summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/kwin/HACKING
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorTimothy Pearson <[email protected]>2011-11-07 21:50:33 -0600
committerTimothy Pearson <[email protected]>2011-11-07 21:50:33 -0600
commit0b6057404f65218182ab27a9483a21065ef61fca (patch)
treeb8b06dfa2deb965bebfbe131a772124e3e693a96 /kwin/HACKING
parent43d99cc2477266cb9072e179137f0e8485370b3d (diff)
downloadtdebase-0b6057404f65218182ab27a9483a21065ef61fca.tar.gz
tdebase-0b6057404f65218182ab27a9483a21065ef61fca.zip
Rename kwin to twin (Part 2 of 2)
Diffstat (limited to 'kwin/HACKING')
-rw-r--r--kwin/HACKING174
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 174 deletions
diff --git a/kwin/HACKING b/kwin/HACKING
deleted file mode 100644
index 3dcd579f3..000000000
--- a/kwin/HACKING
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,174 +0,0 @@
-Mailing list and bugzilla:
-==========================
-
-The KWin mailing list is [email protected] . It's rather low traffic.
-
-The bugs.kde.org product for KWin is 'twin'. Currently the components are 'general' (KWin core),
-'decorations' (decoration plugins), 'compatibility' (problems with non-KDE WMs/apps) and
-'eyecandy' (transparency and similar effects).
-There are also two kcontrol components 'kcmtwindecoration' and 'kcmtwinoptions' related
-to KWin's KControl modules.
-
-
-KWin parts:
-===========
-
-There are four parts of KWin:
-- The KWin core, located in kdebase/twin/*, which implements the actual functionality.
-- The decoration plugins, located in kdebase/twin/clients and kdeartwork/twin-styles, which
- are responsible for the visual representation of the windows.
-- The libkdecoration library, located in kdebase/twin/lib/*, which is used for communication
- between the core and the decoration, and also implements some shared functionality
- for the decorations.
-- KControl modules, located in kdebase/twin/kcmtwin.
-
-
-KWin decorations:
-=================
-
-If you want to develop a decoration plugin for KWin, a HOWTO is available at
-http://www.usermode.org/docs/twintheme.html . It is currently not possible to create
-a new decoration without knowledge of C++, but it should be possible to write a themeable
-decoration (I'm not aware of any such decoration though).
-
-
-Restarting KWin:
-================
-
-Since KWin takes care of focus handling, first killing KWin and then launching new instance
-can cause focus trouble. Therefore it's possible to run 'twin --replace', which will start
-new KWin instance and tell the old one to quit.
-
-
-Handling the case when KWin crashes:
-====================================
-
-Again, without KWin running there may be focus problems. The simplest way to solve them
-is to add the 'Run Command' applet to Kicker - it can receive focus even without KWin running.
-If you can't add the applet or can reach it for some reason, switch to text console, and run
-'DISPLAY=:0 twin --replace' (and then you can run 'twin --replace' again from X).
-
-If KWin is temporarily unusable because of some change and e.g. crashes during startup, it
-is possible to run another window manager, for example Metacity, OpenBox or FVWM (the command
-is similar to restarting KWin, i.e. 'metacity --replace', 'openbox --replace' or 'fvwm -replace').
-
-
-Debugging KWin:
-===============
-
-Focus problems once more. It is not possible to debug KWin in gdb in the X session that KWin is managing,
-because that'd block focus and window operations. It is necessary to switch to a text console
-and attach to the running KWin instance from there, or launch it as 'DISPLAY=:0 gdb twin'.
-
-Since KWin is such an important component of KDE, it is usually better to start another X for development.
-Note that XNest is quite buggy and is therefore not recommended to use.
-
-
-Window manager spec:
-====================
-
-The EWMH window manager specification, also known as NETWM, is located at the freedesktop.org site,
-http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards_2fwm_2dspec . It defines how the window manager
-communicates information with the applications and other desktop utilities such as the taskbar
-or pager.
