On 15-Apr-2002 Ciprian Popovici wrote:
> If you have the time, please have a look at this:
> http://xlife.zuavra.net/blackbox/
>
> It's supposed to be an overview of BlackBox. I'm not sure if I got
> everything right, especially stuff about the "history" of BlackBox.
> I'd appreciate comments, pointers and maybe some extra info about the
> beginnings of BlackBox.
>
> Ciprian Popovici
Here goes (-:
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"feature freeze" in any project means no new functionality is added. Only
fixes for bugs or improper behaviour. Patches from anyone are welcome as long
as they are bug fixes.
XFree is an implementation of the X Window System. There are others (Sun, OS
X, etc). My point here is blackbox wants X, not anyone vendor's version of X.
GNOME and KDE are not window managers, they are desktop environments. Their
goal is to have a unified look and feel amongst all of the applications. Often
a window manager is involved. However you can run blackbox with either of
these and once netwm is working blackbox will integrate as fully as possible
with either environment.
Probably should point out window maker and enlightenment as the two most
commonly used window managers outside of kwin or sawfish.
Please refer to the AUTHORS file for a definitive list of people who have given
code and other help to blackbox.
I can't speak for Brad but here is what I think blackbox is all about. For
blackbox is about two things: simplicity and minimalism ("get out of my way").
I need a window manager to use X. I would like it to not look ugly. But I do
not need animation, whiz bang transparency effects, etc. Blackbox should be as
fast as possible while using as few resources as possible. When run with only
solid colours (no gradients) blackbox uses very little resources, so you as a
user control just how resource hungry blackbox is. Window icons, desktop
shortcut icons, etc get in the way of me using the screen real estate to its
fullest. Blackbox is also as dependency free as possible -- you only need X
and the c++ library. When you do make && make install blackbox is ready to
roll. No rc file tweaking, no document reading. The configuration menu has
most of the settings anyone cares about. This simplicity is important.
Because it is also simple internally. Which leads to easier bug fixes and
development work in general. It also leads to the preference for simple
external apps over tons of features in the window manager proper, just like the
UNIX philosophy of small tools doing one job well.
wmaker and afterstep apps as well as bbtools can go in the slit. As an aside I
am interested in renaming the slit, so a separate thread on that would be
welcome.
note bbkeys can also toggle window decor on/off.
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