Forking IceWM? about icewm HOT 7 CLOSED

@dragetd, I originally forked IceWM because there was no activity for several years from the original author, but many bug fixes and patches outstanding. I was maintaining an icewm-cvs package on the AUR for Arch Linux and was having many build issues as the aging code base diverged from current gcc compiler and xlib usage. So, I collected what patches I could and formed this "carry-on" fork. By "carry-on," I mean that the original author has fallen off the map and forking was the only possible way forward. So, some time in 2014 I generated this repository and started maintaining an icewm2 and icewm2-git package on the AUR. I was rather into window managers in 2014, so I added much wider EWMH/NetWM 1.5 compliance, did some valigrind runs and plugged all of the memory leaks that I could. Maintainers of other distros, and a wide range of contributors jumped on board, and now we have a maintained version of IceWM that does not deviate unnecessarily from the original. This is the version you will find in a number of major distributions now, simply because it is easier to package and maintain (from a distro perspective). It will likely be coming soon to your favorite distro too!

from icewm.

Hello
bbiduluck has already made a number of releases based on the improved code here. It would be nice for someone to find out about the status of icewm.org but the original author(s) seem to be unreachable. I gather the original author has more-or-less given up on the project but I have no official information.

from icewm.

If someone is living/traveling near Ljubljana in Slovenia a personal visit may be the best option. Whois database contains existing physical address and some phone number and e-mail address.

from icewm.

I have written email to him. So far no response.

from icewm.

I think we should wait for those actively working on it right now (looking at the commits, people like Code7R / enolp / benoit-monin / elchevive / David Medina / alexvenn) to say what they think before we take too many actions too quickly. :-)

from icewm.

In official web http://www.icewm.org/ is link on this project, I wrote to web admin *-)
Thanks to all developers on this fork.
(Sometimes this development has slowed down, but begins again :))

from icewm.

So you want to keep on using the original name 'icewm' and continue from the same version numbers? How about using 2.x onwards? IMHO something to help maintainers and users distinguish between the 'old' and 'new' development would be very helpful. If not a new fork-name, then at least continuing from version 2.x so it would be IceWM 2! :-) And hopefully the original authors will be okay wiht it if they ever re-appear. :P
A quick check on Gentoo actually shows me that I am using 1.3.12 - so your fork! \o/ I did not know, cool! xD

I'd still love to have your view on a few things:

1. community patches that do not only fix things but actually add features / progress the WM?
2. community patches that suggest structural things e.g. adding travis support for CI and/or some release management?
3. registering a domain like icewm2.org pointing to the GitHub pages or some simple webserver with some background information about this, packages etc.?
4. moving the original icewm links to a contribution file and pointing the rest to icewm2.org?

I could fully understand if you just want to keep on hacking on it and do not want any of these or not 3) and 4) at least. But if you are not opposed to such ideas, I would gladly help with these (registering the domain (costs on me) and documentation PRs and some Travis setup PRs :)

Best wishes,
Michael

from icewm.