wmii_newlisp is a drop in replacement of the wmiirc files and shell scripts used by the wmii window manager (wmii.suckless.org)
It was written out of a necessity of having a lightweight implementation of the shell based scripts using something "other than shell" in a customer site.
I compile newlisp almost everywhere I work in because of its small size and performance. In this specific case, the shell script configuration in use in this particular site had a hard coded timeout value, causing the window manager to stop working after a while. A solution was needed being that I am an avid wmii user.
Even though there are scripts for plan 9's rc, python and ruby available in the stock installation of wmii, none of these were suitable in this specific case because of lack of availability, dependencies and footprint.
Developing these in NewLisp gave me a relatively simple way to have the same functionality in a small package. Even though it is a straight copy from the shell scripts, it provides a foundation to expand these scripts in a fast and flexible language.
The following are known issues that will be addressed as time permits:
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Change current macro implementation to a dictionary. This allows for improved execution performance and the ability to add features without the need of a restart.
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Make sure that all processes terminate when quit hits. For the most part it has been addressed in the current version. But from time to time, a process keeps dangling around. There is code to check for process but it may be a bit expensive to run for every transaction. A solution is being researched.
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Move from the shell implementation to direct libixp calls. Should improve performance at the expense of memory consumption. This is a long term objective.
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Dmenu is being used rather than the default wmimenu. This is because of problems compiling wmimenu in Solaris and ARM. In consequence the colors are embedded in the code and not easily configurable.
Plenty... Get Real Kill or RAID to terminate. Brave souls could also create an issue ticket in github.
I took the easy way out for installation and works for me. In this case, your mileage may vary and depends on the amount of desired user intervention.
If installing wmii from a packaged repository (apt, deb, pkg_man, etc) it will install the shell version by default. If compiling from source downlaoded from http://wmii.suckless.org, then the installation step will create those as well and store them in /etc.
If you are still inclined to install and use the wmii_newlisp scripts use the following steps that are not newbie friendly. (I apologize for that, but suckless tools are catered for experienced UNIX users. I am following suit.).
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Install newlisp in a path accessible location (/usr/bin, /usr/local/bin)
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Install dmenu in a path accessible location. (http://dwm.suckless.org)
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Locate the directory where the wmii configuration is located, usually in /etc/wmii or in /etc/X11/wmii
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Save a copy of the aforementioned wmii configuration directory.
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Copy all the provided scripts by the wmii_newlisp package in the wmii configuration directory.
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Make wmiirc executable by typing: chmod 755 wmiirc.
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Restart your window manager session and select to start wmii This can be either by: Selecting wmii in your desktop manager or starting wmii directly after exiting from your running window manager.
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Test.
Ideally you should test by executing wmii against Xnest to ensure that the handlers are working before using it for daily use. For additional documentation, go to http://wmii.suckless.org/. The documentation contains a list of wmii key bindings and list of available functionalities.
This code has been developed under the terms and conditions of the GNU Public License version 3.0 as described in the license file (LICENSE) included in the distribution. Even though this software is harboring itself under this license, it is in no part of the Gnu software offerings.