Software >

https://tuomov.iki.fi/software/ ^[ 1 ] was http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~tuomov/ion/

A keyboard-oriented window manager.

Clunky in places, and some things were non-obvious and needed some reading.

My hands hurt after using it for a little while, because the default hotkeys are Wrong. Heck, the defaults aren’t just “not for me”, the defaults are bad. Because of poor documentation, it’s too much work for me to figure out how to customize it the way I want.

• Abandoned – No longer under development, forked into notion

• 2009-04-15 – ion-3-20090110 on (distribution not recorded)

2009-04-15 – ion-3-20090110 ∞

Man it’s annoying to have a name which is a common part of many words. I can’t search for it in in a text. :(

I wanted to check out this 0install stuff.  I hadn’t heard of it until now.

• http://0install.net/injector.html

\wget  --continue  sourceforge.net/projects/zero-install/files/injector/0.39/zeroinstall-injector-0.39.tar.bz2/download?use_mirror=svwh
\wget  --continue  sourceforge.net/projects/zero-install/files/injector/0.39/zeroinstall-injector-0.39.tar.bz2.sig/download?use_mirror=svwh
gpg --recv-key --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net 59A53CC1
gpg zeroinstall-injector-0.39.tar.bz2.sig
tar xjf zeroinstall-injector-0.39.tar.bz2
cd zeroinstall-injector-0.39
su
python setup.py install

/home/user/apps/wm/ion/zeroinstall-injector-0.39$ python setup.py install
running install
error: invalid Python installation: unable to open /usr/lib/python2.5/config/Makefile (No such file or directory)

This is because I’m missing the Python development package.  Since it’s not provided, I have to try something else.

I tried unpacking the archive overtop of my system, which is a freaking stupid idea because it obliterated directory permissions for some reason.  I don’t know why it would think that was a good idea.  Linux software is so braindead.

I got it up and running easily enough.

• The man page wasn’t installed and accessible properly.  Bah.  The website only has an inaccessibly-postscript file.  Boo.  I had to go back to the original archive to find a proper man page, but of course ‘less’ can’t read a man page by default.  Sigh.
• I would need to redefine a lot of the hotkeys.
• I REALLY REALLY REALLY hate that it repositions my mouse.  Holy hot damn I hate that so much..
• wow, alt-c nukes a window.  Harsh.  Seems to just be a close-request and not a kill though.
• Who in the heck thought up using simple alt and key combinations for ANYTHING?  Come on, it’s not as though every program uses its own alt-keys.  This is intentional blindness on ion’s part.
• no alt-shift-tab to reverse-cycle
• alt-tab cycles as expected, but it raises windows in the way.
• no snapping / edge resistance
• Holy snapping arseholes it’s fast.  Or maybe it’s just Firefox without all my add-ons..
• alt-k,p and alt-k,n for switching tabs.  Needs to be redefined to win-tab and win-shift-tab
• alt-k,k to pull up a master list of all applications.  Even if you’re on another window.
• I’m forced to hold right-click or middle-click down to go through their menus.  I hate that.  It hurts my hand.
• Website documentation is so severely lacking that this is unusable.
• I’d have to crack into the man page and read it with something useful.  I’d have to completely redo most of the hotkeys.
• I want a program listing to appear when I alt-tab and hold alt down.
• I want a tab listing to appear when I win-tab and I hold win down. (for switching tabs)
• I’m not sure how to re-create frames once I’ve destroyed them all.  The workspace seems to just go dead and only allows floating windows.
• I’m not sure how to kick a window over to another workspace.

• I don’t know what the initial workspace is called.. it should be “1”.

My hands hurt after using it for a little while, because the default hotkeys are Wrong.  Heck, the defaults aren’t just “not for me”, they are outright BAD.  Because of poor documentation, it’s too much work for me to figure out how to customize it the way I want.

Conclusion:  Too much work to bother with.