[xmonad] newbie questions

[Konstantin Sobolev]

Hi

I'm looking for an Ion3 replacement, and from this list archives I
understand that I'm not the only one refugee :)
Xmonad is #1 candidate for several reasons, implementation language
being one of them -- I'm trying to learn Haskell when I have some free
time. But it is one of the biggest complexities as well because I have
several custom Ion scripts which I'm very used to and which I'd like
to port to the new WM, but my Haskell knowledge isn't sufficient at
the moment.

First of them intercepts XF86ScrollUp/XF86ScrollDown keys and changes
XKB layouts (en/ru). It also remembers current layout for every window
and switches them when focus changes, and also shows current layout
name in the status bar. It requires small C part to change the layout,
but standard setxkbmap can also be used.

Another one is a port of gimme.jl from Sawfish: it lets you configure
bindings to bring focus to specific windows or start a program if it
doesn't exist. For example when I press Mod-K it searches for a window
with role='konsole-mainwindow#1' and brings focus to it, or starts a
new konsole if such window cannot be found.

The last one is a bit more complex and combines the previous script
with named scratchpads. It's easier to illustrate it with an example:
when I press Mod-S for the first time, a new floating window appears
and stardict is launched inside; of course it gets the focus.
Consequent Mod-S keypresses toggle this window's visibility, keeping
stardict running, i.e. no new instance is created if one is already
running.
This is very convenient, for instance I have such binding which opens
'gvim ~/notes.txt' when I press 'my favories' button, and so I always
have a scratchpad by my hand.

So, my question is: is it possible for somebody who's just in the
middle of reading yaht.pdf to implement such things, or it's too
complex and migration should be postponed for now?

Thanks

-- 
/KoS