WM(1) WM(1)
NAME
wm - window manager
SYNOPSIS
wm/wm [ command [ arg... ] ]
DESCRIPTION
Wm is an inferno window manager, providing the control mech-
anism for the user to manage to order and position of a
dynamic collection of application windows. When started, it
runs command, (by default wm/toolbar, see toolbar(1)) By
itself, wm does not provide any means for starting new
applications; that facility must be provided by an auxil-
liary program, wm/toolbar being one such example.
Control Inferface
Wm provides a control interface to programs running inside
it through the Wmcontext adt that can be obtained from via
the Draw->Context that it passes to applications that it
starts (see draw-context(2)). Control messages it under-
stands include:
start what
Start input on what. What can be ptr (pointer events),
kbd (keyboard events) and control (window manager con-
trol events, see below).
key charval
Simulate a key event. Charval is the decimal value of
the character that has been pressed. The character will
be sent exactly as if it had been typed on the key-
board. This facility is used by keyboard(2).
!reshape tag reqid minx miny maxx
Reshape or create the window named tag. Reqid is
ignored; minx..maxy give the desired bounding rectangle
of the new window. If how is not given, or is exact,
then wm will attempt to satisfy the request exactly.
Otherwise, how tells wm how to determine the rectangle
of the resulting image; it can be one of place (choose
some appropriate position and size on screen), onscreen
(modify the requested rectangle only so as to bring it
on screen), or max (request the maximum available rect-
angle).
delete tag
Delete the window named by tag.
raise
Raise all windows for the current context above the
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WM(1) WM(1)
others.
lower
Send all windows for the current context to the bottom.
!move tag reqid startx starty
Drag window tag interactively. Reqid is ignored.
Startx and starty give the location of the pointer when
the drag was initiated.
!size tag reqid
Interactively resize window tag.
fixedorigin
By default, if a window changes position but not size,
wm changes the origin of the window without creating a
new image. Sending fixedorigin caused wm always to
create a new image in that case.
kbdfocus [in]
If the decimal integer in is non-zero, request the key-
board focus, otherwise lose the keyboard focus.
Wm generates control messages to inform applications of
things that have happened. These include:
rect minx miny maxx maxy
The screen rectangle has changed. minx..maxy gives the
new bounding box of the screen.
haskbdfocus in
Informs an application of its current keyboard focus
state. This message is generated in response to
pointer events, and due to kbdfocus requests.
exit The window manager is closing down.
Controlling Application
The first application that starts under wm is given the
privilege of being able to control other applications run-
ning under the same wm. If it sends a start control message,
then it will also see any control requests sent by applica-
tions that wm itself does not understand and information
about applications starting and leaving. Wm accepts several
other control messages from its controlling application:
ctl id msg
Send message msg to application id.
endcontrol
Relinquish controller status. The next application
that starts will get control status. This is used, for
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WM(1) WM(1)
instance, to segue smoothly between logon(1) and
toolbar(1).
If the controlling application has started control messages,
wm sends it the following messages:
newclient id
A new client has connected, identified by id.
delclient id
Client id has left.
request id msg
Client id sent the request msg to the window manager,
which it did not understand. This facility is used,
for instance, by toolbar(1) to implement the task and
untask requests.
FILES
/chan/wmrect
File holding current screen rectangle.
SOURCE
/appl/wm/wm.b
SEE ALSO
toolbar(1), logon(1), tkclient(2), wmclient(2)
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