root / trunk / ONEWS

-*-outline-*-

* Version 1.4 (15 Dec 2000)

** PLWM

*** Abstraction: Client filters

Client filters are a way to create arbitrarily complex conditional
expressions to select clients.  This can be used to e.g. cycle among
all iconified windows with a name matching "xterm*".
Client filters are located in plwm.cfilter, see the documentation
in it for details.

All code which previously used Client.client_in_list (e.g. the client
attributes no_border_clients, start_iconified) and also some new
pieces of code now use client filters.  The query_clients methods in
WindowManager and Screen also uses client filters now.

*** Client cycle module completely rewritten

Module plwm.cycle has been completely rewritten.  It is now much more
general and uses the new client filters to select which filters to
use.  A keyhandler template class, plwm.cycle.CycleKeys is also
provided to make it easier to define cycling key bindings.

*** New feature: mouse clicks can be simulated

If the XTEST extension is available (see below), mouse clicks can be
simulated by calling the function WindowManager.fake_button_click().
More complicated button press simulations could also be implemented by
the adventurous.

*** Better keymaps: `Any' modifier

Key handlers can now be bound to a certain key, ignoring any
modifiers.  This is done by using the special prefix `Any_' for key
handlers, e.g. `Any_F9'.

*** Abstraction: outline drawing as client mixin classes

Outline drawing has been generalised into client mixin classes.  This
means that any code which needs to draw an outline simply calls
methods on the client.  It is therefore now easy to write different
outline mixin classes.  Currently the classic xor outline is provided,
but future outline methods could, e.g., use a shaped window or a
number of small windows, one for each line.


** plxlib

*** New Display methods: FakeKeyEvent and FakeButtonEvent

If the X library support the XTEST extension, the Display methods
FakeKeyEvent and FakeButtonEvent are available.  These can be used
to simulate user input.  

*** New Window method: Reparent

The Window method Reparent has been implemented.  This will make it
possible to have real window frame support in PLWM, but for now it is
only used to work around a bug in a stupid client application (Sun's
Java AWT for Linux).


* Version 1.3 (4 Jul 2000) 

** PLWM

*** Abstraction: template key binding class for moveresize

plwm.moveresize.MoveResizeKeys is a template class providing functions
for all move and resize functions.  To use it, simple subclass it and
assign the functions to key bindings.  This is meant to make it easier
to define your own plwm.py keybindings, and more template classes will
probably follow.

*** Bug fix: Resizing windows with size hints (WMNormalHints)

In some quite obscure situations the size hints (WMNormalHints) on
windows wasn't used correctly when moving or resizing.  This meant
that windows (typically Emacs windows created with C-x 5 2) became a
little too large, quite ugly.  A more careful study of the ICCCM
pointed out the misusage.


** plxlib

*** Ridiculously large memory leaks fixed

A misunderstanding of the Python object C API meant that window
objects never freed their memory when garbed.  This is now fixed, and
means that the large and annoying memory leaks which previously had
been attributed to circular reference chains are finally fixed.
Additionally, a few cases of incorrect refcounts (too high) has also
been fixed, again mostly affecting window objects.

*** New module: XK

XK provided constants for keysyms.

*** Small new function: Window objects can be hashed

A hash function is now provided for window objects, which, together
with the compare function, means that window objects can be used as
dictionary keys.


** Miscellaneous

*** New configure flag: --with-python

The new configure script flag --with-python tells PLWM to use a
specific Python binary.  Can be used if Python isn't in your $PATH, or
if you want to use a special Python, e.g. one with refcount debugging
enabled.



* Version 1.2 (4 Apr 2000)

** PLWM

*** New feature: window manager status display.

The window title display in an xmodewin has been incorporated in a
new, more flexible system.  PLWM can now display a status message
about what it is doing, and temporarily switch this to some other
message temporarily.  Typically, the title of the currently focused
window is displayed by default.  But when moving/resizing a window it
is replaced with the title and current geometry of the moved/resized
window.

There are currently no other modules using of this feature, but more
will probably follow.  An example: when deiconifying, display the
title of the currently selected window.

*** Yet more memory leaks fixed.

Those annoying circular references continue to hog memory.  This time
it was the Client objects which never got garbed because of the
circular reference Client -> WindowDispatcher -> Client method ->
Client.  Solved by having the Client object dropping the reference to
the WindowDispatcher when its window is withdrawn.


** Utilities/plxlib

*** Better handling when no X resources are set.

xmodewin, xmwbiff and friends crashed at startup if no X resources had
been set with xrdb.  The function plxlib.GetStringDatabase is now more
permissive and allows the input argument None, which solves this
problem.


** Miscellaneous

*** Fully controllable ./configure

./configure now has the option --with-python-path which controls where
the plwm and plxlib modules is installed.  This path does not have to
be in sys.path by default, the various PLWM programs will insert it if
necessary.

*** Better installation

The install target now depends on all.  All modules will be compiled
at installation.


* Version 1.1 (24 Feb 2000)

** PLWM

*** Better documentation.

The documentation (doc/plwm.texi) has been revised and extended, most
importantly with a section on how to actually use PLWM and the various
utilities together.  The Makefile now contains rules for building
PostScript and HTML in addition to info files.

*** Module import bug fixed.

Embarrasingly, when changing to module layout to use packages I forgot
to update an import statement in modetitle.py.  I didn't find this
myself because an old PLWM installation lurked in a dark corner of my
$PYTHONPATH. 

*** Multihead has been tested, bugfixed and now actually works.

Multihead required two improvements to the core classes.  First, event
handling was modified to make a global, screen-independent
EventDispatcher possible.  Second, instaed of using os.system to run
program PLWM now has a system call for the screens.  This system sets
the $DISPLAY correctly, and also have some nice bells-and-whistles
(unused right now, however).

*** Memory leak fixed.

There was a memory leak in the KeyHandler class, caused by a nasty
circular reference preventing KeyHandler objects to be deleted.  So
each time one moved a window or deiconified a window, a few kilobytes
was lost.

*** Better font and color handling.

The font and color allocation routines have been rewritten to better
use a fallback font or color.  This means that PLWM will not crash
disgustingly just because a font cannot be found, instead using
"fixed".  Fonts and colors are now set with standard X resources
instead of using methods in the plwm.  This makes it easier to have a
single PLWM executable for different environments.

*** More view featuritis.

Views can be tagged with arbitrary strings.  You can then jump to a
view based on these tags, similar to the way you could previously
jump to a view based on the clients on it.


** Utilites

*** xmodewin and wmm

Easier to use in new environments: if the desired font doesn't exist
they use "fixed" instead.  wmm doesn't crash if its configuration file
.wmmrc doesn't exist, and uses a default configuration instead.


** Miscellaneous

*** Build procedure

A common error is that the development files of Python isn't
installed.  The ./configure script now detects this and prints a
helpful message.

* Version 1.0 (8 Jan 2000)

First public release.