GPS: Panache is a window manager I wrote to solve several problems that I've experienced with most window systems. I generally like to focus on one thing at a time. I dislike moving/resizing windows and moving between multiple desktops. So, I had the idea years ago (long before I could implement it) to make a system that would automatically give each window almost the entire area of the screen. I originally started out playing without a window manager, and using the -geometry flag with applications, but this was ackward. So, I then wrote a desktop bar that would execute each application, but didn't provide any task switching. For a while I had pretty much given up on the idea. Then one day I was looking over the FVWM source to try to change something and I realized that the code that had confused me so much before now made sense (it is amazing how much good having the Xlib manual in the bathroom does). That gave me the confidence to start Panache.
Panache was developed from scratch. When I first had it working I was so excited and I told everyone in the Tcl'ers Chat about it. It had a lot of bugs though (sometimes excitement blocks reality 8^) ). Over the past year I've fixed *MANY* bugs in Panache, and added many features. You can now move all toplevel windows that aren't the workspace manager, but you would probably only want to move transient/dialog windows so that they don't obscure the data beneath. There is a Setup dialog, and a CPU meter (soon to be CPU and memory via David Wijnants Meter package). Everything is very modular and concise, by design. You can change the GUI at runtime by modifying the Panache_GUI file in whatever --prefix you chose at installation time. The menu (hamburger button) can be added to by creating a .PanacheMenu file in your home directory. The window list is within a scrollable frame that looks quite cool, and the arrows respond visually by changing the arrow color when they are able to be used. Panache is stable now (1.8). I rarely run into bugs now, unless I add a new feature.
Just like everybody else I muddle along trying to improve things a bit. Please keep that in mind when contacting me. I really appreciate suggestions, and bug reports.
What do I have planned for the future? I plan to have window teaming, so for example a window for ICQ could act as the transient of an IRC window. I really want to make it look shexy (no spelling error 8) ), by perhaps using more images in the interface.
You can find it here: http://www.xmission.com/~georgeps/panache/
What: Panache
Where: http://www.xmission.com/%7Egeorgeps/panache/
http://www.xmission.com/%7Egeorgeps/panache/Panache-1.0.2.tgz
Description: An X Window System window manager providing automatic
sizing and positioning of toplevel windows. It has a workspace
manager, CPU monitor, start menu support. It is written in
Tcl/Tk scripts, and requires at least Tcl/Tk 8.3.
Updated: 08/2001
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (George Peter Staplin)2002/Dec/16: Is this still under development? I seem to recall a comment on the chat to the effect that it's been abandoned because you don't need it anymore?
[ Category Application | Category GUI ]