Yes indeed, ladies and gentlemen, a new beta release of everyone's
(or at least my) favorite window manager is ripe for the picking. This
version features a number of bug fixes, as well as a hearty assortment
of enhancements. If you're interested in all the details, be sure to
look at the conveniently included ChangeLog, but here are some of my
personal favorites :
* Yet another change to the NLS build code. Hopefully we've gotten
things to the point where they should build anywhere. Of course,
we thought that the last time, too.
Anyway, if NLS support was giving you compile-time problems before
(ie you run NetBSD), let me know if this release fixes things. And
if NLS worked for you in the previous release but breaks in 0.60.3,
feel free to holler away too, so that my screams of frustration
will have plenty of company.
* ClickToFocus has been tweaked for the nth time. Blackbox now tracks
the stacking order of all its client windows, and uses this info
whenver a window is closed to give the focus to the topmost window.
Short-short version : ClickToFocus should act like it does pretty
much everywhere else now. Whether this is a good or bad thing is
up to you.
* Modifications to reduce cache size and X resource consumption.
Check the ChangeLog for all the details, but the biggie here is a
new compile-time option: --disable-styled-frames.
By passing --disable-styled-frames to configure, you force Blackbox
to reduce all the window.frame* textures to Flat Solid ones. Due to
another optimization new to 0.60.3, this means that the window frames
will not require a pixmap, and not be cached. The end result should
be a fairly noticeable reduction in the amount of memory X uses.
In the name of backwards compatibility this option is not turned on
by default, but I strongly encourage everyone to give it a shot. The
textures specified by window.frame* are used to draw a frame only a
few pixels wide around each window, but in order to do this Blackbox
must create a pixmap as large as the window. This takes a good bit of
time and memory, all for an effect which is barely noticeable.
So give it a shot. If you can see a difference, you can always
rebuild without it.
I should also point out that our fearless leader, the inimitable Mr
Hughes, will be out of reach for the next week or so while he makes his
way to Norway. So if you run into any problems with Blackbox over the
next few days, you'd be better served e-mailing me at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
than trying to get in touch with Brad. I can also be found from time
to time in the #blackbox channel of irc.openprojects.net under the
nick morel.
So what are you waiting for? Go get it!
Jeff Raven ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Co-author, Blackbox Window Manager
http://blackbox.alug.org
