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The Tiny Window Manager

URLs
Version
Review
date
Version
reviewed
Release date of
this version
Latest
version
Release date of
latest version
License
20070418 1.3-4 Debian testing package 20050309 1.3 20050309 public domain
Miscellaneous Details
Memory usage
(size,rss,vsize)
Key bindings Change
key bindings
Virtual
desktops
Xinerama
awareness
Taskbar
252 752 2552 N N N N N

Written in C (~50 lines). Also available in the source package in Python. The documentation includes a pointer to someone else's version in Lisp. You can move and resize windows - any other WM feature you can think of ... well, it's not here.

Documentation
      Usage:

      Focus follows pointer.
      Alt+Button1, drag: interactive window move
      Alt+Button3, drag: interactive window resize
      Alt+F1: raise focused window
      

That's the entire documentation as it relates to functionality of the window manager. I'm not joking - that's all you get. Because that's all there is.

Window Decorations
Windows have a 1px border.
Themes
No themes.

Discussion

The author decided to try to cut down the size of failsafewm and ended up rewriting it from scratch. This is the product. He meant it both as a demonstration and as a WM for embedded systems or the like where a very small memory footprint is needed.

As noted above, the documentation is miniscule - but it covers pretty much everything. I found some quirks: with the GIMP controls open I was unable to return focus to aterm - but if I had an image open as well, I could. Normal behaviour is sliding focus. No icons, no minimization, no taskbar, no nothing. The Debian package supplies only the compiled C version of the WM - which weighs in at an amazing 4212 bytes. I didn't try the Python version.

It works. I imagine it's interesting from an academic point of view and probably useful as a code base for further work, but I wouldn't recommend this as your day-to-day WM.


https://gilesorr.com/wm/reviews/tinywm.html 
by giles