Re: [wmii] Preparations for 3.5

2006/10/31, Denis Grelich <denisg_AT_suckless.org>:
> > A somewhat configurable C-replacement could offer a simple and
> > fast replacement. If somebody needs more flexibility the options
> > are modifying the source or using a more powerful scripting
> > language (and coping with their overhead).
>
> If you want a C wmiirc, you could as well have all of the config
> in-source, or have a config file in some special format that is read
> and parsed by wmiiwm. These could be options for wmii-4 though. For
> 3.5 I definitely don't want to change the well-tested current concept.
> Another approach would need much design and many iterations.

I know lots of people here speak C as a second language and despise sh
and the coreutils ("Linux is crap, GNU folks are morons", etc.) but I
may not be the only one who prefers writing a shell script as hacking
a c file. One of the thing i do like about wmii is the ability to
customize the wmiirc and status scripts. If I want wmiirc to do some
stuff on startup or update the statusbar with a niceness of 19 or if I
want to write shell functions() for the shortcuts, I can do that
easily. If I want the statusbar to show me incoming email, no problem,
etc.

What would be the advantage of a C replacement? A cleaner code?
Frankly I don't mind if wmiirc is not a masterpiece, so long as it
works. A 0.017 second faster wmiirc? Idem, I really don't care about
such speed optimizations, saving 1K RAM seems so pointless to me... As
for the "more powerful scripting language", do I seriously need
Python/Ruby/whatever to make the statusbar show me the volume or the
currently played song?

I'm not an expert and maybe a part of wmiirc should be rewritten in C.
So far, the decisions made about the design of wmii look really sound.
But please, don't break the ability to customize wmii just to show off
your proficiency in C or something like that.

Thanks a lot Denis for being the new maintainer, that is nice from
you. I am also happy to see that others (like Stefan) keep
contributing.

Thomas
Received on Thu Nov 02 2006 - 19:32:56 UTC