Kwm started as a simple project to get true focus-follows-mouse support on OSX through event tapping.
It is now a tiling window manager that represents windows as the leaves of a binary tree.
Kwm supports binary space partitioned, monocle and floating spaces.

Kwm uses the event taps API (Quartz Event Services) to observe, filter and alter user input events prior
to their delivery to a foreground application. This allows for functionality such as focus-follows-mouse,
remapping keys, and most importantly global hotkeys.

Kwm runs a local daemon to read messages and trigger functions.
Kwmc is used to write to Kwm's socket, and must be used when interacting with and configuring how Kwm works.
For a list of various commands that can be issued, check the readme located within the kwmc folder.
The Kwmc tool also has a built-in help system that can be accessed from the terminal using kwmc help.

Kwm requires access to the OSX accessibility API.
Tested on El Capitan (10.11.1 / 10.11.2).

For more screenshots, click here

The different features; binary space partitioning, focus-follows-mouse and the hotkey-system can all be enabled
independently. This allows the user to choose which functionality to enable depending on their workflow.

Binary Space Partitioning:
Kwm tiles windows using a binary-tree structure. For information, check the usage section.

Focus-Follows-Mouse:
Both autofocus and autoraise is available, however autofocus only redirects key input to the window below the cursor,
the menubar is not accessible. Autoraise gives a window focus and raises it to the front. By default Kwm is set to
use autoraise as it is meant to be used alongside the tiling functionality, and so windows should not overlap unless
a window is specifically made floating.

System-Wide Hotkeys:
Kwm allows the user to bind and unbind hotkeys to commands through the Kwmc tool, using a bind and unbind option.
For more advanced use, there is also an instantaneous live-coding hotkey system and this can be customized by editing
hotkeys.cpp. The user may use an external program for running a specific command on keypress instead.
Using hotkeys to change window focus will work even if focus-follows-mouse has been disabled.

Multiple monitor support (in progress):
There are different ways to move a window between monitors.
The first one is by using kwmc screen -m prev|next|id.
The other option is to make the window floating and manually move it with the mouse, then un-float it.
When moving a window directly with the mouse, Kwm will detect on mouse-release that the window
position has changed, and automatically make it floating (Due to technical limitations this event
must occur on the monitor which currently holds the window).

Moving the mouse to a different monitor should activate the monitor automatically.
kwmc screen -f prev|next|id can also be used to give focus to a different monitor.

Because there is no app bundle, Kwm has to be started from a terminal. To compile and start Kwm, simply run

  make
  ./bin/kwm

By default, debug prints are enabled, and these can be turned off by running

  make install

The hotkeys.cpp file can be edited live and recompiled separately using make again.
By doing this, the user may change hotkeys without having to restart Kwm.

To make Kwm start automatically on login, run the following command the first time Kwm starts

  kwmc config launchd enable

The default configuration file is $HOME/.kwmrc and is a script that contains Kwmc commands
to be executed when Kwm starts. This file can be used to blacklist applications and specify
a variety of settings, as well as run any command not restricted to Kwmc.

Kwm can apply all of these settings during runtime, and so live testing of options is possible
before writing them into the config file.

A sample config can be found within the examples directory.

When Kwm starts, it will automatically tile the windows of the current space using the tiling mode set in the config file.
By default, it will use binary space partitioning. This will also happen once for any other space the user might switch to.

When Kwm detects a new window, it is inserted into a window tree using an insertion point, with the given split-mode.
When a window is closed, it will be removed from the window tree and the tree will be rebalanced.
By default, the insertion point is the focused container, but a temporary insertion point can be set.

There are 3 types of split-modes available:

• Optimal - uses width/height ratio (default)
• Vertical
• Horizontal

Example:

          a                       a                       a
         / \         -->         / \         -->         / \    
        1   2                   1   b                   1   b
                                   / \                     / \
                                  2   3                   c   3
                                                         / \
                                                        2   4

---------------------   ---------------------   --------------------- 
|         |         |   |         |         |   |         |    |    |
|         |         |   |         |    2    |   |         | 2  |  4 |
|         |         |   |         |    *    |   |         |    |    |
|    1    |    2    |   |    1    |---------|   |    1    |---------|
|         |    *    |   |         |         |   |         |         |
|         |         |   |         |    3    |   |         |    3    |
|         |         |   |         |         |   |         |         |
---------------------   ---------------------   ---------------------

In addition to bsp, Kwm supports both monocle and floating spaces.
If a space is set to floating mode, nothing will be tiled for this space.
If a space is in monocle mode, every window will run fullscreen, and the
user can switch between open windows using the kwmc command window -f prev|next.

If a window is not detected by Kwm, it is most likely due to a 'window role' mismatch.
Use the command kwmc config add-role role application to fix this.
See https://github.com/koekeishiya/kwm/issues/40 for information.