In computing

Computing

Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...

, the Motif Window Manager (MWM) is an X window manager

X window manager

An X window manager is a window manager which runs on top of the X Window System, a windowing system mainly used on Unix-like systems.Unlike the Mac OS and Microsoft Windows platforms which have historically provided a vendor-controlled, fixed set of ways to control how windows and panes display...

 based on the Motif

Motif (widget toolkit)

In computing, Motif refers to both a graphical user interface specification and the widget toolkit for building applications that follow that specification under the X Window System on Unix and other POSIX-compliant systems. It emerged in the 1980s as Unix workstations were on the rise, as a...

 toolkit.

MWM is a lightweight and, by today's standards, extremely minimalist window manager. MWM lacks support for desktop icons or virtual desktops. A plain text file is used to generate a root menu that the user can customize. Another plain text file controls the colors of MWM's GUI

Gui

Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...

 but little else.

Motif and MWM were created by the Open Software Foundation

Open Software Foundation

The Open Software Foundation was a not-for-profit organization founded in 1988 under the U.S. National Cooperative Research Act of 1984 to create an open standard for an implementation of the UNIX operating system.-History:...

 (Motif was sometimes even called OSF/Motif) but is nowadays owned by The Open Group

The Open Group

The Open Group is a vendor and technology-neutral industry consortium, currently with over three hundred member organizations. It was formed in 1996 when X/Open merged with the Open Software Foundation...

.

Originally, MWM and Motif could only be purchased but now there is also Open Motif

Open Motif

Open Motif is a source code release of the Motif computer programming toolkit by The Open Group, the current owners of Motif....

 which is a release of the "original" Motif under more liberal licensing terms (though still not quite open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

/free software

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

http://www.opengroup.org/openmotif/faq.html). Also, the LessTif

LessTif

LessTif is a free software reimplementation or clone of the Motif computer programming toolkit, developed by the Hungry Programmers.As opposed to Motif, which is distributed under a proprietary license that can require the payment of royalties, LessTif is distributed under the GNU Lesser General...

 project has been working hard to implement the Motif API under the LGPL license. The project includes a clone of MWM with support for virtual desktops.

Features

Features of the mwm window manage include:

• Stacking windows
• May be freely redistributed under the terms of the Open Group Public Licence
• Configurable root menu
• Window decorations include borders and titlebars
• Titlebars have buttons for menu
  Menu
  In a restaurant, a menu is a presentation of food and beverage offerings. A menu may be a la carte – which guests use to choose from a list of options – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established sequence of courses is served....
  
  , minimize and maximize
• multiple desktops (since Motif 2.0)
• No desktop wallpaper
• No desktop shortcut
  Shortcut
  Shortcut may refer to:*File shortcut, a file that contains only the location of another file in the computer*Keyboard shortcuts, a combination of keystrokes that provides easier access to a command or operation*Shortcut , a Swedish magazine...
  
   icons
• Supports the use of a configuration file
  Configuration file
  In computing, configuration files, or config files configure the initial settings for some computer programs. They are used for user applications, server processes and operating system settings. The files are often written in ASCII and line-oriented, with lines terminated by a newline or carriage...
  
  
• Colours can be configured
• Navigation keys and mouse buttons can be configured

External links

• Motif homepage at Open Group
• Open Motif project page
• The Motif FAQ (Kenton Lee)
• Motif: Volumes 6A and 6B (O'Reilly and Associates, free PDF
  Portable Document Format
  Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
  
  downloads)
• http://www.s-and-b.ru/syshlp/motif_guide/MotifUserGuide/TOC.html Motif User's Guide