------------------------------------
OCLUG Talk - the VTWM window manager
------------------------------------
- Ian! D. Allen www.idallen.com

You don't need to shut down your current window manager to experiment
with other window managers, though having multiple X11 sessions will
eat lots of memory.  To start a parallel X11 session:

Suspend your current X11 session and go to a plain console:

    CTRL-ALT-F1

Set up your .xinitrc to start another window manager, then
start another X11 session on another screen than screen zero:

    $ startx -- :1

Switch between the two X11 sessions using CTRL-ALT-F7 and CTRL-ALT-F8.
(The exact function keys F7 and F8 may differ with different distributions.)

Part I - VTWM
-------------

An empty .vtwmrc gives you almost nothing.
 - The files are not cumulative.
VTWM will run m4 on your .vtwmrc if you like

VTWM windows have decorated title bars by default
 - you can control which ones do or do not in the .vtwmrc
 - you can control the decorations in the .vtwmrc
 - but you can't dynamically remove or add a title bar!
 - but you can't dynamically decorate a title bar!

VTWM icon manager is similar to Windows taskbar
 - a NxN clickable text list of existing windows
 - when the mouse is on a list item, that window has keyboard focus
 - terminal escapes can set window and icon manager titles
 - spacebar opens/closes windows
 - xterm ziconbeep flags iconified xterm windows with new output
   www ~/xterm-208/xterm.log.html | less

VTWM virtual desktop manager
 - miniature desktop of dynamic, arbitrary size
 - you can "nail" windows to the desktop

- you can control what the icon manager shows
- you can control what the virtual desktop shows
- e.g. xload

VTWM Warp Rings
 - a list of programs can be in a warp ring in your .vtwmrc
 - a keypress can "warp" the mouse to the next windown in the ring
 - you can also create dynamic rings as well (a separate list)
 - e.g. put all Eterms in a warp ring, all xterms in another ring

Part II - my .vtwmrc
--------------------

My .vtwmrc has a history going back to my 1980's .twmrc
 - keyboard operated:
   - unmodified keys go to application
   - ALT applies to the current window in the current desktop
     - ALT j,k move up and down the icon manager
     - ALT h,l move around the warp rings
     - ALT spacebar iconifies/de-iconifies the window with focus
     - ALT mouse can move, resize any window within current desktop
       - SHIFT-ALT does an unconstrained move
   - CTRL+ALT+SHIFT applies to the virtual desktop
     - CTRL+ALT+SHIFT j,k move up and down the virtual desktops
     - CTRL+ALT+SHIFT h,l move left and right in the virtual desktops

demo:
  create three Eterms and two xterms
  - start vim /etc/group in one window
  - show j,k then ALT j,k then CTRL-ALT-SHIFT j,k

demo:
  create three Eterms and two xterms
  - show three Eterm warp ring
  - show two xterm warp ring
  - create a new ring containing one Eterm and one xterm
  - show all three rings
  - show icon manager list

Issues
 - only the mouse can trigger vtwm functions; no IPC interface
   - e.g. can't change desktops under script control

Part III - standard .vtwmrc
--------------------------

If you start vtwm with no .vtwmrc it uses either a system vtwmrc or a
compiled-in one.  Ubuntu has a built-in vtwmrc with no source file?

I found another one: /etc/X11/vtwm/system.vtwmrc-menu
To copy and modify:

    cp -p /etc/X11/vtwm/system.vtwmrc-menu $HOME/.vtwmrc