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               xmonad : a lightweight X11 window manager.

                           http://xmonad.org

------------------------------------------------------------------------

About:

    Xmonad is a tiling window manager for X. Windows are managed using
    automatic tiling algorithms, which can be dynamically configured.
    Windows are arranged so as to tile the screen without gaps, maximising
    screen use. All features of the window manager are accessible 
    from the keyboard: a mouse is strictly optional. Xmonad is written
    and extensible in Haskell, and custom layout algorithms may be
    implemented by the user in config files. A guiding principle of the
    user interface is <i>predictability</i>: users should know in
    advance precisely the window arrangement that will result from any
    action, leading to an intuitive user interface.

    Xmonad provides three tiling algorithms by default: tall, wide and
    fullscreen. In tall or wide mode, all windows are visible and tiled
    to fill the plane without gaps. In fullscreen mode only the focused
    window is visible, filling the screen.  Alternative tiling
    algorithms are provided as extensions. Sets of windows are grouped
    together on virtual workspaces and each workspace retains its own
    layout. Multiple physical monitors are supported via Xinerama,
    allowing simultaneous display of several workspaces.

    Adhering to a minimalist philosophy of doing one job, and doing it
    well, the entire code base remains tiny, and is written to be simple
    to understand and modify. By using Haskell as a configuration
    language arbitrarily complex extensions may be implemented by the
    user using a powerful `scripting' language, without needing to
    modify the window manager directly. For example, users may write
    their own tiling algorithms.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Building:

Get the dependencies

    You first need a Haskell compiler. Your distribution's package
    system will have binaries of GHC (the Glasgow Haskell Compiler), the
    system we use, so install that. If your distro doesn't provide a
    binary, you can find them here:

        http://haskell.org/ghc

    For example, in Debian you would install GHC with:

        apt-get install ghc6

    Since you're building an X application, you'll need the C X11
    library headers. On many platforms, these come pre-installed. For
    others, such as Debian, you can get them from your package manager:

        apt-get install libx11-dev

    Finally, you need the Haskell libraries xmonad depends on. Since
    you've a working GHC installation now, most of these will be
    provided. To check whether you've got a package run 'ghc-pkg list
    some_package_name'. You will need the following packages:

    mtl   http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/mtl-1.0
    unix  http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/unix-2.0 
    X11   http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/X11-1.3.0

And then build xmonad with Cabal as follows (the same goes for the other
Haskell libraries):

    runhaskell Setup.lhs configure --prefix=$HOME
    runhaskell Setup.lhs build
    runhaskell Setup.lhs install --user

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes for using the darcs version

    If you're building the darcs version of xmonad, be sure to also
    use the darcs version of the X11 library, which is developed
    concurrently with xmonad.

        darcs get http://darcs.haskell.org/X11

    Not using X11 from darcs is the most common reason for the
    darcs version of xmonad to fail to build.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Running xmonad:

    Add:

         $HOME/bin/xmonad

    to the last line of your .xsession or .xinitrc file.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

XMonadContrib

    There are various contributed modules that can be used with xmonad.
    Examples include an ion3-like tabbed layout, a prompt/program launcher,
    and various other useful modules.  XMonadContrib is available at:

    0.4 release:   http://www.xmonad.org/XMonadContrib-0.4.tar.gz

    darcs version: darcs get http://code.haskell.org/XMonadContrib

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other useful programs:

 For a program dispatch menu:

    dmenu           http://www.suckless.org/download/
 or
    gmrun           (in your package system)

 For custom status bars:

    dzen            http://gotmor.googlepages.com/dzen

 A nicer xterm replacment, that supports resizing better:

    urxvt           http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/rxvt-unicode.html

Authors:

    Spencer Janssen
    Don Stewart
    Jason Creighton