1WINDOWLAB(1x) WINDOWLAB(1x)
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6 windowlab - a window manager for X11
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9 windowlab [options...]
10
12 windowlab is a small and simple window manager of novel design.
13 It has a click-to-focus but not raise-on-focus policy, a window resiz‐
15 ing mechanism that allows one or many edges of a window to be changed
16 in one action, and an innovative menubar that shares the same part of
17 the screen as the taskbar. Window titlebars are prevented from going
18 off the edge of the screen by constraining the mouse pointer, and when
19 appropriate the pointer is also constrained to the taskbar/menubar in
20 order to make target menu items easier to hit.
21 WindowLab places a taskbar at the top of the screen and adds a titlebar
23 to the top of each window. These titlebars consist of a draggable area,
24 and three icons on the right hand side. When left clicked, these icons:
25 * hide the window
27 * toggle the window's Z order Amiga style (if it's not at the front,
28 bring it to the front, otherwise send it to the back)
29 * close the window
30 Another way of toggling a window's Z order (depth) is by double left
32 clicking on the draggable part of its titlebar.
33 Windows' titlebars are prevented from leaving the screen and cannot
35 overlap the taskbar.
36 The taskbar should list all windows currently in use. Left clicking on
38 a window's taskbar item will give that window focus and toggle its Z
39 order (depth).
40 To resize the active window hold down alt and push against the window's
42 edges with the left mouse button down.
43 If you right click outside a client window, WindowLab's taskbar becomes
45 a menubar. Releasing the right mouse button over a selected menu item
46 will start a corresponding external program. WindowLab will look in
47 each of the following files in turn for definitions of the menu labels
48 and commands:
49 * ~/.windowlab/windowlab.menurc
51 * ../etc/windowlab.menurc (from the directory containing the exe‐
52 cutable)
53 * /etc/X11/windowlab/windowlab.menurc
54 Each line in the menurc file should have the menu label, a colon, and
56 then the corresponding command, eg:
57 The GIMP:gimp
59 New windows (that don't specify their location) are positioned accord‐
61 ing to the coordinates of the mouse - the top-left hand corner of a new
62 window is set to the location of the mouse pointer (if necessary the
63 window will be moved to ensure that all of it is on the screen).
64 WindowLab has the following keyboard controls. Hold down alt and press:
66 * tab to give focus to the previous window
68 * q to give focus to the next window
69 * F11 to toggle fullscreen mode on and off for non transient windows
70 * F12 to toggle the window's depth. This is the same as left clicking a
71 window's middle icon
72
74 -font font-spec
75 Draw window titles with the font defined by font-spec.
76 -border color, -text color, -active color, -inactive color, -menu
78 color, -selected color, -empty color
79 Use color for the borders, the text, the active background, the
80 inactive background, the menubar, the selected menu item and
81 empty parts of the screen.
82 -about Print information to stdout and exit.
84 -display
86 Sets which X display will be managed by windowlab.
87
89 DISPLAY Sets which X display will be managed by windowlab.
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92 X(7), The Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual (from the X11R6
93 documentation).
94
96 Nick Gravgaard (me at nickgravgaard.com)
97 WINDOWLAB(1x)