first draft so at places I may have forgotten to clean stuff up, working on that now.
Also writing a "normal" window killing routine..right now it's really violent.
keys:
MOD is Mod4 (left windows key) by default
MOD + t - spawn terminal
MOD + w - window list
MOD + s - enter select window by number mode
MOD + q - kill window
MOD + m - spawn dmenu
MOD + p - select previous window
MOD + n - select next window
mmwm.c
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <X11/keysym.h>
#include <X11/Xlib.h>
#include <X11/Xutil.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include "conf.h"
#define DEBUG 0
Display * display;
Window root;
Screen *screen;
int SCREEN_WIDTH;
int SCREEN_HEIGHT;
GC MMWM_GC, MMWM_SELECTED_GC;
Colormap MMWM_colormap = None;
XFontStruct * fontstruct;
Bool input = False;
Window input_window;
static char input_text[256];
#define max_windows 999
Window windows_container[max_windows];
Window selected;
char window_select_prompt[] = "Jump to window - ";
void main_loop();
GC MMWM_Colors(char *FG, char *BG);
void handle_keypress_event(XEvent *e);
void handle_maprequest_event(XEvent *e);
void handle_configure_event(XEvent *e);
void handle_destroy_event(XEvent *e);
void handle_expose_event(XEvent *e);
int handle_x_error(Display *display, XErrorEvent *e);
void handle_property_event(XEvent *e);
int init_gc();
void spawn(const char *cmd);
ulong name2color(const char *id);
void LOG(const char *text, ...);
void LOG_DEBUG(const char *text, ...);
void list_windows();
int get_free_position();
int free_position(Window window);
int get_position(Window window);
int select_window(int window);
void grab_keyboard();
int get_prev_window();
int get_next_window();
void LOG(const char *text, ...)
va_list vl;
va_start(vl, text);
vfprintf(stderr, text, vl);
va_end(vl);
void LOG_DEBUG(const char *text, ...)
if(DEBUG == 1){
va_list vl;
va_start(vl, text);
vfprintf(stderr, text, vl);
va_end(vl);
void spawn(const char *cmd)
if(fork() == 0) {
if(display) close(ConnectionNumber(display));
setsid();
execl("/bin/sh", "/bin/sh", "-c", cmd, (char *)NULL);
int TextWidth(XFontStruct *fs, const char *text)
if(strlen(text) >= 1 && text != NULL) {
return XTextWidth(fs, text, strlen(text));
} else {
return 1;
int TextHeight(XFontStruct *fs) {
return fs->ascent + fs->descent;
ulong name2color(const char *cid)
XColor tmpcol;
if(!XParseColor(display, MMWM_colormap, cid, &tmpcol)) {
LOG("Cannot allocate \"%s\" color. Defaulting to black!\n", cid);
return BlackPixel(display, XDefaultScreen(display));
if(!XAllocColor(display, MMWM_colormap, &tmpcol)) {
LOG("Cannot allocate \"%s\" color. Defaulting to black!\n", cid);
return BlackPixel(display, XDefaultScreen(display));
return tmpcol.pixel;
int init_gc()
XGCValues gcv;
gcv.font = fontstruct->fid;
gcv.foreground = name2color(FGCOLOR);
gcv.background = name2color(BGCOLOR);
gcv.function = GXcopy;
gcv.subwindow_mode = IncludeInferiors;
gcv.line_width = 1;
MMWM_GC = XCreateGC(display, root, GCForeground | GCBackground | GCFunction | GCLineWidth | GCSubwindowMode | GCFont, &gcv);
gcv.foreground = name2color(SELFGCOLOR);
MMWM_SELECTED_GC = XCreateGC(display, root, GCForeground | GCBackground | GCFunction | GCLineWidth | GCSubwindowMode | GCFont, &gcv);
return 0;
int get_prev_window()
int x;
for(x = get_position(selected) - 1; x >= 0; x--)
if(windows_container[x] != None)
LOG_DEBUG("Found previous window at: %d\n", x);
return x;
return -1;
int get_next_window()
int x;
for(x = get_position(selected) + 1; x < max_windows; x++)
if(windows_container[x] != None)
LOG_DEBUG("Found next window at: %d\n", x);
return x;
return -1;
void grab_keyboard()
XGrabKey(display, XKeysymToKeycode (display, KEY_WINLIST), MOD_MASK, root, True, GrabModeAsync, GrabModeAsync);
XGrabKey(display, XKeysymToKeycode (display, KEY_SELECT), MOD_MASK, root, True, GrabModeAsync, GrabModeAsync);
XGrabKey(display, XKeysymToKeycode (display, KEY_TERMINAL), MOD_MASK, root, True,GrabModeAsync, GrabModeAsync);
XGrabKey(display, XKeysymToKeycode (display, KEY_KILL), MOD_MASK, root, True, GrabModeAsync, GrabModeAsync);
