3 title: Your New Jekyll Site
6 <div id="info" class="clearfix">
9 <a href="/screenshots/" title="view more screenshots of i3">
10 <img id="screenshot" src="/screenshots/i3-9.bigthumb.png" width="375" height="234" alt="i3 screenshot"
11 srcset="/screenshots/i3-12.bigthumb.jpg 2x">
15 <h2>Do What I Mean. Good Docs. Clean Code. Sounds good?</h2>
17 Then you will love i3. Watch the <a href="/screenshots/">screencast</a>,<br>
18 read the <a href="/docs/userguide.html">User’s Guide</a> and <a
19 href="/downloads/">install i3</a>!
23 <span style="font-weight: bold; color: #3A8ECD; margin-right: .5em">➡</span>
24 Download the latest version
25 <span style="margin-left: 2em; color: #c0c0c0">4.15</span>
32 i3 is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiling_window_manager">tiling
33 window manager</a>, completely written from scratch. The target platforms are
34 GNU/Linux and BSD operating systems, our code is Free and Open Source Software
35 (FOSS) under the BSD license. i3 is primarily targeted at advanced users and
36 developers. Based upon the experiences we made when wanting to hack/fix wmii,
37 we agreed upon the following goals for i3:
42 Write well readable, well <strong>documented</strong> code. Create additional
43 documentation on how to extend i3 by explaining its internal workings.
45 This includes being modifiable by people who do know how to program but who are
46 not necessarily familiar with all of X11’s internals. That is, document why
47 things happen and when they happen so that the user gets a picture of the whole
48 process a Window Manager is responsible of by just reading the source code.
51 Use xcb instead of Xlib. xcb has a much cleaner API and should be faster in
52 quite a lot of situations.
55 Implement multi-monitor correctly, that is by assigning each workspace to a
56 virtual screen. Especially make sure that attaching and detaching new monitors
57 like video projectors works during operation and does the right thing. Also
58 provide support for rotated monitors.
61 Use a tree as data structure. This allows for more flexible layouts than
62 the column-based approach used by other window managers.
65 Implement different modes, like in vim. You can use different keybindings
66 when in the 'resize' mode than when you are in the default mode, for
70 Implement an IPC interface for other programs. Provide subscription to
71 certain events and accept commands.
73 This approach should be more lightweight than wmii’s usage of the 9P filesystem.
74 Furthermore, core functionality does not depend on a separate program, so that i3
75 runs faster, especially when your system is under load.
81 The usual elitism amongst minimal window managers: Don’t be bloated, don’t be fancy
82 (simple borders are the most decoration we want to have).
84 However, we do not enforce unnecessary limits such as a maximum amount of source lines
85 of code. If it needs to be a bit bigger, it will be.
90 In addition to these stated goals, we try our best to uphold the following
91 values when considering contributions to the project:
96 Never break configuration files or existing workflows. Breaking changes
97 require a major version bump (v4 → v5).
100 Keep mental complexity low: once you know i3’s key features, other features
101 should be easy to understand.
104 Only add features which benefit many people, instead of going to great
105 lengths to support rarely used workflows.
108 Only documented behavior is supported. Clear documentation is a requirement