[Xmonad] StumpWM video

Devin Mullins me at twifkak.com
Sat Oct 13 16:13:05 EDT 2007


Okay, I finally watched the StumpWM video Spencer's been raving about:
  http://www.archive.org/details/TheStumpWMExperience
And he says:
  <sjanssen> we can only make a screencast if it's cooler than the stumpwm one

It is indeed cool. Two reasons, I think:
  1. Cool music & voice
  2. Overload of information

Regarding #1, I see two options:
  a) Come up with something equally cool.
  b) Theme from "Bananas in Pajamas"

Regarding #2, it was cool to watch, but didn't at all attract me to
switch. One of my main attractions to xmonad was that it took me about
ten seconds to learn enough where xmonad was usable. After watching
the StumpWM vid, I don't even remember how to switch workspaces. I
suggest an alternative, in two parts:
  * Part 1: Spend two minutes going over basic functionality of xmonad.
    Need to strike a good balance in speed here -- don't bore or
    overwhelm. Cover keybindings in order of necessity. Something
    like (alt+): shift-return, j/k, 1/2/3, shift-j/k, shift-1/2/3,
    return, m. Fullstop.
  * Pause for five seconds (let it sink in). Let them know that they
    have now mastered xmonad.
  * Part 2: Show how easy it is to add contribs (copy from the docs into
    Config.hs), and compile/restart seamlessly (i.e. layout
    serialization). Feel free to overwhelm with features at this point,
    and maybe include a little custom Config hacking.

Thoughts?

Devin


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