make my thinkpad into a typewriter

[Giles Orr]

2008/9/24 Ian Petersen <ispeters-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>:
> On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 8:56 PM, Meng Cheah <meng-D1t3LT1mScs at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> Ian Petersen wrote:
>>>
>>> I've never used it myself, but I think Ratpoison was designed with
>>> your goals in mind.  Also, have a look at the GTALUG wiki and see if
>>> you can find the presentation given on window managers.  I think it
>>> would have been early 2007 or late 2006, but I can't remember the
>>> presenter's name, or anything.
>>
>> I think the presenter was Giles Orr.
>
> Yes!  Now that you've said his name, I remember.  It was definitely
> Giles Orr, and the presentation was very good--his personal website
> includes all sorts of information on window managers, including an
> intriguing genealogy.

http://www.gilesorr.com/wm/

I'm fairly certain that xmonad includes the toggling you're thinking
of.  Most tiling window managers do, although you may not be as happy
with it as you think.  The commonest problem is that most of them act
in a manner similar to wmii, which allows you to choose whether you
want a tiled or a free-floating desktop, but not ready toggling after
that.  And even when you have the free-floating, you have to use a
modifier key in combination with a mouse press to move a window.

Awesome does exactly what you're looking for, allowing very easy
toggling between several tiling layouts and free-floating windows ...
but there's a major problem.  You were looking for a lightweight
window manager.  Awesome is one of the "heaviest" there is at this
point.  I had a bit of a debate with the author about the number of
libraries (mostly font stuff) he's packed into it recently, and he
argued that everybody has the resources to run it.  I looked at my
quad core box with 4G of memory and had a hard time arguing, but you
could make a really good case for it.  Or you could just get and build
an older version: 2.0 should be okay, 2.3.2 is not.

-- 
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
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