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