Talk:Dynamic window manager

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Wrong Information[edit]

"In computing, a dynamic window manager is capable of dynamically switching between using a tiling window manager screen organizational strategy and a floating window manager layout."

As far as I understand the concept of dynamic window management this is simply wrong. There are 2 concepts for tiling window managers:

Static (like Ion3, Ratpoison, Stumpwm)
Dynamic (like Larswm, Dwm, Xmonad)

The common thing that makes them tiling, is that the windows don't overlap. In a static tiling window manager the user can arrange these non-overlapping frames any way he wants (the Ion-approach). Whereas in dynamic tiling window managers the user doesn't need to manage the windows, the wm manages the windows in a predefined layout (Larswm-approach). In Larswm this is the layout where there is a Master-area that contains one window and a "stacking area" that contains every other window tiled side by side. Window managers like dwm/Xmonad/... extend this with additional layouts like

monocle - where every window is fullscreen
fibonacci spiral - where the windows are arranged in a spiral, with their size decreasing according to the fibonacci sequence
and others

The important thing is that a window manager is not dynamic because one can use a floating and a tiling approach and switch between those two. (This is possible in e.g. Ion3 as well, but Ion3 isn't a dynamic tiling wm because one can arrange the non-overlapping frames in any way one wants, one even _has_ to arrange them manually and can't let Ion3 do it).

That is how I understand the term and that's also the way it's described under [1]. I haven't heard it being used another way (except in this wikipedia article) and I have heard the term the first time from the suckless.org people, so maybe they even "invented" this term.

Another thing that makes a dynamic wm dynamic would be the use of a tagging-system instead of a workspace-system (see [2]), but I wouldn't see it as a necessity (Larswm doesn't do it, but I would describe it as dynamic).

As I'm not a native english speaker I would appreciate it if someone could integrate these things into the article in proper english. --Pp323 (talk) 17:23, 28 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The added citation states _nothing_ that would support the definition of "dynamic window management" given in this article. It simply states that awesome is a) dynamic and b) offers the two modes of operation "floating" and "tiling". The possibility to "switch" between those two isn't the fact that makes a wm dynamic (in fact in awesome one doesn't even switch, both modi operate at the same time), the fact to change between layouts that order the windows in a tiled fashion (as mentioned above) makes a tiling wm a dynamic tiling wm.

Apart from the suckless-source mention above [[3]] is another source to support the defintion mentioned by me. This window manager doesn't provide such layouts that order the windows in a given "sequence" (like fibonacci, ...) but the user has the freedom to arrange them any way he wants (its just tiling in the sense that there is no possibility for the windows to overlap), therefore it is, as stated on the page "static" instead of "dynamic". --Pp323 (talk) 14:31, 22 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have changed the article because this is also how I understood it, and the sources above are more trustworthy and relevant to the context. Another reason why dynamic should refer to what is because dwm, possibly the first window manager that works like this, stands for dynamic window manager, and is also created by the suckless people (or just homed by that website, I don't know).

I have also written a very short introduction to manual tiling window managers (or static, but I know them as manual, and that term is also more intuitive). Could someone create that article and put more information in it?

However, a more important thing to do right now: many tiling window managers are right now claimed to be dynamic on each of their wikipedia pages. They really aren't dynamic, but the articles call them that and they refer to this page, which is now changed. This will cause major confusion, so it's best to call them simply tiling window managers on their pages, and redirect them accordingly.