[HN Gopher] Progman: X11 WM modeled after Program Manager from t...
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Progman: X11 WM modeled after Program Manager from the Windows 3
era
Author : signa11
Score : 188 points
Date : 2024-02-17 05:05 UTC (17 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| tomxor wrote:
| I'm a long time tiling window manager user but this is very
| tempting :D
|
| [edit]
|
| In-case anyone else wanted to know what the exact build
| dependencies are on Debian, 11 at least: build-
| essential pkg-config libx11-dev libxft-dev libxext-dev libxpm-dev
| libgdk-pixbuf-xlib-2.0-dev
|
| Does what it says on the tin :) I'm struggling to miss mousing
| windows around the screen though.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| > Optional HiDPI scaling support to magnify icons and buttons
|
| What a beautiful union of past and present:)
|
| Having to manually add programs to the menu is a tradeoff; easier
| to implement and good for control, but more work to set up as a
| user.
|
| I appreciate having reasonable keyboard shortcuts by default and
| supporting adding more.
| rbanffy wrote:
| If only it could have the OS/2 1.3 look...
| gecko wrote:
| Isn't that literally just slightly different colors? I don't
| remember meaningful differences between OS/2 1.3 and the
| Windows 3 line. I always thought that was part of why WinOS2
| worked well: the Win32 apps looked like the old OS/2 apps, both
| giving them familiarity and emphasizing they were old.
| SllX wrote:
| I was curious about this and looked it up for anyone else who
| wants to see too:
| https://www.os2museum.com/wp/os2-history/os2-1-2-and-1-3/
|
| I never used OS/2 and most of what I've seen were from the
| final versions, so I had no idea it basically looked like
| Windows 3.x in the earliest versions.
| Narishma wrote:
| It's the other way around. Windows 3.x looked like OS/2 1.x
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| Love the real title bars and buttons. SGI 4dwm had one of the
| best of this style.
|
| But I happen to like the taskbar from 95+.
| mysterydip wrote:
| Sounds like someone needs to make a "windows 3.1 with calmira"
| wm: http://www.calmira.net/screenshots/gaby_c.htm
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| Forgot to mention the draggable window edges that you can see.
| h4ch1 wrote:
| https://github.com/jcs/progman/commit/7b707c32dcf0842c55de29...
|
| https://github.com/jcs/progman/commit/024a5d086657a70b5303d1...
|
| https://github.com/jcs/progman/commit/3a427653be2d5117e162da...
|
| I'd be giving these commit messages as examples of great commit
| messages.
|
| Honorable mention xd:
| https://github.com/jcs/progman/commit/bd91f0f091c4656c246e7d...
| progman32 wrote:
| Finally I can fulfill my username's destiny and compile a 32 bit
| version of this. If this supported virtual desktops I might
| actually daily drive this on my laptop.
| Dalewyn wrote:
| Fun trivia of the day: Program Manager existed as a 32-bit
| binary from Windows NT 3.1 through Windows XP SP1.
|
| Yes, you could get Windows XP SP1 to boot into Program Manager
| instead of Explorer if you so desired, and I would wager
| probably through Windows 10 32-bit too if you copied over the
| required files.
| BirAdam wrote:
| I actually used that too, and then SP2 blew it away, so I
| left Windows for Linux.
| bayindirh wrote:
| It says it comes with 10 virtual desktops out of the box. Use
| <alt> + [1..0] or scroll on the desktop.
| progman32 wrote:
| I shouldn't post in the middle of the night. My bad. I'll
| check it out!
| bayindirh wrote:
| Heh, no problems. To err is human, after all. Hope you
| enjoy it. :)
| EasyMark wrote:
| would be fun on airplanes or coffee shops where bored people
| will look at your screen and see how many conversations you can
| strike up :D
| remoquete wrote:
| Of course it has Hot Dog Stand as a theme. :-)
| peter-m80 wrote:
| Would love a wm with the BeOS look
| gattilorenz wrote:
| Well, not a wm, but would a theme for XFCE interest you?
| https://old.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/90gx5u/xfce4_beos...
| mrweasel wrote:
| The /r/unixporn is a really weird place, in this case it's
| XFCE, so I feel like it makes more sense, but the most riced
| up desktops people post are always Sway, i3, dwm and similar.
| They are minimalist window managers, yet people go out of
| their way to customize them.
| prmoustache wrote:
| Can we avoid xenophobic slangs please?
| mrweasel wrote:
| Sure, wasn't actually aware that it was xenophobic, still
| not really sure why it is. What you would suggest as an
| equally colorful and descriptive?
| jpk wrote:
| I assume you're referring to "rice". In the car scene, it
| stands for "race inspired cosmetic enhancement" and it's
| typically used to refer to things that make a car look
| fast without actually making it so. (Think big spoilers,
| non-functional intake scoops, etc.).
|
| The term is used here to express a similar sentiment; a
| desktop environment that's made to take pretty
| screenshots but not necessarily be more functional, or
| enhance a certain workflow.
| sprash wrote:
| Almost every skinnable WM has a BeOS theme.
|
| Pekwm has my favourite BeOS theme
| (https://www.pekwm.se/themes/benu.html) because it supports
| window grouping flawlessly, which turns every window into a
| potential tab just by dragging.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| This is basically how the first releases of fvwm worked :) in
| fact most early window managers.
| hulitu wrote:
| Most early window managers, including fvwm, were configurable,
| with few hardcoded defaults.
| rcarmo wrote:
| I approve of this UI.
| Ezhik wrote:
| I wonder if there's a pixel-perfect Win95 WM out there.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| This poor soul has been maintaining Fvwm95 all on their own:
| https://flaterco.com/util/index.html
| fsiefken wrote:
| XFCE total conversion https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95
|
| Chicago was the code name for the development version of the
| highly anticipated Windows95
| massifist wrote:
| I has always assumed Program Manager's window decorations were
| inspired by Motif but apparently it was the other way around,
| regarding Presentation Manager; Program Manager's ancestor.
|
| "Motif was directly inspired by the look and feel of the
| Presentation Manager interface"
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentation_Manager#Presentat...
