wiki:UserAPI
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User API idea

Introduction

Here is some thought about an API for the users of CLFSWM, because CLFSWM is meant to be a programmable window manager. This could be a categorized list of feature that CLFSWM could provide. This API should not be tied to a particular implementation.

Comment:


Concept

  • window: application window (X window).
  • frame: A set of frame that are geometrically contained.
    • The identity of a frame is the path in the geometry inclusion tree (frame tree)
    • A frame has a list of its children (frame-children) which are frames
    • A frame has only one parent
    • Special frame:
      • A window which is its own frame.
      • The root frame which parent is itself
  • group: An arbitrary set of group.
    • A group has a name that is unique among the membership
    • The identity of a group is the path in the DAG. A group can have multiple identity.
    • A group has a list of member (group-member) which are groups
    • A group cannot contain itself (transitive)
    • A group can be a member of different group but at least one.
    • Special group
      • A frame which is its own group. The group-member have at least the member of the frame-children.
      • The root group is a member of no group and is named "*root*"
  • operation:
    • name
    • parameter (group or other type of parameter)
    • must be undo-able

Comment:

  • I don't see what is exactly a frame. In the current clfswm version there is only groups and windows (X window). A group can contains childs. A child is another group or an X window. Can you explain the need of frames? -- Philippe
    • Frame are the actual group in CLFSWM. I would like to use the term group for a more relaxed relationship that could be arbitrary as far as it is a DAG. For me, frame are a more constraint than group as far as membership is concerned (tree) because it is a geometrical relation. For example, you can use group to select any kind of frame even if there are not related by a geometry inclusion relation. -- Cyrille
      • Ah, ok I see. What do you think about a tag system on (actual) groups to do some actions on groups with no geometry relation. Another question: how do you want to represent children in your version of groups? How do you want to manipulate them? In the actual version the relation between childs is straightforward. -- Philippe
        • Actually, this user API is much more a programmatic interface than a user interface. I try to make it as orthogonal and generic as possible so that it could be a good foundation for user interfaces. I would second this with some tooling that would have a visual interface. -- Cyrille
          • I have asked on the ML -- Philippe

Facility API

API that the extension API rely on.

Comment:


Input

Concept:

  • input sequence: A list of sequential or combination of input event (example: C-a a) that can be recognized.

List of event:

  • mouse
    • motion
      • left
      • right
      • up
      • down
    • click
      • button (left, middle, right, 1, 2, 3, ...)
      • click type (simple, double, triple)
  • keyboard
    • key
    • modifier
  • Other event
    • On mouse enter
    • On focus (window)
    • On new member (frame or group membership)
    • ...

List of event combinator:

  • Simultaneous event (and)
  • Alternative event (or)
  • sequence of event

An input sequence is send to the window if one has a focus and if the input sequence is not recognized.

Comment:

  • Actually keys combination are done with a sub menu system. I think it's simple for the user to add its own keys combination and the info window helps to remember keys. So two systems are in place: shortcut (define-main-key/define-second-key) and menu (info-mode-menu). -- Philippe
    • This is only a definition of event. See the shortcut section for the binding between shortcut and operation, and the info menu -- Cyrille

Window management

Mode:

  • full: remove its own frame and group
  • window-only: without touching its own frame and group

Operations:

  • close
  • delete
  • destroy

Reference:

Comment:


Undo

Any operation of the extension API could be undone.

Convention:

  • If step is 0, proceed to the last mark
  • If step is superior to 1, proceed at last 'step' operations

Operations:

  • emacs-undo (&optional (step 1)): undo a la emacs
  • undo (&optional (step 1))
  • redo (&optional (step 1))
  • exclude-operation (operation): mark this operation has to be ignored for undo and redo. (For example, selection modification by default must be ignored)
  • include-operation (operation): mark this operation has to be undone or redone if asked.
  • history-size (step)
  • mark

Comment:

  • This is a nice idea (added in the TODO). But I don't really know already how to implement it now (save a state before each actions?). -- Philippe
    • Each operation of the extension API should register a reverse operation in a command stack. -- Cyrille

Naming

A group has a name unique for any membership it takes part to or a rank for each membership. The path (numbered or named) is its external identity (ie. seen by the user). Any operation of the extension API are applied to a group identified by its path in the DAG of group.

