Blackbox is yet another addition to the list of window managers for the Open Group's X Window System, Version 11 Release 6 and above. Blackbox is built with C++, sharing no common code with any other window manager (even though the graphics implementation is similar to that of Window Maker).

Features

Small code base.

Blackbox 0.51.3.1 is built from 14,406 lines of code (includes source, headers, comments and preprocessor statements). All of the code is written and maintained by me, Brad Hughes (blackbox@alug.org), with contributions and patches merged from many individuals around the world.

Minimal resource usage.

From the time the first line of code was written, Blackbox has evolved around one premise, minimalism. It's not meant to be Eye Candy, nor the most Featureful, nor the most Adorned for modelling the Widely acclaimed NeXT interface. It is just meant to be fast.

Fast, simple interface.

Blackbox does have all of the necessary tools for manipulating client applications in any desktop environment. Blackbox fully supports ICCCM Visible, Iconic and Withdrawn states, and also provides multiple workspaces and simple menus for complete desktop control. Shaded windows are also provided as an alternative to Icons, which are handled by a small menu, instead of huge space-wasting, color-sucking gadgets.

Built-in graphics class.

Blackbox doesn't support any form of image loading, period, end of discussion, nor will it ever. Blackbox uses a simple class to render all of it's vector gradients on the fly (and of course caching them), when needed, instead of loading and holding image data that may be rarely, if ever, used.

Near complete ICCCM compliance.

Blackbox follows the rules and assumptions set forth in the Inter-Client Communications Conventions Manual (ICCCM) as closely as possible (this is a work in progress, some of the colormap handling is still unsupported). Blackbox isn't FULLY ICCCM compliant because of the explicit key grabs (also known as HotKeys) it provides to simplify operation. Until the ICCCM allows for specific Window Manager key operations, Blackbox will remain partially compliant (as will most modern window managers).

Support for multiple desktop environments.

Blackbox supports several extensions to the ICCCM's base. It includes minimal support for the K Desktop Environment, and also supports the widely used Motif window hints. Applications using Motif are decorated more appropriately, as are applications using GNOME. NOTE: Blackbox does NOT and probably WILL NOT include GNOME support. It is my opinion that the GNOME Window Manager Spec needs to be revised, as the current (quote) specification (post quote) seems to be more implementation based. A near complete rewrite and restructuring of Blackbox's internals would be necessary to implement the (quote) specification (post quote) as is.