Guide to X11/Window Managers/aewm

Type: stacking Language: C Licence: AEWM

The aewm window manager is minimalistic and is controlled entirely by the mouse. It contains no visible user interface components except window frames.

Operation

Raising and lowering windows

Windows are raised and lowered by clicking the titlebar:

• Left Click - Raise Window
• Middle Click - Move Window
• Right Click - Lower Window

Resizing windows

Resizing of windows is achieved by applying a middleclick event to the meta button.

Showing and hiding windows

Windows are hidden by applying either a leftclick or rightclick event to the meta button. There is no iconification of hidden windows, making it necessary to apply a rightclick context event to the desktop to restore the window via the tasklist.

Context events

The following context events are available from the desktop:

• Left Click - Launch menu
• Middle Click - Open a terminal
• Right Click - Task List

The following context events are available from the meta button:

• Left Click - Hide Window
• Middle Click - Resize Window
• Right Click - Hide Window

Features

Features of the aewm window manager include:

• Stacking windows
• A configurable rootmenu is provided by the aemenu module
• Window decorations include borders and titlebar
• titlebar has a meta button
• useless borders
• follow focus with no autoraise
• click to raise
• Program launch via aemenu
• context operations on the desktop, titlebar and meta button
• tasklisting via desktop context operation
• Written in C
• Uses the xaw or gtk toolkit
• Small modular design
• No menubar
• No multiple desktop support
• No desktop icons
• No wallpaper
• No theme support
• No grouped windows
• Configurable via a configuration file
• Lightweight (rated 2 on the hammer scale)
• Requires a 3 button mouse

Modules

• aedesk
• aemenu
• aepanel
• aesession

Review

The aewm window manager is awkward to use because there is no facility to maximize windows, and it is necessary for the desktop to be visible in order to launch programs and to show hidden tasks. Additionally useless borders are used, so windows cannot be resized by dragging their edges. It is also necessary to drag the titlebar with a middle click in order to move windows. Dragging with a left click will not work.

The aewm window manager is not accessibility friendly because it does not provide keyboard equivalents for its operations and is not touchscreen friendly because it requires a multibutton mouse.