1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
|
<!--startcut ==========================================================-->
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<title>Enlightenment Issue 17</title>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#ffebcf" TEXT="#8e4510" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#0020F0"
ALINK="#FF0000">
<!--endcut ============================================================-->
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<h1>A Fresh Beginning: The Enlightenment Window Manager</h1>
<H4>By Larry Ayers,
<a href="mailto:layers@vax2.rainis.net">layers@vax2.rainis.net</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<center><h3>Introduction</h3></center>
<p>Most of the window-managers available for Linux these days can trace their
ancestry back to the original twm program, which may have been the first
widely used manager on unix systems. There is a good reason for this, as twm
pioneered many of the features taken for granted by users, such as movable,
resizable windows and a root-window applications menu. It's good, time-tested
code; why reinvent the wheel?
<p>Two programmers have recently done just that, from two perspectives as far
removed from each other as their respective geographical locations. Chris
Cannam, a British programmer, has taken the minimalist approach with his wm2
manager (which I wrote about in LG #14) and the new wm2 variant wmx, which I
discuss elsewhere in this issue.
<p>At the other extreme is the work of a young Australian programmer who likes
to be known as the Rasterman. Imagine asking the programmers responsible for
the games Quake or Duke Nukem 3D to write a window-manager; the result might
bear some resemblance to the fanciful program known as Enlightenment.
<p>I first encountered Enlightenment (what a name! it seems to carry the
implication that we users of fvwm et al are still crawling blindly through the
primordial ooze...) earlier this year, when a binary was available on the web.
I tried it briefly, but at the time I had a 486 machine; it ran slowly for me
and seemed to consume great gobs of memory. Recently the Rasterman
(his real name is Carsten Haitzler) has rewritten the application from scratch,
tightening it up and introducing a new shared lib which handles image loading
and rescaling. The memory consumption has been greatly reduced since the
initial release. At this point (beta release 4) there are no virtual desktops
or root-window menus, but the project looks promising and what there is of it
runs well for me.
<center><h3>Features and Appearance</h3></center>
<p>Enlightenment uses the <b>ppm</b> image format for both window details and
icons. An elaborate configuration file (called <i>windowstyles</i>) specifies
which image goes where. Each segment of the window border and detailing is a
separate <b>ppm</b> file. I haven't made any attempt to modify the default
configuration. It looks like it would take many hours to write a new one. Carsten
plans on eventually offering configurations which would emulate any of the
other window-managers.
<p>I get the impression from the Enlightenment web-page that the <b>ppm</b>
format is more efficient than others, especially on 16-32 bit displays. I
don't know how valid this is, but the window-manager <i>does</i> seem to do
quite a bit of image handling without consuming great amounts of memory.
<p>This window-manager automatically will load any sort of image format as a
root background image. At startup the appropriate netpbm utility is summoned
to transform the image to the <b>ppm</b> format. Naturally, you need
to have the netpbm graphics utility package installed for this to work.
<p>Here is a screenshot of a window under Enlightenment:<br>
<p>
<img alt="Enlightenment Window" src="./gx/ayers/enl.gif"><br>
<p> XV (with which I made the screenshot) couldn't figure out where the actual
window border was; can you blame it? I set the root-window background to be
the same color as this HTML-file background as a quick work-around.
<center><h3>Availability</h3></center>
<p>The Enlightenment web-site is at <a href=
"http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~s2154962/enlightenment/index.html">
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~s2154962/enlightenment/index.html</a>.
The source for the latest version can be downloaded from the site; the latest
news about the application will also be there.
<center><h3>Closing Thoughts</h3></center>
<p>It will be interesting to see what eventually happens with Enlightenment,
though personally I'm satisfied with the window-managers I currently use. I
just like to see diversity in software for Linux. Fancy new window-borders
might seem to be a trivial matter but it is user-interface features such as
these which can attract new users, especially younger ones. I showed
Enlightenment to my sixteen-year-old son (an avid computer- game player) and
he was impressed. His comment was "It looks like a game interface!".
<p>Another factor is the simple human desire for novelty. Sometimes the same
old interface becomes boring -- you realize you aren't really even seeing it
anymore. A change in background and window-style can be refreshing. People
routinely change room interiors for these same reasons and, come to think of
it, I look at my computer screen quite a bit more than I do the walls!
<p>Keep in mind that the science-fiction Bladerunneresque appearance is just
the default. Enlightenment is a framework and could be configured in a
variety of ways, depending upon taste (and how much time you're willing to
spend!). Luckily (if you have patience), someone will eventually come up with
a configuration which will suit you. or at least be close. Interest seems to
be growing in this window-manager lately (judging by the volume of messages in
the mailing list) and it may yet evolve into a community-supported
window-manager, such as Fvwm2 or Afterstep. It's been released under the Gnu
license, but so far Carsten Haitzler is the sole developer.
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright © 1997, Larry Ayers <BR>
Published in Issue 17 of the Linux Gazette, May 1997</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./lg_toc17.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../lg_frontpage.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./raid.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./cthugha.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--startcut ==========================================================-->
</BODY>
</HTML>
<!--endcut ============================================================-->
|
