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Afterstep 2.0 Beta Includes XML Graphics System

Posted by Hemos on from the from-the-wayback-machine dept.

vaevictus writes "Afterstep just released its 2.0 Beta 1, after a long merge from its development branch. One of the most interesting new features is an XML-based graphics system, where any picture for any part of the WM can be a simple chunk of XML, which can do transformations, scaling, gradients and some other nice graphics mods. I've personally used this to cut my 1600x1200 image size from a 2.4mb PNG to a total of about 37kb. This leads to some very compact themes. If you're not familiar, AfterStep is one of the older WMs out there still in active development; all of you WindowMaker fans should check out the WM your WM branched off of, so long ago."

4 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Already testing it now.. by Shivaji+Maharaj · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Looks pretty slick. But the window movement is bit shaky and the screen jitters sometimes.

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    1. Re:Already testing it now.. by killthiskid · · Score: 4, Interesting

      So I have a question... when I hear XML and graphics, and I instantly think SVG... does this format have anything to do with XML? Is it compatiable? Is there an XSL transformation you can do to turn it into SVG?

  2. Windowmaker + AS by flikx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seriously folks, it's about time WindowMaker merges back with AfterStep. Dividing the great AS WM is the sole reason why KDE and GNOME dominate at this point.

    If the WindowMaker project rejoined AfterStep, AfterStep could actually become a viable window manager on it's own terms. As opposed to relying on the publicity of the GNUStep project, and WindowMaker for support in the first place.

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  3. Why switch from WindowMaker? by ikekrull · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So what does AfterStep do that WindowMaker doesn't? Its not very clear from the website.

    WindowMaker CVS has antialiased fonts, and with a little bit of work on icons and tile backgrounds, my desktop looks great.

    The menu editor/prefs utility is easy to use, the clip's desktop switching is perfect for what I want, theres nothing obvious about AfterStep that would make me want to switch back.

    WindowMaker + GNOME apps/libs + ROX-Filer make up my ideal GUI environment.

    As far as I know, theyre both written in C, as opposed to Objective-C for GNUStep, they both attempt to mimic some or all aspects of NeXTSTEP, and WindowMaker was created because the Afterstep crew was too anal about incorporating features that did not appear in the original NeXT system.

    So now theyre adding features to Afterstep - dumping the whole idea behind what AfterStep was - 'Its strictly a clone of NeXTSTEP', and somehow this is a step (STEP?) forward?

    So why switch from WindowMaker, when AfterStep is clearly just playing catch-up now?

    That being said, there are a few rough edges in Window Maker, so perhaps competition from AfterStep will smooth them out.

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