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| In this day and age I think the mock-3d stuff in Motif looks
| gaudier than the classic look of both the Win 3.11 interface
| and the OS/2 Presentation Manager.
| TazeTSchnitzel wrote:
| There's a Computer Chronicles episode somewhere on YouTube
| (doubtless also on archive.org in higher quality) where a
| Microsoft rep shows off Windows 3's user interface, and they
| outright say it looks like Presentation Manager, so it'll
| prepare users for OS/2. Back when MS hadn't decided to kill
| OS/2!
| qwertfisch wrote:
| This is the window managing part which handles decoration and
| displays running applications as desktop icons if minimized.
|
| But where is the Program Manager?
| gattilorenz wrote:
| I suspect this commit is for you :)
| https://github.com/jcs/progman/commit/bd91f0f091c4656c246e7d...
| agumonkey wrote:
| It would surprisingly fit some 2020s aesthetic trends (or maybe
| we're just cycling)
| badsectoracula wrote:
| This is neat but, TBH, i expected a recreation of the actual
| _Program Manager_ (i.e. the launcher with the groups and icons)
| :-P
|
| AFAIK back in the 90s there was some (proprietary, i think) Motif
| based program that looked very similar to Program Manager and
| some Linux distributions bundled it.
|
| It'd be trivial to make something like it with -e.g.- Lazarus,
| especially if the subwindows/MDI part isn't needed and instead
| launch toplevel windows (which IMO is a better idea anyway as you
| can nest them, something i always felt was missing from the
| Win3.x Program Manager).
|
| EDIT: for fun i tried to setup a Win3.1 theme for Gtk and put
| Lazarus (in a separate user account) with this window manager. It
| looks nice[0] though the WM seems to be lacking support for some
| common features for setting up window appearance (e.g. the
| completion window in the screenshot has a frame when it shouldn't
| and the window doesn't disappear but instead its contents become
| black - this happens for any window that is expected to remain
| around but hidden).
|
| https://i.imgur.com/Hpieb0g.png
| rogerbinns wrote:
| The company I worked at IXI [1] was the leading provider of
| Motif. We took the official release, fixed all the bugs,
| documented it, and sold it with most companies using Unix
| workstations buying licenses. We also did better versions of
| the window manager and file/program manager.
|
| We had a product named Wintif that gave the Windows 3 look and
| feel to any Unix program using Motif, without any code changes
| to the program. The theory was you would display the Unix
| programs on a Windows PC running an X server, and they would
| look and feel like native Windows programs. See a glorious
| screenshot at [2] where all the programs and window manager are
| running on Unix using Wintif.
|
| What happened is the Unix workstation market and hence Unix GUI
| applications rapidly diminished in favour of native Windows
| applications, with web applications taking off (and what we
| pivoted to). You'll notice the screenshot includes our version
| of Mosaic - the first mainstream web browser.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IXI_Limited
|
| [2] https://www.flickr.com/photos/avaragado/5334440376/
| euroclear wrote:
| Caldera Linux included Looking Glass[1] which was vaguely
| Windows-like and commercial. Not sure if that's what you were
| thinking of.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looking_Glass_(UNIX_desktop)
| squarefoot wrote:
| Doesn't look that different from Motif/CDE, they were
| ubiquitous back in the day.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Desktop_Environment
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_(software)
| haolez wrote:
| On a side note, I wonder if Wayland made it more difficult to
| have this kind of silly experimentation. X11, despite the
| legendary bad code quality, is a big leverage for lone coder.
| philsnow wrote:
| I have used Mac laptops as my daily driver for the last ten years
| after being a ride-or-die Linux guy for the 15 years before that.
|
| I'm still more comfortable on Linux systems, though. Some things
| I dearly miss, in no particular order:
|
| 1) complete control over window management, an embarrassment of
| riches in terms of amazing and wacky window managers
|
| 2) {s,p, (and much later) d}trace; there are probably similar
| tools on Mac but I don't need them badly enough to find and learn
| them --- but I know just enough about them in Linux-land to
| investigate frustrating things
|
| ... I thought there would be more when I started typing, but that
| might be it.
| graphe wrote:
| Try this. https://github.com/chipsenkbeil/choose
| animatethrow wrote:
| Nowadays how well are old-school X11 window managers doing
| necessary interop with the desktop bus to keep modern GTK/QT apps
| rendering correctly on 4K HiDPI screens? I was forced to give up
| on FVWM because tweaking my X resources Xft.dpi and GDK_SCALE
| settings for one app such as firefox in order to get it rendering
| correctly on a 4K screen would break other apps. Firefox only
| seemed to do HiDPI correctly when run under a full GNOME desktop
| that provides the dbus messages it is assuming to set the 200%
| font size and UI scale correctly. Is there a way to run an old-
| school X11 WM now that allows snaps/flatpacks/GNOME-bloat dbus
| apps to run without issue with 200% scaling on 4K screens?
| peter_d_sherman wrote:
| Looks nice and simple (a good thing, not a bad thing) -- which
| would make it excellent for educational purposes (as well as
| tiny/embedded and/or highly secure systems)!
|
| Kudos on the work!
|
| Great job!
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(page generated 2024-02-17 23:01 UTC)