Accessor:

  • get-group-by-name (path)
  • get-frame-by-name (path): return the frame that its own group has this name if it exists such a frame
  • get-window-by-name (path): return the window that its own frame that its own group has this name if it exists such a window.

Comment:

  • What about numbers. A group is named and numbered. Name and numbers are not guaranted to be unique. There is a need for a function to ensure that name or numbers are unique (added in the TODO) -- Philippe.
    • I should change it to path. It is more consistent with the concept section -- Cyrille
      • Added in the TODO -- Philippe

Property group

The idea is to have special groups that if a group belong to, any of the member as a property of the group set and vice versa.

A property group as a property with a value. A property group behave like a group, that is a group can be a member of multiple property group.

Operation:

  • make-property (name property value)
  • change-property (property-group property value)

Comment:


Extension API

API that tries to be orthogonal.

Comment:


Focus

Handle the input focus (X window).

Operation:

  • focus-on (window)
  • no-focus: no window has the focus (X window)

Comment:


Geometry

This section describes the operations that a user can perform on a frame to change its geometry.

Mode:

  • linear: the change is done n pixels by n pixels
  • edge: the change is done until an edge/border is hit in the direction

Convention:

  • An increment of 0 means in edge mode
  • An increment superior to 1 means in linear mode

Operation:

  • move (frame &optional (increment 1))
    • left
    • right
    • up
    • down
  • resize (frame &optional (increment 1))
    • left border
      • grow/left
      • shrink/right
    • right border
      • grow/right
      • shrink/left
    • top border
      • grow/up
      • shrink/down
    • bottom border
      • grow/down
      • shrink/up

Comment:

  • Only groups have geometry. Windows are managed by a group. The geometry of a group is between 0 (left/top) and 1 (right/bottom).
    The user is asked for numbers between 0 and 100 when it need to specify a geometry. Then this numbers are converted in 0 to 1 before storage.
    For mouse actions. The geometry is done in pixel and then converted in float numbers (need a function to convert from and to float or pixel -> TODO).
    Actually there is some functions to find groups edges and you can manipluate x, y, h, w directly to change the geometry. Another thing, see the macro with-movement. -- Philippe
    • Ok for the implementation. I would like to change the term of the actual group in CLFSWM to be a frame which has more a geometrical meaning, group being more arbitrary. -- Cyrille

Layout manager

A layout manager handle the geometry of its children.

Type:

  • tile (row, column)
  • maximize
  • Stack tilling (percent (up, down, left right))
  • ...

Operation:

  • set-layout-manager (frame, type)

Nota:

  • Could be a property group

Comment:


Layer

Frames can sometimes be overlaid. A frame have a list of frame (frame-layer) to handler the order of exposure.

Operation:

  • put (frame): change the layer of the frame in the layer list of the parent
    • front
    • back
    • top
    • bottom

Nota:

  • Could be a property group

Comment:

  • This have to be implemented but for groups: raise/lower group (in the TODO). -- Philippe

Group management

A group is deleted if it has no more membership.

Accessor

  • list-children (group)
  • list-membership (group)

Operation

  • make-group (name parents &optional groups): There must be at least one parent to make a group. The name must be unique in all parents membership.
  • rename (group, new-name): the new name must not exist.
  • add (group, group): The second group become a child of the first group
  • remove (group, group): Remove the second group for the list of children of the first group
  • add-children (group, group): Add the children of the second group to the list of children of the first group. The list of children of the second group is not modified
  • merge (group, group): All the children of the second group are added to the first group. The second group is left empty.
  • move-child (group, child): change the place of the child group in the list of member of the group
    • previous
    • next
    • first
    • last

Comment:


Frame management

This section describes the operations that a user can perform on a frame.