XGrabKey(display, XKeysymToKeycode (display, KEY_MENU), MOD_MASK, root, True, GrabModeAsync, GrabModeAsync);
XGrabKey(display, XKeysymToKeycode (display, KEY_NEXT), MOD_MASK, root, True, GrabModeAsync, GrabModeAsync);
XGrabKey(display, XKeysymToKeycode (display, KEY_PREV), MOD_MASK, root, True, GrabModeAsync, GrabModeAsync);
void create_input_box()
char tmp[256];
sprintf(tmp, "%s ", window_select_prompt);
input_window = XCreateSimpleWindow(display, root, 0, 0, TextWidth(fontstruct, tmp) + (INPUTPADDING *2), TextHeight(fontstruct) + INPUTPADDING, 0, name2color(FGCOLOR), name2color(BGCOLOR));
XMapWindow(display, input_window);
XDrawString(display, input_window, MMWM_GC, INPUTPADDING , 0 + TextHeight(fontstruct) - fontstruct->max_bounds.descent + (INPUTPADDING / 2), window_select_prompt, strlen(window_select_prompt));
XGrabKey(display, AnyKey, AnyModifier, root, True, GrabModeAsync, GrabModeAsync);
void update_input_box()
XClearWindow(display, input_window);
XDrawString(display, input_window, MMWM_GC, INPUTPADDING , 0 + TextHeight(fontstruct) - fontstruct->max_bounds.descent + (INPUTPADDING / 2), window_select_prompt, strlen(window_select_prompt));
XDrawString(display, input_window, MMWM_GC, INPUTPADDING + TextWidth(fontstruct, window_select_prompt), 0 + TextHeight(fontstruct) - fontstruct->max_bounds.descent + (INPUTPADDING / 2), input_text, strlen(input_text));
void handle_keypress_event(XEvent * e)
XKeyEvent keyevent = e->xkey;
KeySym key = XKeycodeToKeysym(display, keyevent.keycode, 0);
KeySym ksym;
char tmp[32];
int count, input_length;
if(!input)
switch (XLookupKeysym(&keyevent, 0))
case KEY_SELECT:
input = True;
create_input_box();
break;
case KEY_TERMINAL:
spawn(TERMINAL);
break;
case KEY_MENU:
spawn(MENU);
break;
case KEY_WINLIST:
if(TIMEOUT > 0)
list_windows();
break;
case KEY_KILL:
XDestroyWindow(display, selected);
break;
case KEY_PREV:
select_window(get_prev_window());
break;
case KEY_NEXT:
select_window(get_next_window());
break;
} else {
if(key == XK_Return || key == XK_KP_Enter)
if(atoi(input_text) || atoi(input_text) == 0) select_window(atoi(input_text));
input = False;
input_text[0] = 0;
XDestroyWindow(display, input_window);
XUngrabKey(display, AnyKey, AnyModifier, root);
grab_keyboard();
return;
input_length = strlen(input_text);
if(key != XK_BackSpace && key != XK_Delete && key != XK_KP_Delete)
if(input_length < 3)
tmp[0] = 0;
count = XLookupString(&e->xkey, tmp, sizeof(tmp), &ksym, NULL);
tmp[count] = 0;
strncpy(input_text + input_length, tmp, sizeof(input_text) - input_length);
update_input_box();
} else {
if(input_length > 0)
input_text[strlen(input_text) - 1] = 0;
update_input_box();
void list_windows()
int th,ypos;
th = TextHeight(fontstruct);
ypos = 0 + th - fontstruct->max_bounds.descent;
Window WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW = None;
char *tmp;
char title[256];
int x;
int number = 0;
int max_title = 0;
XWindowAttributes winattr;
Window root_return;
int char_width = TextWidth(fontstruct, " ");
for (x = 0; x< max_windows; x++)
if(windows_container[x] != None)
if(!XGetWindowAttributes(display, windows_container[x], &winattr) || winattr.override_redirect || XGetTransientForHint(display, windows_container[x], &root_return)) continue;
if(winattr.map_state == IsViewable)
if(XFetchName(display, windows_container[x], &tmp))
number++;
if(windows_container[x] == selected)
sprintf(title, "%d - %s", get_position(windows_container[x]), tmp);
} else {
sprintf(title, "%d - %s", get_position(windows_container[x]), tmp);
if(strlen(title) > max_title) max_title = strlen(title);
title[0] = 0;
int win_width = max_title * char_width + WLISTPADDING*2;
switch(WLISTPOS)
case 0:
WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW = XCreateSimpleWindow(display, root, PADDING_WEST, PADDING_NORTH, win_width, number * th, 0, name2color(FGCOLOR), name2color(BGCOLOR));
break;
case 1:
WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW = XCreateSimpleWindow(display, root, 0 + SCREEN_WIDTH - PADDING_EAST - win_width, PADDING_NORTH, win_width, number * th, 0, name2color(FGCOLOR), name2color(BGCOLOR));
break;
case 2:
WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW = XCreateSimpleWindow(display, root, 0 + SCREEN_WIDTH - PADDING_EAST - win_width, 0 + SCREEN_HEIGHT - PADDING_SOUTH - (number * th),win_width,number * th, 0, name2color(FGCOLOR), name2color(BGCOLOR));
break;
case 3:
WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW = XCreateSimpleWindow(display, root, PADDING_WEST, 0 + SCREEN_HEIGHT - PADDING_SOUTH - (number * th),win_width,number * th, 0, name2color(FGCOLOR), name2color(BGCOLOR));
break;
case 4:
WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW = XCreateSimpleWindow(display, root, (SCREEN_WIDTH / 2) - (win_width / 2), (SCREEN_HEIGHT / 2) - ((number * th) / 2),win_width,number * th, 0, name2color(FGCOLOR), name2color(BGCOLOR));
break;
default:
WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW = XCreateSimpleWindow(display, root, PADDING_WEST, PADDING_NORTH, win_width, number * th, 0, name2color(FGCOLOR), name2color(BGCOLOR));
break;
XMapRaised(display, WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW);
for (x = 0; x< max_windows; x++)
if(windows_container[x] != None)
if(!XGetWindowAttributes(display, windows_container[x], &winattr) || winattr.override_redirect || XGetTransientForHint(display, windows_container[x], &root_return)) continue;
if(winattr.map_state == IsViewable)
if(XFetchName(display, windows_container[x], &tmp))
if(windows_container[x] == selected)
sprintf(title, "%d - %s", get_position(windows_container[x]), tmp);
XFillRectangle(display, WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW, MMWM_SELECTED_GC, 0, ypos - th + fontstruct->max_bounds.descent, win_width, th);
XDrawString(display, WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW, MMWM_GC, WLISTPADDING, ypos, title, strlen(title));
ypos+=th;
} else {
sprintf(title, "%d - %s", get_position(windows_container[x]), tmp);
XDrawString(display, WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW, MMWM_GC, WLISTPADDING, ypos, title, strlen(title));
ypos+=th;
title[0] = 0;
XFlush(display);
sleep(TIMEOUT);
XFlush(display);
if(WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW)
XDestroyWindow(display, WINDOW_LIST_WINDOW);
int select_window(int window)
if(windows_container[window] != None)
LOG_DEBUG("Selecting window at position: %d\n", window);
XRaiseWindow(display, windows_container[window]);
XSetInputFocus(display, windows_container[window], RevertToParent, CurrentTime);
selected = windows_container[window];
return 0;
} else {
return -1;
int get_free_position()
int x;
for(x = 0; x < max_windows; x++)
if(windows_container[x] == None)
LOG_DEBUG("Asigning position: %d\n", x);
return x;
return -1;
int get_position(Window window)
int x;
for(x = 0; x < max_windows; x++)
if(windows_container[x] == window)
LOG_DEBUG("Window has position: %d\n", x);
return x;
return -1;
int free_position(Window window)
int x;
for(x = 0; x < max_windows; x++)
if(windows_container[x] == window)
LOG_DEBUG("Freeing position: %d\n", x);
windows_container[x] = None;
return 1;
void handle_maprequest_event(XEvent *e)
XMapWindow(display, e->xmaprequest.window);
XMoveResizeWindow(display, e->xmaprequest.window, PADDING_WEST, PADDING_NORTH, SCREEN_WIDTH - PADDING_WEST - PADDING_EAST, SCREEN_HEIGHT - PADDING_NORTH - PADDING_SOUTH);
XRaiseWindow(display, e->xmaprequest.window);
XSetInputFocus(display, e->xmaprequest.window,RevertToParent, CurrentTime);
selected = e->xmaprequest.window;
windows_container[get_free_position()] = selected;
void handle_destroy_event(XEvent *e)
free_position(e->xdestroywindow.window);
XDestroyWindow(display, e->xdestroywindow.window);
void handle_configure_event(XEvent *e)
e->xconfigurerequest.type = ConfigureNotify;
e->xconfigurerequest.x = 0;
e->xconfigurerequest.y = 0;
e->xconfigurerequest.width = SCREEN_WIDTH;
e->xconfigurerequest.height = SCREEN_HEIGHT;
e->xconfigurerequest.window = e->xconfigure.window;
e->xconfigurerequest.border_width = 0;
e->xconfigurerequest.above = None;
XSendEvent(display, e->xconfigurerequest.window, False, StructureNotifyMask, (XEvent*)&e->xconfigurerequest);
void handle_expose_event(XEvent *e)
// Redraw stuff in here...window title etc
