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Edenwm will provide basic window managing capabilities like window decoration and manipulation. It will also provide mechanisms for keeping the desktop clean such as intelligent window placement and virtual desktops. Other features that might be added if time permits are:
1- A panel displaying open windows with minimised ones highlighted. 2- Easy window selection in a cluttered workspace. If a desktop is cluttered, how can the window manager facilitate selection of wanted windows without the need for the user to cycle through all open windows.
To reduce screen clutter, intelligent window placement will be implemented. One technique to use is to make the position of a newly launched window dependent on the amount of free space in each part of the screen. By free space, we mean area on the screen not occupied by any window. So, if the top left corner of the screen contained most of the free space, newly launched windows are placed there. One question that might arise is where should the first window be placed? This can be the centre of the screen to allow for a star-like arrangement of windows, or at the top-left corner to provide a grid arrangement.
Virtual desktops are another effective way to reduce screen clutter. Virtual desktops permit the user to arrange different windows in different virtual screens, which can be cycled through using the mouse or keyboard. Another way to reduce screen clutter is to automatically group multiple windows of the same
application using tabs. For example, multiple console windows can be grouped under different tabs with only one window displayed at a time. The user can change the displayed window by clicking on its corresponding tab.
The look of the final model will consist of one "large" window acting as the whole screen, we will call this window the "screen model". The models of application windows are to be called "model windows". Multiple model windows are drawn inside the screen model. The eden tool will be used together with DoNaLD for line drawing and Scout for displaying the screen model.