ZZWM (Zoe's Zooming Window Manager)

A small (<750 lines for the base wm), experimental X11 window manager where all windows live on an infinite 2D canvas. Navigation is spatial: Super+scroll to zoom, Super+middle-drag to pan.

Four binaries: zzwm (the main window manager) plus three small utility apps in utility-apps/:

• zzwm-run — a small app launcher (Super+Space). A plain client window, so it's managed like any other window: it zooms and pans with the canvas.
• zzwm-bar — a minimal status app that doubles as the "base window" (see below): zzwm anchors it at the canvas origin (0,0) and won't let it be closed or moved, so it acts as a "you are here" reference point as you zoom/pan. Its contents are entirely driven by running BAR_CMD (see Configuration), one line of output per line shown.
• zzwm-help — a keybinding reference (Super+H). Reads config.h's bindings table directly, so it always matches the real configuration; any keypress closes it, not a click.

Controls

(mostly reconfigurable)

Input	Action
Super + Scroll wheel	Zoom in / out, centred on cursor
Super + Middle-click drag	Pan the canvas
Left-click window	Focus (and raise to top)
Super + left-drag	Move window on canvas (no-op on the base window; snaps to other windows' edges, see Configuration)
Super + right-drag	Resize window (also snaps)
Super + Return	Spawn xterm
Super + Space	Spawn zzwm-run (type a command, Enter to launch)
Super + H	Spawn zzwm-help (keybinding reference)
Super + Q	Close focused window (no-op on the base window)

Configuration

Edit config.h and rebuild to change functionality:

• ANCHOR_NAME — the X window name (WM_NAME/XStoreName) of the "base window". Whatever window has this name is anchored at the canvas origin instead of the viewport, and can't be closed or moved. Defaults to "zzwm-bar", matching utility-apps/statusbar.c.
• Keybindings — each line is BIND(modifier, keysym, action, arg), e.g. BIND(Mod4Mask, XK_Return, ACT_SPAWN, "xterm &"). Available actions: ACT_SPAWN (run arg as a shell command), ACT_CLOSE (close the focused window).
• SNAP_ENABLED — set to 0 to disable edge snapping entirely. Default 1.
• SNAP_DIST — how close (in canvas/native pixels, independent of zoom) an edge has to get to another window's edge before it snaps. Default 12.
• SNAP_GAP — space (same units) left between two windows when they snap side-by-side instead of sitting flush. Default 10.
• BAR_CMD — a shell command; each line of its output becomes one centred line in zzwm-bar (window resizes to fit), re-run every BAR_CMD_INTERVAL seconds. Defaults to a one-liner that prints a clock and a help hint.
• BAR_CMD_INTERVAL — how often BAR_CMD is re-run, in seconds. Default 1.

No changes to zzwm.c are needed for either.

Edit appearance.h and rebuild to change aesthetics:

• CANVAS_BG_* — zzwm's canvas background, behind all windows. Dark navy by default.
• BG_*/FG_*/DIM_* — background, foreground, and dim text for zzwm-run, zzwm-bar, and zzwm-help. Background is white by default.
• BORDER_R/BORDER_G/BORDER_B — color of the border drawn around every managed window.
• BORDER_THICKNESS — border thickness in canvas pixels at zoom 1.0 (it scales with the window as you zoom). Set to 0 to disable borders.
• FONT_NAME — X font name (XLoadQueryFont) used by zzwm-run and zzwm-bar. Default "fixed".

No changes to any .c files are needed.

Building and running

make

Requires: libX11, libXrender, libXcomposite, libXdamage, libXpresent, and libXInput.

# Debian/Ubuntu:
apt install libx11-dev libxrender-dev libxcomposite-dev libxdamage-dev libxpresent-dev libxi-dev xserver-xephyr

Always test inside a nested X server:

Xephyr :1 -screen 1280x800 &
DISPLAY=:1 ./zzwm &
DISPLAY=:1 ./zzwm-bar &

Then open windows on :1:

DISPLAY=:1 xterm &

Installation

make
sudo make install         # installs to /usr/local/bin
# or, without root:
make install PREFIX=~/.local

zzwm launches zzwm-run/zzwm-bar/zzwm-help via system() (e.g. "zzwm-run &"), so they must be on $PATH for keybindings like Super+Space to work — make install puts all four binaries plus startZZWM.sh in the same directory for that reason. make install also installs zzwm.desktop to /usr/share/xsessions (independent of PREFIX, since that's the fixed location display managers scan), so ZZWM shows up as a session choice on your login screen. make uninstall removes all of it again (respects the same PREFIX/DESTDIR).

To start ZZWM via a display manager (GDM, LightDM, SDDM, etc.), just select the "ZZWM Session" entry at the login screen after sudo make install.

To run zzwm as your actual X session window manager without a display manager, add to ~/.xinitrc:

zzwm-bar &
exec zzwm

then start X with startx. (Test in Xephyr first, per above — zzwm replaces whatever WM is currently running on the display, so a bad keybinding config could leave you without a way to spawn a terminal.)

License

MIT — see LICENSE.