nimdow

A window manager written in Nim

NOTE: Nimdow is in Beta but is very usable. Please report any bugs you may find.

I am using this project to learn Nim, x11, and to replace my build of dwm (written in C).

Table of Contents

1. Screenshots
2. Installation
   1. Building from source
   2. Arch Linux (AUR)
3. Config File
4. Command Line Arguments
5. Status Bar
6. Issues with Java Applications
7. Roadmap
8. Testing Locally

Screenshots

Installation

Building from source

1. Ensure you have nim (version 1.2.0 or higher) and nimble installed. My preferred method is to use choosenim to install these.
2. Clone this repo
3. Execute nimble install from the package directory to install dependencies
4. Execute nimble release from the package directory to create a release build (The built binary will be in ./bin/nimdow)
5. Copy the default config (config.default.toml) to ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nimdow/config.toml, OR to ${HOME}/.config/nimdow/config.toml.

AUR

If you are on an Arch Linux based system, use nimdow-bin in the AUR to install a pre-built binary.

Default config is stored at /usr/share/nimdow/config.default.toml

Config File

Nimdow searches for a config file in 3 locations in this order:

1. ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nimdow/config.toml
2. ${HOME}/.config/nimdow/config.toml
3. /usr/share/nimdow/config.default.toml

If no config file is found, Nimdow will not launch.

Command line arguments

• Providing an alternative config file, e.g. nimdow ./some-config.toml
• Version information: nimdow -v or nimdow --version

Status Bar

The status bar displays:

• The available tags on the top left
• The focused window's title in the center
• The status (set by the user) on the right

Setting the status

The status is the text read from the root window's name property, which can be set with xsetroot -name "My status". This is the exact same way dwm manages its status. I recommend reading their page about setting statuses.

Issues with Java Applications

The fix

There are multiple fixes, per the arch wiki.

Fix #1: For jre7-openjdk or jre8-openjdk, append the line export _JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1 in /etc/profile.d/jre.sh. Then, source the file /etc/profile.d/jre.sh or log out and log back in.

Fix #2: For last version of JDK append line export AWT_TOOLKIT=MToolkit in ~/.xinitrc before exec nimdow.

Fix #3: Try to use wmname with line wmname compiz in your ~/.xinitrc.

Fix #4: For Oracle's JRE/JDK, use SetWMName. However, its effect may be canceled when also using XMonad.Hooks.EwmhDesktops. In this case, appending >> setWMName "LG3D" to the LogHook may help.

Why is this happening?

The standard Java GUI toolkit has a hard-coded list of "non-reparenting" window managers. Nimdow is not (yet) included in this list.

Roadmap

Version 0.5

• Multiple tags (single tag viewed at one time)
• Fullscreen windows
• Multihead support
• User configuration file loaded from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME (or $HOME/.config)
• Status bar integration
• Floating window support
  • Move windows with super + left click
  • Resize windows with super + right click drag
• Layouts:
  • Master/stack
• Keybindings:
  • Close window
  • Toggle fullscreen
  • Navigate windows
  • Navigate tags
  • Move windows in stack
  • Move windows between tags

Version 1.0

• TBA (partial list, still in discussion)
• Layouts
  • Monocle
• Keybindings:
  • Move window between monitors
  • Add/remove window per tag
  • View multiple tags
  • Assign single window to multiple tags
  • Swap tags between monitors
  • Reload Nimdow (to apply configuration changes)
  • Switch layout to master/stack
  • Switch layout to monocle

Testing locally (for development)

0. Create a copy or symlink of the config file in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nimdow/config.toml
1. Start up Xephyr: Xephyr -ac -screen 1920x1080 -br -reset -terminate 2> /dev/null :1 &
2. Execute nimdow on the new display: DISPLAY=:1 ./nimdow