Computing Resources

vtwm (version 5.4.6a)

When the X Consortium released the X Window System, they included TWM, the "Tab Window Manager" (aka "Tom's Window Manager", after Tom LaStrange, the main author). It was primitive looking by today's standards, somewhat resembling the not-yet-even-thought-of MS Windows 3 interface. However, it sported shaped titlebars, several forms of icon management, user-defined macro functions, and click-to-type or pointer-driven focus, all configurable on the fly with a text file. TWM was, in it's time, way ahead of anything else publicly available.

VTWM, one of many TWM descendants, implements a Virtual Desktop, meaning that what is currently on screen is just a portion of a larger workspace. What portion of the virtual desktop that is displayed, and whatever windows might be visible within it, are simple point-and-click operations within a scaled representation of the workspace.