Baslinux mailing list

[baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org]

On Sun, Mar 11, 2007 at 05:52:06PM +1300, baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:
> > There are window managers that are less than 10KB 
> > in size (failsafewm is one).
> 
> The window manager in BL3 (swm) is just 19kb, which 
> makes it one of the smallest.  However, it requires 
> libXpm (the barebones libXpm in BL3 is 48kb).  There 
> is a non-libXpm option for swm, but IMO it's ugly.  

Nice thing about failsafewm is that the only signs of it and the
xterm are narrow lines outlining the windows.
> 
> The BL3 wm also has a menu program (12kb) grafted onto 
> it and some background pixmaps (21kb).  All together, 
> that's around 100kb for the wm stuff, which is still 
> considerably less than icewm and other popular window 
> managers.

By miles.

> I will be taking a different approach for next version 
> of BasicLinux.  Instead of taking a minimalistic wm 
> and grafting on bits to make it more useful and more 
> attractive, I will be using a much nicer wm that is 
> bigger than swm, but smaller than swm + libXpm + menu 
> + pixmaps.  

If you could just get rid of the title bar. Invisible
window managers and xterms are the cat's meow.

I have mine boot up with three 99X45 windows anchored
to the left and one 32X45 window anchored on the right
that I use to display the time and system info (still
working on it).

> This will give us a significantly better wm in less 
> space than the old swm hodgepodge.  The same applies 
> to links:  BasicLinux 3.5 will have a better, smaller
> links.  And the new busybox will save us some space
> too.  Overall, BasicLinux will shrink by more than
> 100kb.  That will give us room for some extras like 
> an additional module or two.  

Good work!

> I am still hoping to add the 3Com PCMCIA network 
> module to BL3, but I won't be able to do that until 
> I find an old 3Com card to experiment on.  I keep 
> looking for one, but so far no luck.  PCnet cards 
> are pretty easy to find (I've got four of them now), 
> but working 3Com PCMCIA network cards (with dongle) 
> are not so common here.

PCMCIA is for laptops, right? Never used it.

I can't help but notice that you haven't decided to go over to
svgalib :-)

Lee

-- 
BasicLinux: Small is Beautiful
http://www.basiclinux.com.ru