2023-05-15

window managers, widgets, decorations, etc

i’ve been working on a project called “simple customizable widgets” or “scw” that uses Xlib to interact with Xorg Server. the idea behind scw is to allow users to add top-level widgets to their screen, which can then be bound to various actions.
these widgets can be created using either a file or a JSON string.

while working on scw, i found that i needed a window with a title bar and decorations. however, i quickly realized that this was not the responsibility of my program, but rather of a window manager. as a result, i decided to start a new project called “gecko window manager” or “gwm” for short.
gwm is written in C, and i’m using XCB instead of Xlib.

i’ve been inspired by projects like bspwm, ragnar, and the idea of making things from scratch.
with gwm, my goal is to create a minimal, yet customizable, window manager that allows users to interact with their desktop environment in a more efficient way.