Highlights
In no particular order (and neither an exhaustive list):
-
EWMH support, including support for managing different window types
(“docks” for example). -
Colorset commands replace FvwmTheme (which is now deprecated)
-
WindowStyle command applies a style to a specific window only.
-
XFT fonts are supported, per locale.
-
Focus-specific policies supported as styles (FP*, !FP*)
-
FocusStyle command allows styling of focus policies specifically.
-
Dynamic actions can be sent to most modules whilst they’re running to
customise their behaviour (SendToModule). -
Gettext support introduced for output strings (most commonly seen on
menu items.) -
Mouse gestures (libstroke) bindings are available.
-
New module FvwmProxy to manage moving windows around.
-
New module FvwmWindowList to make the list of running windows more
customisable over the builtin “WindowList” command. -
Variable placeholders ($w, $d, $c) deprecated in favour of newer formats.
Also, the number of variable placeholders has been expanded.- $[func.context], $[w.desk], $[w.layer], etc.
-
Nesting of placeholders is also allowed.
-
FvwmEvent: The PassId option is deprecated as actions always run within a
window context. -
Many new conditional commands with different options.
-
New style command “Unmanaged” to make certain windows completely divorced
from FVWM’s control. -
New command FakeKeyPress.
-
Window-specific key/mouse bindings. (Bindings no longer have to be global.)
-
Many new style options:
- FixedSize
- FixedPosition
- MoveByProgramMethod
- UseTitleDecorRotation
- IconBackgroundColorset
- IconTitleColorset
- HilightIconTitleColorset
- IconTitleRelief
- IconBackgroundRelief
- IconBackgroundPadding
- Closable
- Iconifiable
- Maximizable
- AllowMaximizeFixedSize
- PositionPlacement
- InitialMapComand
Plus many others…
-
Window states are now available to identify windows to perform “groups” of
commands on. -
fvwm-menu-desktop uses the XDG menu specification.
-
PNG/SVG support for icons.
-
Menu-context bindings.
-
The name style names match against can be augmented by the X-resource “fvwmstyle”.
-
New fvwm-convert-2.6 script to convert older fvwm 2.4.x config files.
-
Bugfixes!
There are of course significant bug fixes gone into this release; far too
many to list here, and many of them so specific to the development version
alone that listing them is out of context when comparing them to the last
stable release. Overall, a number of bug fixes for memory management, and
ease of managing windows has happened.
Upgrading from FVWM 2.4.X -> 2.6.0
It is worth spending some time looking at the dependencies at FVWM’s
disposal. None of them are required per se for FVWM to work:
- Xinerama
- Readline
- Fribidi
- XFT
- Iconv
- PNG
- SVG
- XPM
- XRender
- Stroke
- Xsm
- Xcursor
- SM (Session Manager)
Note that not all of these are external libraries – some of them are
merely facets of an XServer’s configuration, but a lot of it will depend on
the platform FVWM is running on.
Preferred way of upgrading your configuration file
In the old stable (2.4.X), the path to the default user config file is now:
$ ~/.fvwm/config
by default, although the older paths of:
$ ~/.fvwm/.fvwm2rc
$ ~/.fvwm2rc
are still supported; just deprecated in favour of ~/.fvwm/config. Note that
the “INITIALIZATION” section in “man fvwm” lists the other locations FVWM
might also look in to find a valid config file. Since there’s been some
syntax changes, a handy script can be used – “fvwm-config-2.6” to convert a
2.4.X style config file.
Please see the man page for “fvwm-convert-2.6”.
History
It’s taken almost ten years for FVWM 2.6.0 to arrive. In that time, FVWM
has had contributions from numerous people – many of them can be found
here:
Whilst it is unfair to single any one particular person out, it is without
question that I (Thomas Adam) would like to pay particular homage to the
following people (again in no particular order; and far from exhaustive):
- Dominik Vogt – for being one of the most useful sources of information on
FVWM to date, and making it such a great program. - Viktor Griph – for implementing some cool features
- Dan Espen – just for being completely reliable with any request I’ve
thrown at him, and for helping to cobble this release together. - Olivier Chapuis – for writing far too many features than can be listed
here, but responsible for things like: new conditional commands,
original EWMH support, XFT support, gettext support, numerous bug fixes,
etc., fvwm-themes. - Mikhael Goikhman – for perllib, Session management support, various perl
helper scripts FVWM uses (fvwm-config, fvwm-menu-desktop, etc.), as well
as along with Olivier Chapius, starting fvwm-themes. - Scott Smedley – Converting documentation to use Docbook, window-specific
binding support, FvwmTabs, perllib fixes, FvwmButtons enhancements.
But that list is far from the full picture. There are numerous people on
IRC in #fvwm (freenode) who have given up their time in terms of user
support, and that’s just as important as development. So I would like to
also thank the following people (in no particular order):
- pebcak
- somiaj
- theBlackDragon
- starshine
- haddock
- Janon
- surrounder
- taviso
- swimmer
This list is not exhaustive either, but they have in particular been the
life-blood of the channel on ensuring it runs smoothly and help provide the
best support possible.
Thank you all!
Dedications
During the course of FVWM’s development, the community lost one of its
members, Alex Wallis (“awol”, on IRC). Alex founded the IRC channel,
brought together a community on IRC for FVWM, which still continues to this
day. He also was a large contributor to the fvwm-themes project.
Sadly, Alex is no longer with us, and he would have been proud to see the
FVWM he knew, as being released as stable, so this release is dedicated to
him. May he still rest in peace.
Contact
The official fvwm homepage:
Questions about the release can be asked on our mailing list:
fvwm at fvwm.org
Bugs can be reported to the fvwm-workers mailing list.
– Thomas Adam (2011/04/15), on behalf of the FVWM community.