Looking for wmii-like xmonad config

Question

Hi everyone.
I've been using wmii for 1-2 weeks and I feel right at home. The only thing I configured was to change the mod-key from Mod1 to Mod4. It manages windows well in a way that seems natural to me. However, it's limited. I can't resize clients with the keyboard.
I can do that in xmonad! Plus, I'm slowly learning Haskell, and configuring through understanding the short source code of the WM seems ideal.
I want to try xmonad. I don't have the courage to understand everything before having a comfortable environment, and I don't want to spend time in an uncomfortable environment in the hope that I will improve it in the future. So I'm asking your help for a jumpstart.
Please, I'd like a config that manages my windows like this:
* The clients do not move around from one column to another unless I tell them explicitly. They do not move or resize upon getting focus.
* I can move focus between clients with Mod4+h,j,k,l
* I can resize clients with something like Shift-Mod4+h,j,k,l
That's all I need to get comfortable. Does anyone have this at hand? Otherwise I'll stay with wmii and slowly RTFHaskellM.

Answer 1

Windows don't normally resize when you focus them
The docs are pretty good; if you follow the examples, nothing goes wrong, and if you have an idea of what is going on, you can make quite flexible, and safe changes.
I use something like this, (except the mosaicAlt layout) with a couple more extensions (submap, prompts, windowNavigation...) and keybindings added on.
import XMonad
import XMonad.Hooks.DynamicLog
import XMonad.Hooks.UrgencyHook
import XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks
import XMonad.Layout.ResizableTile
import XMonad.Layout.NoBorders
import XMonad.Util.EZConfig
import XMonad.Util.Run
import System.IO (hPutStrLn)
main = do
xmobar <- spawnPipe "xmobar"
xmonad $ withUrgencyHook NoUrgencyHook $ defaults xmobar
defaults xmobar = defaultConfig
{ modMask = mod4Mask
, layoutHook = smartBorders $ avoidStruts $ ResizableTall 1 (3/100) (1/2) [] ||| Full
, logHook = dynamicLogWithPP defaultPP
{ ppCurrent = xmobarColor "white" ""
, ppOutput = hPutStrLn xmobar
, ppTitle = xmobarColor "orange" "" . shorten 110
, ppVisible = wrap "(" ")"
, ppUrgent = xmobarColor "green" "" . wrap "^" ""
, ppLayout = xmobarColor "green" ""
`additionalKeysP`
[("M-h", sendMessage MirrorShrink)
,("M-l", sendMessage MirrorExpand)
,("M-b", sendMessage ToggleStruts)
And no nasty piping via shell script to the status bar! Yay haskell.
So it appears that xmonad is succeeding at increasing the use of haskell.
PS: you need xmobar (since that is easiest to set up).
~/.xmobarrc:
Config { font = "-*-profont-*-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
, bgColor = "black"
, fgColor = "grey"
, position = Top
, commands = [ Run Weather "CYYZ" ["-L","18","-H","27","--normal","green","--high","red","--low","lightblue"] 36000
, Run Network "wlan0" ["-L","0","-H","32","--normal","green","--high","red"] 10
, Run Network "eth0" ["-L","0","-H","32","--normal","green","--high","red"] 10
, Run Cpu ["-L","3","-H","50","--normal","green","--high","red"] 10
, Run Memory ["-t","Mem: <usedratio>%"] 10
, Run Battery ["-L","50","-H","75","--high","green","--normal","yellow", "--low", "red"] 10
, Run Swap [] 10
, Run Com "uname" ["-s","-r"] "" 36000
, Run Date "%a %b %_d %Y * %H:%M:%S" "mydate" 10
, Run PipeReader "/home/adamvo/.xmonad.log" "xlog"
, Run StdinReader
, sepChar = "%"
, alignSep = "}{"
, template = " %StdinReader% }{ %cpu% | %memory% - %swap% | %eth0% - %wlan0% | <fc=orange>%mydate%</fc> | %battery% "
edit: import System.IO will bring hPutStrLn into scope. Odd, since it did work for me without it.
Last edited by vogt (2008-06-12 21:17:17)