Announcing Son of WM (Window Manager)

[Rob Jacob]

[If you ate a good breakfast, you wouldn't be snacking on these lines]


I've completely rewritten my WM window manager (described in the usenix
conference proceedings from January 1984 and offered on unix-wizards list
several years ago) to take advantage of 4.2 features.  It now uses curses to
draw the screen and uses ptys instead of pipes, so just about anything can
be run in each window, not just scrolling-type programs (specifically, vi
works).  It is also much more efficient.  As with all previous versions, it
requires no kernel mods.

Now the bad news: This version will only run on 4.2, because it uses the
neat features of 4.2 for the ptys and efficient i/o multiplexing.  Also,
updating of background windows is jerkier than it used to be -- I now rely
on curses to do all of that dirty work.

I'll be glad to send it to anyone who wants.  Also, I'll send the old
versions if people are interested; they run on v6, v7, 2.8, and 4.1, but not
as quickly.

Finally, here's a description of what the program (old and new versions) does:

WM manages a collection of windows on a text display terminal.  Each window
has its own shell, running in parallel with those in the other windows.
This permits a user to conduct several interactions in parallel, each in its
own window.  The user can move from one window to another, re-position a
window, or create or delete a window at any time without losing his or her
place in any of the windows.  Windows can overlap or completely obscure one
another; obscured windows can be "lifted" up and placed on top of the other
windows.

Enjoy,
Rob Jacob

ARPA:	jacob at nrl-css
UUCP:	..!decvax!nrl-css!jacob
SNAIL:	Code 7590, Naval Research Lab, Washington, D.C. 20375