THIS PROJECT IS UNMAINTAINED.

THERE WON'T BE ANY BUGFIXES.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK OR FORK.

However, thank you for your interest. :)

x:choyce

A light-weight, Exposé-like window switcher for X (feat. OpenGL)

See it in action!

Version

2013.12.13

About the name

The x stands (obviously) for X Window System. I thought it might be a good idea to prefix applications written for X with an identifier or namespace.

The choyce part is a portmanteau of choice and joy. Go figure.

Features

• Light-weight: No additional libraries except XCB, Xft and OpenGL
• Exposé-like: Shows thumbnails of all your windows for selection
• Window selection with keyboard and mouse
• Draws window icons from _NET_WM_ICON or WM_HINTS
• Draws window titles from _NET_WM_NAME and/or WM_NAME & WM_CLASS
• Unfocused windows are black and white & slightly blurred
• Entirely configurable through Xresources (man 1 xrdb)
• Automatic configuration reload (e.g. after xrdb -load) without restart
• Makes use of OpenGL for fast and appealing graphical effects
• GLSL shaders in external file, stringified at compile time
• Written in modern C++11 with a modular object oriented approach

OpenGL Version

This is important: The minimum required **OpenGL** version is **3.0**

You can check your driver's version with glxinfo. Currently, there are no runtime checks, so x:choyce might behave oddly or just crash with versions below 3.0.

Compilation

Clone the repository and type make. If this fails, check if the required libraries are installed. Check also if your compiler is recent enough.

For reference, this is the software I'm using (compare with make version):

xcb:                1.9.1
xcb-atom:           0.3.9
xcb-keysyms:        0.3.9
xcb-composite:      1.9.1
xcb-damage:         1.9.1
xcb-xinerama:       1.9.1
xcb-xfixes:         1.9.1
x11:                1.6.2
x11-xcb:            1.6.2
gl:                 9.2.3
xcb-ewmh:           0.3.9
xcb-icccm:          0.3.9
xcb-image:          0.3.9
xft:                2.3.1

GCC version:
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.8.2/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
Configured with: /build/gcc-multilib/src/gcc-4.8.2/configure --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --with-bugurl=https://bugs.archlinux.org/ --enable-languages=c,c++,ada,fortran,go,lto,objc,obj-c++ --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --disable-libunwind-exceptions --enable-clocale=gnu --disable-libstdcxx-pch --enable-gnu-unique-object --enable-linker-build-id --enable-cloog-backend=isl --disable-cloog-version-check --enable-lto --enable-gold --enable-ld=default --enable-plugin --with-plugin-ld=ld.gold --with-linker-hash-style=gnu --disable-install-libiberty --enable-multilib --disable-libssp --disable-werror --enable-checking=release
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.8.2 (GCC)

Installation

Run sudo make install. The default prefix is /usr, hence the binary will be installed to /usr/bin and the shader programs to /usr/share/x:choyce/shaders. The prefix is configurable, e.g. make install PREFIX=${HOME}/.local/x:choyce.

Running

Type x:choyce and the program should start up.

Your window manager needs to support at least the _NET_CLIENT_LIST_STACKING, _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP and _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW hints from the EWMH specification. If not, you could summon a black which will swallow your computer.

Usage

After starting the program, hit Super-Tab and your window should appear in a grid like layout. Hit Super-Tab once more to select another window. Pressing Super-Shift-Tab reverts the direction. After releasing the Super key the selected window will be brought to focus. Alternatively the raise key can be pressed. This will raise the currently selected window above all others, but not focus it. For example, this could be useful with a multi-monitor setup, where one wishes to view a different window on another monitor without focusing it.

Alternatively try using the mouse pointer. Once the mouse pointer has been moved, the Super key can be released and a window can be chosen by clicking on it. Selecting with Super-Tab is still possible, releasing the Super key will then again have the same effect as before.

Last, but not least, using the h, j, k and l for moving around is also supported. Again, the selection is committed by releasing the Super key.

Configuration

The program can be configured (even at run time) using Xresources. You can read more about this here or in the xrdb manpage.

All options listed below can also be given on the command line. For example, run x:choyce --titlebgalpha 1.0 for a fully opaque title strip. If an option is set on the commandline it cannot be changed during runtime via Xresources.

Quick start

Put this in your ~/.Xresources file:

XChoyce.mod:                    mod4
XChoyce.action:                 Tab
XChoyce.focusedalpha:           0.75
XChoyce.focusedcolor:           #daa520
XChoyce.unfocusedalpha:         0.5
XChoyce.unfocusedcolor:         #404040
XChoyce.titlebgcolor:           #292929
XChoyce.titlebgalpha:           0.25
XChoyce.titlefgcolor:           #616161
XChoyce.titlefont:              Ubuntu:bold:pixelsize=28:antialias=true
XChoyce.subtitlefont:           Ubuntu Condensed:bold:pixelsize=18:antialias=true

Now run xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources, et voilà, configuration is accomplished.

Complete list of configuration options:

focusedalpha:   double.  Alpha value for border when focused.
focusedcolor:   string.  Color name for border when focused.
unfocusedalpha: double.  Alpha value for border when unfocused.
unfocusedcolor: string.  Color name for border when unfocused.
iconsize:       integer. Size of window icon.
borderwidth:    integer. Width of border for additional highlighting.
titlefont:      string.  Font to use for window name (e.g. "Firefox").
subtitlefont:   string.  Font to use for window subtitle (e.g. "Google").
titlefgcolor:   string.  Color used for window title fonts.
titlebgalpha:   double.  Alpha value for window title background.
titlebgcolor:   string.  Color used for window title background.
north:          string.  Key for moving north.
south:          string.  Key for moving south.
east:           string.  Key for moving east.
west:           string.  Key for moving west.
raise:          string.  Key for raising the selected window. The selected
                         window will be raised above all others, but not focused
                         (mainly for multi-monitor environments)
action:         string.  Key for iteratively stepping through windows. Pressing
                         shift will reverse direction.
escape:         string.  Key for stopping choosing without selecting a window.
mod:            string.  Modifier key. Release chooses the currently selected
                         window. Valid options are 'mod1' through 'mod5',
                         'control' and combinations like 'mod1+control'.

Default values:

focusedalpha:   0.75
focusedcolor:   #daa520
unfocusedalpha: 0.5
unfocusedcolor: #404040
iconsize:       64
borderwidth:    4
titlefont:      Sans:bold:pixelsize=26:antialias=true
subtitlefont:   Sans:bold:pixelsize=16:antialias=true
titlefgcolor:   #303030
titlebgalpha:   0.375
titlebgcolor:   #484848
north:          k
south:          j
east:           l
west:           h
raise:          space
action:         Tab
escape:         Escape
mod:            mod4

Contributors

• SanskritFritz helped a lot to indentify and resolve multiple issues