[Haskell-cafe] ANNOUNCE: xmonad 0.1

Spencer Janssen sjanssen at cse.unl.edu
Sun Apr 22 05:42:52 EDT 2007


The xmonad dev team is pleased to announce the inaugural release of:

                    xmonad: a tiling window manager
                           http://xmonad.org

Xmonad is a minimalist tiling window manager for X, written in Haskell.
Windows are managed using automatic layout algorithms, which can be
dynamically reconfigured. At any time windows are arranged so as to
maximise the use of screen real estate. All features of the window
manager are accessible purely from the keyboard: a mouse is entirely
optional. Xmonad is configured in Haskell, and custom layout algorithms
may be implemented by the user in config files. A principle of Xmonad
is predictability: the user should know in advance precisely the window
arrangement that will result from any action.

By default xmonad provides three layout algorithms: tall, wide and
fullscreen. In tall or wide mode, windows are tiled and arranged to
prevent overlap and maximise screen use. Sets of windows are grouped
together on virtual screens, and each screen retains its own layout,
which may be reconfigured dynamically. Multiple physical monitors are
supported via Xinerama, allowing simultaneous display of a number of
screens.

By utilising the expressivity of a modern functional language with a
rich static type system, Xmonad provides a complete, featureful window
manager in less than 500 lines of code, with an emphasis on correctness
and robustness. Internal properties of the window manager are checked
using a combination of static guarantees provided by the type system,
and type-based automated testing. A benefit of this is that the code is
simple to understand, and easy to modify.  

More information, screenshots, documentation and community resources are
available from:

     http://xmonad.org

Xmonad is available from hackage, and via darcs. Happy hacking!

The Xmonad Team:

    Spencer Janssen
    Don Stewart
    Jason Creigh


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