Ultrix Window Manager

History

The Ultrix Window Manager was developed by the Digital Equipment Corporation for their Ultrix operating system. It was released in 1985. Shortly thereafter, it became included as part of the base X Window System distribution, beginning with X10R3. Initially, it was distributed alongside two other window managers (xwm and xnwm).

In 1986, the X Window System switched to version 11 of the protocol. Only uwm was ported, so it became the only window manager for X Window System until X11R4 release, where it was replaced by twm. uwm has never been updated since.

Description

Unlike more recent window managers, uwm was not re-parenting, and did not place frames or title bars on windows. Instead, all window management functionality was accessed either by clicking on the root window to bring up a menu or by holding down the Meta key while clicking or dragging within windows. It was possible to configure the key and mouse button bindings and the contents of the menus by using a configuration file, a feature inherited by many later window managers.

uwm did not provide ICCCM compatibility or multiple screen support.

Descendants of uwm include awm and Tekwm (the Tektronix Window Manager), which also are currently not updated.

License

COPYRIGHT 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE INFORMATION IN THIS SOFTWARE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION. DIGITAL MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITIBILITY OF THIS SOFTWARE FOR ANY PURPOSE. IT IS SUPPLIED "AS IS" WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY. IF THE SOFTWARE IS MODIFIED IN A MANNER CREATING DERIVATIVE COPYRIGHT RIGHTS, APPROPRIATE LEGENDS MAY BE PLACED ON THE DERIVATIVE WORK IN ADDITION TO THAT SET FORTH ABOVE. Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of Digital Equipment Corporation not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. M. Gancarz, DEC Ultrix Engineering Group, Merrimack, New Hampshire, using some algorithms originally by Bob Scheifler, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science.