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For some reason (Bad marketing? Bad documentation?) this fact doesn't get much attention, but Gnome's desktop environment is written in JavaScript and styled wi

by sciurus 10y ago

For some reason (Bad marketing? Bad documentation?) this fact doesn't get much attention, but Gnome's desktop environment is written in JavaScript and styled with CSS. https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeShell/Development https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeShell/Development

endgame 10y ago
Shame?
parent5446 10y ago
Probably because it's only partially written in JavaScript and CSS. The link you posted is for GNOME Shell, which is primarily the menu bar and user interface components, which arguably make sense being written in CSS. The actual window manager (which is what is implemented in this project) is separate. It's called Mutter and is written in C, like many other window managers.
- mikekchar 10y ago
  I would love to use Mutter for writing a window manager. The compositing features it exposes is fantastic. My main problem is how many hooks (claws) it has in GNOME. I haven't looked at it for a long time, but does anyone know how realistic it would be to try to fork Mutter to work without GNOME (and all the associated systemd, etc stuff)?
  - sciurus 10y ago
    I think the Linux Mint developers forked Mutter and used it as the base for Cinnamon.
    - mikekchar 10y ago
      Unfortunately, they simply forked GNOME. It still uses forks for gnome-settings-daemon, gnome-menus, etc, etc, etc. If I'm really serious about it, I should probably just look at the code in mutter and reimplement it without gnome.
- sciurus 10y ago
  That's a good point, Gnome Shell builds on lots of C code, and the project in this submission is at a different layer of the stack than it. What prompted my comment was the thought that people who were interested in a javascript window manager might also be interested in a javascript desktop environment. I mean, pulling up a javascript console and interactively poking at your environment is just a few keypresses away at all times. That's kinda cool. True, it's not "javascript all the way down". but I don't think that necessarily makes it less interesting. For example, Atom is a popular text editor amongst web developers, even though the underlying components (Chromium and Node.js) are written in C++.
digi_owl 10y ago
Only thing i have noticed about it is that GTK3 kept breaking themes thanks to constant changes in the CSS support.

by sciurus 10y ago

endgame 10y ago

Shame?

parent5446 10y ago

Probably because it's only partially written in JavaScript and CSS. The link you posted is for GNOME Shell, which is primarily the menu bar and user interface components, which arguably make sense being written in CSS. The actual window manager (which is what is implemented in this project) is separate. It's called Mutter and is written in C, like many other window managers.

mikekchar 10y ago
I would love to use Mutter for writing a window manager. The compositing features it exposes is fantastic. My main problem is how many hooks (claws) it has in GNOME. I haven't looked at it for a long time, but does anyone know how realistic it would be to try to fork Mutter to work without GNOME (and all the associated systemd, etc stuff)?
- sciurus 10y ago
  I think the Linux Mint developers forked Mutter and used it as the base for Cinnamon.
  - mikekchar 10y ago
    Unfortunately, they simply forked GNOME. It still uses forks for gnome-settings-daemon, gnome-menus, etc, etc, etc. If I'm really serious about it, I should probably just look at the code in mutter and reimplement it without gnome.
sciurus 10y ago
That's a good point, Gnome Shell builds on lots of C code, and the project in this submission is at a different layer of the stack than it. What prompted my comment was the thought that people who were interested in a javascript window manager might also be interested in a javascript desktop environment. I mean, pulling up a javascript console and interactively poking at your environment is just a few keypresses away at all times. That's kinda cool. True, it's not "javascript all the way down". but I don't think that necessarily makes it less interesting. For example, Atom is a popular text editor amongst web developers, even though the underlying components (Chromium and Node.js) are written in C++.

digi_owl 10y ago

Only thing i have noticed about it is that GTK3 kept breaking themes thanks to constant changes in the CSS support.