Remembering #xwinman #wm #x11

https://www.xteddy.org/xwinman/

I mirrored this some time ago, hoping that the original (https://www.xwinman.org) never went away.

Alas, it has.

Matt Chapman created xwinman.org at just the right time, to allow for a good selection of DEs and WMs to be documented -- with screenshots -- and where applicable -- configuration files as well.

I know that for many, it was a really good resource to discover what was out there and for people to reuse components from config files to customise their own environment.

Good luck trying to do this on Wayland...

It's a snapshot in time when things were simpler and the choice for the user was at its peak. Again... Wayland will never offer this degree of flexibility because XServer needed you to handle window management.

Nowadays, Giles Orr provides a more up-to-date list of WMs which you can see here:

https://www.gilesorr.com/wm/xwmtable.html

Although some of curation is arguably opinionated.

But I wanted to raise the fact that xwinman.org is mirrored, and that it's a very interesting resource.

As it happens, one of Matt Chapman's programs, xtt, is something I've included #x11cp:

https://x11cp.org/apps/xtt/

#x11cp #archaic #application

#xmeltdown is an application written by David Lemke, released in 1990.

Its purpose is to create a melting effect on all connected monitors. Nothing serious, it seems, but a lot of fun!

For more information, see: https://x11cp.org/apps/xmeltdown/

This application was the first by a contributor. Whoo!

#x11cp #archaic #application

#xtt (XTimeTable) is an application written by Matt Chapman (of www.xwinman.org fame).

It's a simple application written in #x11 (using #libxpm) to display recurring events throughout the working week -- which in this case is a static timetable of university lectures.

The entries shown can be colour-coded (via X11 colour names - which would have been in rgb.txt).

The day's schedule is assumed to be static -- that is, one entry per hour, and a working day of 09:05 - 17:05 -- hence there can only ever be 9 entries per day at most.

I really like this application as it shows just how versatile this application could be - as well as it not being over-engineered to use #electron, which is precisely what many people writing something like this now would use.

Fools!

See: https://x11cp.org/apps/xtt/

#x11cp #archaic #application

#xrolodex is a #motif application which offers a rolodex-like program to store information.

See: https://x11cp.org/apps/xrolodex/

#x11cp #archaic #application

From the README:

#icao is an interactive program running under #x11 #motif. Its input is a so
called "world file", which is an ASCII file containing descriptions of objects
such as airports, roads, towns, radio beacons and the like. ICAO will use
either Lambert or Mercator projection to generate a map from this world file,
either on your screen or as PostScript output.

ICAO allows you to interactively work with the map on the screen, i.e. scroll
it, use a rubber line to measure distances and tracks etc. Additional features
are available for both motorized flights and soaring.

See: https://x11cp.org/apps/icao/

#x11cp #x11 #archaic #application

This time round, it's #xwpick.

#xwpick is an application screenshot/capture program, similar to #xwd.

The interesting part of this program is the number of formats it inherently supports:

* ps
* eps
* epsi
* gif
* ppm

See: https://x11cp.org/apps/xwpick/

As part of the #x11cp I'm working on, I have also begun getting #mgr working. It's a slightly difficult task, but worth it

So far, I'm working through fixing compiler issues.

More info here:. https://hack.org/~mc/mgr/

Historically this is important. I hope @mc agrees. I'm sure he won't mind me resurrecting this.

It's going to be fun!

#x11cp #archaic application.

It's time (yes, literally) for another clock application.

This time (heh!), it's #xdotclock which as the name suggests, draws a digital clock from a series of dots. It does this using nothing more than xlib.

It was originally written by Haran Shivanan, sometime in 2003-July-07

The README highlights the following:

"It runs in both 12 hour and 24 hour modes and is somewhat configurable. You can display the clock in arbitrary colors or have it continuously shift colors, control the speed at which the particles move around and the size of the particles."

To get this to compile, I had to remove the GCC flag of `-m486` -- that's no longer supported.

What's interesting here though is the effect that has on the cycling between colours. That's now *very* fast, and although you can control that with the `-speed` option to introduce a delay, this isn't now working, since the CPU power has increased so much since the 486, that I'm going to have to modify the code to bring this option inline with more modern hardware.

Anyhow, screenshots attached! The "green" clock is meant to represent the cycling between colours -- and don't get me wrong, it does work, it's just *fast*! :)

#x11cp #x11 #archaic application.

Another clock application! This time, it's #xarclock, written by Jaime Garcia Ghirelli, somtime in April 1994.

The README says:

"If clocks had been invented in Argentina (southern hemisphere), they would run anti-clockwise. Down there a sundial runs the other way around!

The program is an extension of the standard X clock widget. New features are: Configurable direction of rotation and font support in analog mode."

Interesting, indeed! So here's a screenshot showing a clock with roman numerals going clockwise, and a different clock showing the time going anti-clockwise.

You can also change the colours of the hands and render the clock in reverse colour (think b&w displays).

Fun!

#x11cp #x11 #archaic application.

This time, it's #xsclock which is a 56x56 #dockapp intended to be used in #afterstep's wharf module, but equally applies to #fvwmbuttons as well.

Originally written by Namio MATUDA, around 1999-Nov-24. The version I have here is 0.22

There is only one option `--day` which shows the day/month in the window.

Screenshots attached.