Accessor:

  • list-children (frame)
  • parent (frame)

Operation:

  • make-frame (parent)
  • remove-frame (frame): Remove the frame from the children list of the parent, so deleting it.
  • move (frame)
    • parent
    • first sister
    • next aunt
  • move-child (frame): change the place of the frame in the children list of the parent
    • previous
    • next
    • first
    • last

Comment:

  • See question on top: is a frame really needed?
    • I think the geometry inclusion relation is a contraint because you could want to make operation on geometricaly unrelated frame. So, I propose to separate an arbitrary relation (group) and the geometrical relation (frame) -- Cyrille
      • Ok, asked on the ML -- Philippe

Hide

This section describes operations that a user can perform to show or hide a group meaning that it is not shown on the screen.

Accessor

  • hidden (group)

Operation:

  • hide (group)
  • show (group)

Nota:

  • Could be a property group

Comment:

  • How do you unhide a group when it is hidden? By name or number? -- Philippe
    • There should be a way to show the tree of frame and the DAG of group so that you can find the path to identify one, or at least the children of a frame or the member of a group. -- Cyrille

Window shadow

A window can be duplicated. The copy become a shadow of the copied window. An operation perform on one shadow does not impact the other shadow of the same window.

Accessor

  • list-shadow (window)

Operation

  • make-shadow (window)
  • remove-other-shadow (window): remove the other shadow but the one in parameter

Comment:


Shortcut

Concept:

  • mode: A mode is a list of shortcut. Its external identifier is its name.
  • shortcut: It is an input sequence associated to an operation

Accessor

  • list-shortcut (mode)
  • current-mode-name

Operation:

  • make-mode (name &key extend-modes overide-modes)
  • add-key-shortcut (mode, input-sequence, operation)
  • add-motion-shortcut (mode, input-sequence, operation)
  • add-escape-sequence (mode, input-sequence, input-sequence): The second input sequence is the one send to the application having the focus if the first input sequence is recognized.
  • set-current-mode (mode)

Shortcut assistant:

  • Show as a menu the list of possible keys that could be next typed

Comment:

  • This is done actually with the info-mode-menu. Is there a need to do something more sofisticated? -- Philippe
    • No, it was just to not miss it in this specification proposition -- Cyrille

Selection

Manage a special group named "*group-selection*" and a son of the group "*root*"

Accessor:

  • list-selection

Operation:

  • add (group)
  • remove (group)
  • clear

Comment:

  • Actually the selection is just stored in a list of childs. I think there is no need for a group to do that. -- Philippe
    • You might want to select different frame in different sub-trees. For example, to copy them in a new frame, so you have a new view. Frame cannot do that but group can. -- Cyrille
      • This is already doable in the current implementation: you can put a child from any group in the selection list. -- Philippe

Current frame

Handle a special group named "*current-frame*" containing only one frame that is the current one and a son of the group "*root*". It is a mean to navigate through the frame tree.

Accessor

  • current-frame-path

Operation:

  • set-current-frame (frame)
  • browse (set as current)
    • parent: set the current to the parent frame of the current one
    • first-child: set the current to the first child of the current one
    • last-child: set the current to the last child of the current one
    • next-sister: set the current to the first child of the next brother of the father of the current one.

Comment:


Zoom

Concept:

  • zoom out: Behave as if the application window is bigger for the application but completely drawn in a small amount of space (miniature). The zoom factor is inferior to 100%
  • zoom in: Behave as a magnifying glass. The zoom factor is superior to 100%. The part of the application window shown (viewport) can be moved.

Accessor:

  • zoom-factor (frame)

Operation:

  • set-zoom-factor (frame, factor)
  • move-viewport (frame &optional (increment 1))
    • left
    • right
    • up
    • down

Nota:

  • Could be a property group

Note:

  • Moving the viewport when the zoom factor is inferior to 100% has no effect.

Comment:

  • This is a nice idea but I don't know yet how to implement this. (-> In the TODO as maybe) -- Philippe

Discussion

  • If the structure of the page is OK for everybody, I would break it into smaller pages -- Cyrille Thouvenin
    • It's ok for me but without the frame level. I don't really see why frames are needed. -- Philippe
      • Ok I see what you mean by frame. I've asked for comments on the ML before doing anything. -- Philippe
Last modified 16 years ago Last modified on 03/23/08 13:57:57