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docs/wings.rst

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+---
+layout: default
+title: WINGs
+---
+
+WINGs Is Not GNUstep
+====================
+
+While GNUstep is our ideal development framework, it's overkill for a window
+manager like Window Maker. We had a need for a quick, lightweight toolkit to
+handle basic window manager tasks, which is how WINGs was born, and why it has
+become an integral part of Window Maker's core.
+
+Unlike the general uses of the GNUstep development environment, the WINGs
+toolkit was designed as a specific solution for Window Maker. It is not
+implemented in an object-oriented language, but was designed with OO schemas in
+mind. It is encapsulated in objects that have various methods (functions),
+which in turn can be accessed like real objects (i.e it's unknown what they
+contain, and they only have the interface functions to alter their data). As
+much as C will allow, that is. What really matters is that it's functional and
+small enough for our purposes.
+
+Surprisingly, there have been several developers who think WINGs is mature and
+functional enough to write full fledged applications with it. For developers
+who are interested in creating real applications, we would encourage them to
+look at GNUstep instead. GNUstep is written in Objective-C, and anyone with a
+solid C++ background shouldn't need more than an hour to begin programming in
+Objective-C. For more information on this, please visit the `GNUstep Developer
+Documentation <http://www.gnustep.org/developers/documentation.html>`_ section.
+
+So, what does WINGs do for us, specifically? It contains many necessary
+widgets, such as the buttons, file browser, color chooser, and text editor
+dialog that are all used for creating the UI. It is currently missing a few
+important items, such as DnD, treeview, and application menus, but those will
+be integrated in future releases.
+
+One of the more important aspects of WINGs is that it now provides proplist
+functionality. proplist, short for `property list
+<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_list>`_, is what Window Maker uses to
+generate and maintain structured configuration files. This data is stored as
+plain ASCII text under a user's ~/GNUstep directory.  These files are what make
+up the menus, the current state and appearance of the desktop, the Dock, the
+Clip, and the values set in WPrefs.
+
+As an example, here is a short snippet from the proplist version of the default
+menu:
+
+.. code::
+   :class: highlight
+
+   (
+           Applications,
+           (
+                   Info,
+                   ("Info Panel", INFO_PANEL),
+                   (Legal, LEGAL_PANEL),
+                   ("System Console", EXEC, xconsole),
+                   ("System Load", SHEXEC, "xosview || xload"),
+                   ("Process List", EXEC, "xterm -e top"),
+                   ("Manual Browser", EXEC, xman)
+           ),
+           (Run..., EXEC, "%a(Run,Type command to run:)"),
+   ...
+   )
+
+External sources of information
+===============================
+
+As this section evolves, we will be providing more documentation on the
+internals of WINGs. For the time being, developers interested in WINGs should
+see Alexey Voinov's `WINGsman documentation project
+<http://voins.program.ru/windowmaker/wingsman.html>`_. Starters may find `this
+tutorial </WINGs_tutorial/WINGtoc.html>`_, which includes a library listing
+based on Voinov's work, useful. We'll try to cover some examples and/or more
+tutorials on how to program small applications in WINGs in the near future. For
+anyone already using WINGs for a project, please `contact us <{{ site.baseurl
+}}/lists>`_, as we'd like to get an idea of its popularity and practical uses,
+as well as some additional material to place here.