// Not handled yet but I'ma add it here for future dev
void handle_property_event(XEvent *e)
// In case properties like name etc change ... handle them in here
// Not handled yet but I'ma add it here for future dev
int handle_x_error(Display *display, XErrorEvent *e)
LOG_DEBUG("Xevent error: %d\n", e->error_code);
LOG_DEBUG("Operation: %d\n", e->request_code);
LOG_DEBUG("Resource: %lu (0x%lx)\n", e->resourceid, e->resourceid);
return 0;
void main_loop()
XEvent event;
XSetErrorHandler(handle_x_error); //Ignore X errors otherwise the WM would crash every other minute :)
while(1){
XNextEvent(display, &event);
switch(event.type){
case KeyPress:
handle_keypress_event(&event);
break;
case MapRequest:
handle_maprequest_event(&event);
break;
case DestroyNotify:
handle_destroy_event(&event);
break;
case ConfigureNotify:
handle_configure_event(&event);
break;
case Expose:
handle_expose_event(&event);
break;
case PropertyNotify:
handle_property_event(&event);
break;
default:
LOG_DEBUG("Received an unhandled event: %d\n", event.type);
break;
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
if(!(display = XOpenDisplay(DISPLAY))){
LOG("MMWM: cannot open display! Ending session.\n");
return -1;
if((root = DefaultRootWindow(display)))
XSetWindowBackground(display, root, BlackPixel(display, XDefaultScreen(display)));
XClearWindow(display, root);
} else {
LOG("MMWM: cannot get root window! Ending session.\n");
return -1;
if((screen = DefaultScreenOfDisplay(display)))
SCREEN_WIDTH = XWidthOfScreen(screen);
SCREEN_HEIGHT = XHeightOfScreen(screen);
LOG("Screen: %d x %d\n", SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT);
} else {
LOG("MMWM: cannot get screen! Ending session.\n");
return -1;
fontstruct = XLoadQueryFont(display, FONT);
if (!fontstruct) {
LOG("Couldn't find font \"%s\", loading default\n", FONT);
fontstruct = XLoadQueryFont(display, "-*-fixed-medium-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1");
if (!fontstruct) {
LOG("Couldn't load default fixed font. Something is seriouslly wrong. Ending session.\n");
return -1;
grab_keyboard();
XSelectInput(display, root, SubstructureNotifyMask | SubstructureRedirectMask );
MMWM_colormap = DefaultColormap(display, 0);
init_gc();
main_loop();
XFree(MMWM_GC);
XFree(MMWM_SELECTED_GC);
XCloseDisplay(display);
return 0;
conf.h
#ifndef CONF_H
#define CONF_H
#define DISPLAY ":0"
#define MOD_MASK Mod4Mask /* Modifier key */
#define KEY_WINLIST 'w' /* key to show window list */
#define KEY_SELECT 's' /* key to spawn window selection input */
#define KEY_TERMINAL 't' /* key to spawn terminal */
#define KEY_KILL 'q' /* key to kill selected window */
#define KEY_MENU 'm' /* key to spawn menu */
#define KEY_PREV 'p' /* select previous window in list */
#define KEY_NEXT 'n' /* select next window in list */
#define TERMINAL "urxvt" /* terminal */
#define MENU "`dmenu_path | dmenu -fn '-xos4-terminus-*-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*' -nb '#222222' -nf '#FFFFFF' -sf '#ffffff' -sb '#666666'`"
/* launcher menu to run */
#define FONT "-xos4-terminus-*-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
/* font to use */
#define FGCOLOR "Grey90" /* window list and input window foreground color */
#define BGCOLOR "#191919" /* window list and input window background color */
#define SELFGCOLOR "#454545" /* window list background for selected window */
#define PADDING_NORTH 0 /* top screen edge unmanaged pixels */
#define PADDING_WEST 0 /* left screen edge unmanaged pixels */
#define PADDING_SOUTH 0 /* bottom screen edge unmanaged pixels */
#define PADDING_EAST 0 /* right screen edge unmanaged pixels */
#define INPUTPADDING 5 /* space around input area in the input window */
#define WLISTPADDING 5 /* left and right space in window list */
#define WLISTPOS 1 /* 0 = NW, 1 = NE, 2 = SE, 3 = SW, 4 = C */
#define TIMEOUT 1
#endif
Makefile
PREFIX?=/usr
CFLAGS?=-Os -Wall
all:
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -I$(PREFIX)/include -L$(PREFIX)/lib -lX11 -o mmwm mmwm.c
install: mmwm
install -s mmwm $(PREFIX)/bin
clean:
rm -f mmwm
Last edited by Wra!th (2009-04-26 15:23:33)