nwm: A programmable window manager for X

nwm is a "tiling" window manager for X. It is written in C, but exposes a Scheme API that can be used to change it's behavior at run-time. For example, the algorithm for automatically laying out windows is implemented in Scheme and can be changed at run-time. There is a simple REPL (read, evaluate, print loop) program included which can be used to "talk" to the window manager in Scheme while it is running. This project is definitely a work in progress and I doubt it would be usable for anybody in it's current state.

Why?

I like to use tiling window managers, (especially on small screens) I enjoy programming in C and learning how X works. I also like Lisp and thought it would be fun to try using Scheme as an extension language. So yeah... basically just for fun! :)

Building

If you want to try building this project, you will need to first install the following dependencies:

• XCB libraries:
  • xcb
  • xcb-aux
  • xcb-event
  • xcb-keysyms
  • xcb-xinerama
• libguile
• libreadline

Once you have all the dependencies, run make in the project directory to build the nwm and nwm-repl programs. I intend to improve the build system at some point, but that's currently not a high priority.

Running

Before running the first time, you should set up the default configuration file in your home directory, like this:

1. mkdir ~/.nwm
2. cp scheme/init.scm ~/.nwm

Now set the DISPLAY environment variable (if needed) and then run the nwm program.

You can run nwm-repl to get a REPL you can use to execute Scheme code inside the running window manager.