Basic Window Manager

basic_wm is a simple reparenting, non-compositing X window manager that demonstrates how to implement the fundamental functionality of a window manager:

• Managing the life cycle of windows
• Reparenting windows
• Basic window operations (moving, resizing, closing)

It serves as a pedagogical example for my series of articles, How X Window Managers Work, And How To Write One.

Building and Running

To build this example window manager, you will need:

• A C++-11 enabled C++ compiler
• GNU Make
• Xlib headers and libraries
• google-glog library

To run and test it, you will need:

• Xephyr
• xinit
• Random X utilities such as xclock, xeyes, and xterm to play with

On Ubuntu/Debian, you can install these dependencies with:

sudo apt-get install \
    build-essential libx11-dev libgoogle-glog-dev \
    xserver-xephyr xinit x11-apps xterm

On Fedora/CentOS, you can install these with:

sudo yum install \
    make gcc gcc-c++ libX11-devel glog-devel \
    xorg-x11-server-Xephyr xorg-x11-apps xterm

On Arch Linux, you can install these with:

yaourt -S base-devel libx11 google-glog \
    xorg-server-xephyr xorg-xinit xorg-xclock xorg-xeyes xterm

Consult your own distro's documentation for how to install these.

Once you have all the dependencies, building and running it is as simple as:

./build_and_run.sh

This will launch a simple Xephyr session like in the following screenshot:

Usage

Supported keyboard shortcuts:

• Alt + Left Click: Move window
• Alt + Right Click: Resize window
• Alt + F4: Close window
• Alt + Tab: Switch window