# HG changeset patch # User Anselm R. Garbe # Date 1158041662 -7200 # Node ID e97ad13f04dc082b71353759671550c8cd462d66 # Parent d11d739ad9dfc3919e32bd40f430f9e8bfb28a67 added a general comment to dwm.h how dwm is basically organized diff -r d11d739ad9df -r e97ad13f04dc dwm.h --- a/dwm.h Mon Sep 11 17:31:21 2006 +0200 +++ b/dwm.h Tue Sep 12 08:14:22 2006 +0200 @@ -1,6 +1,46 @@ /* * (C)opyright MMVI Anselm R. Garbe * See LICENSE file for license details. + * + * dynamic window manager is designed like any other X client as well. It is + * driven through handling X events. In contrast to other X clients, a window + * manager like dwm selects for SubstructureRedirectMask on the root window, to + * receive events about child window appearance and disappearance. Only one X + * connection at a time is allowed to select for this event mask by any X + * server, thus only one window manager instance can be executed at a time. + * Any attempt to select for SubstructureRedirectMask by any connection after + * another connection already selected for those events, will result in an + * error generated by the server. Such errors are reported through calling the + * current X error handler. + * + * Calls to pop an X event from the event queue of the X connection are + * blocking. Due the fact, that dwm reads status text from standard input, a + * select-driven main loop has been implemented which selects for reads on the + * X connection and STDIN_FILENO to handle all data smoothly and without + * busy-loop quirks.. The event handlers of dwm are organized in an array + * which is accessed whenever a new event has been popped. This allows event + * dispatching in O(1) time. + * + * Each child window of the root window is called a client in window manager + * terminology, except windows which have set the override_redirect flag. + * Clients are organized in a global doubly-linked client list, the focus + * history is remembered through a global stack list. Each client contains an + * array of Bools of the same size as the global tags array to indicate the + * tags of a client. There are no other data structures to organize the clients + * in tag lists, because a single global list is most simple. All clients which + * have at least one tag enabled of the current tags viewed, will be visible on + * the screen, all other clients are banned to the x-location 2 * screen width. + * This avoids having additional layers of workspace handling. + * + * For each client dwm creates a small title window which is resized whenever + * the WM_NAME or _NET_WM_NAME properties are updated. + * + * Keys and tagging rules are organized as arrays as well and defined in the + * config.h file. These arrays are kept static in event.o and tag.o + * respectively, because no other part of dwm needs access to them. + * + * The current mode is represented by the arrange function pointer which wether + * points to dofloat or dotile. */ #include "config.h"