-
-
-KWin structure:
-===============
-
-KWin has relatively few classes. The two main classes are Client, which represents windows
-on the screen, and Workspace, which represents the whole screen and manages windows. Both these
-classes are rather large, because they fulfil complicated tasks. In other to reduce size
-of their source files these some functionality is in separate .cpp file grouped by the purpose:
-
-- workspace.* - core of class Workspace
-- client.* - core of class Client
-- activation.cpp - focus handling and window activation
-- events.cpp - event handling is in events.cpp
-- geometry.cpp - geometry-related code
-- layers.cpp - stacking-related code
-- manage.cpp - code dealing with new windows
-- placement.cpp - window placements algorithms
-- rules.cpp - code for window-specific settings
-- sm.cpp - session management code
-- useractions.cpp - handling of the Alt+F3 menu, shortcuts and other user actions
-
-The rest of the files contain additional helper classes:
-
-- atoms.* - so-called atoms (symbolic names for constants in X)
-- bridge.* - communication with the decoration plugin
-- geometrytip.* - window displaying window geometry while moving/resizing
-- group.* - grouping related windows together (warning! This is currently really messy and scary code
- that should be rewritten).
-- killwindow.* - handling of the Ctrl+Esc feature
-- twinbindings.cpp - KWin's keyboard shortcuts (used by kdebase/kcontrol/keys)
-- notifications.* - for KNotify
-- options.* - all configuration options for KWin are stored in this class
-- plugins.* - loading of the right decoration plugin
-- popupinfo.* - showing temporary information such as virtual desktop name when switching desktops
-- tabbox.* - the Alt+Tab dialog
-- utils.* - various small utility functions/classes
-
-KWin also uses code from kdelibs, specifically files netwm.cpp, netwm.h, netwm_def.h and netwm_p.h
-from kdelibs/tdecore. These files implement support for the EWMH window manager specification,
-originally called NETWM (hence the filenames).
-
-
-Developing KWin:
-================
-
-So, you feel brave, huh? But KWin is not THAT difficult. Some parts, especially the X-related ones,
-can be very complicated, but for many parts even knowledge of X and Xlib is not necessary. Most X
-code is wrapped in helper functions, and I can handle problems there ;) . However, although many
-features don't require touching X/Xlib directly, still X/Xlib may impose their semantics on the way
-things are done. When in doubt, simply ask.
-
-All patches for KWin core should be sent to [email protected] for review first. Even seemingly harmless
-changes may have extensive consequences.
-
-Various notes:
-
-- kdDebug has overloaded operator << for the Client class, so you can e.g. use 'kdDebug() << this << endl;'
-in class Client and it will print information about the window.
-
-- KWin itself cannot create any normal windows, because it would have trouble managing its own windows.
-For such cases (which should be rare) a small external helper application is needed (kdialog should often
-do, and for special cases such a utility needs to be written like twin/killer).
-
-
-X documentation:
-================
-
-As already said, many parts of KWin don't need knowledge of Xlib or even how X actually works.
-Some parts do, and it may be also useful to have at least a basic understand for general
-understanding. A reference manual for Xlib can be found e.g.
-at ftp://ftp.x.org/pub/X11R7.0/doc/PDF/xlib.pdf , a tutorial explaining basic can be found
-e.g. at ttp://users.actcom.co.il/~choo/lupg/tutorials/xlib-programming/xlib-programming.html
-(note that you don't need to know that all - e.g. GC's are very rarely needed and the
-section on fonts is today outdated).
-
-
-Coding style:
-=============
-
-There are only three rules for patches for KWin:
-
-- the code should be relatively nice and clean. Seriously. Any messy code can be hard to comprehend,
-but if the code is in a window manager it will be twice as difficult.
-
-- unless the functionality of the code is obvious, there should be either at least a short comment explaining
-what it does, or it should be obvious from the commit log. If there's a hack needed, if there's a potentional
-problem, if something is just a temporary fix, say so. Comments like "this clever trick is necessary"
-don't count. See rule #1 above for reasons. I needed more than two years to understand all of KWin,
-and there were parts I never got and had to rewrite in order to fix a problem with them.
-
-- put matching opening { and closing } in the same column. That's the only formatting rule I ask for.
-I don't really care if they're aligned with the block one level higher or if they're aligned with the block
-they surround like I do (which is the only thing about the "weird coding style in KWin") or if you align them
-with something else, just put them in the same column. If I can handle about half a dozen different formatting
-styles when working on various parts of KDE, this shouldn't be much work for you (and you can do that only
-right before sending the patch). I don't care where you do and don't put spaces or what exactly you call local
-variables, as long as I can read it (trying to make it look like the rest of the code is bonus points though ;) ).
-
-