A stacking window manager (also called floating window manager) is a

window manager A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment. They work in conjunctio ...

that draws and allows windows to overlap, without using a compositing algorithm. All window managers that allow the overlapping of windows but are not compositing window managers are considered stacking window managers, although it is possible that not all use exactly the same methods. Other window managers that are not considered stacking window managers are those that do not allow the overlapping of windows, which are called

tiling window manager In computing, a tiling window manager is a window manager with an organization of the screen into mutually non-overlapping frames, as opposed to the more common approach (used by stacking window managers) of coordinate-based stacking of overlap ...

s. Stacking window managers allow windows to overlap using clipping to allow applications to write only to the visible parts of the windows they present. The order in which windows are to be stacked is called their

z-order Z-order is an ordering of overlapping two-dimensional objects, such as Window (computing), windows in a stacking window manager, shapes in a vector graphics editor, or objects in a 3D application.Foley, James, Andries van Dam, Steven Feiner, and ...

Hybrid window managers

Some window managers may be able to treat the foreground window in an entirely different way, by rendering it indirectly, and sending its output to the video card to be added to the outgoing raster. While this technique may be possible to accomplish within some stacking window managers, it is technically

compositing Compositing is the process or technique of combining visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. Live action, Live-action shooting for compositing is ...

, with the foreground window and the screen raster being treated the same way two windows would be in a compositing window manager. Unfortunately interacting with objects outside the original area of the foreground window might also be impossible, since the window manager would not be able to determine what the user is seeing, and would pass such mouse clicks to whatever programs occupied those areas of the screen during the last stacking event.

X Window System

Many windows managers under the

X Window System The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wi ...

provide stacking window functionality: * 4Dwm *

9wm 9wm is an open source stacking window manager for X11, written by David Hogan (dhog) in 1994 to emulate the Plan 9 Second Edition window manager, 8 . Many later minimalist window managers for X were either inspired by, or directly derived from ...

* AfterStep *

amiwm In computing, the AMIga Window Manager (amiwm) is a stacking window manager for the X Window System written by Marcus Comstedt. The window manager emulates the Amiga Workbench and includes support for multiple virtual screens like the AmigaOS, bu ...

* awesome *

Blackbox In Unix computing, Blackbox is a free and open-source stacking window manager for the X Window System. Blackbox has specific design goals, and some functionality is provided only through other applications. One example is the bbkeys hotkey a ...

ctwm In Unix computing, CTWM (Claude's Tab Window Manager) is a stacking window manager for the X Window System in the twm family of window managers. It was created in 1992 by Claude Lecommandeur from the source code for twm, which he extended to a ...

* cwm *

dwm dwm is a minimalist dynamic window manager for the X Window System developed by Suckless that has influenced the development of several other X window managers, including xmonad and awesome. It is externally similar to wmii, but internally mu ...

* qpwm * Enlightenment *

Fluxbox Fluxbox is a stacking window manager for the X Window System, which started as a fork of Blackbox 0.61.1 in 2001, with the same aim to be lightweight. Its user interface has only a taskbar, a pop-up menu accessible by right-clicking on the des ...

FLWM The Fast Light Window Manager is a stacking window manager written in C++ and available for redistribution under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence. FLWM is the default window manager for Tiny Core Linux. Features Features of the FL ...

FVWM The F Virtual Window Manager is a virtual window manager for the X Window System. Originally a twm derivative, FVWM has evolved into a powerful and highly configurable environment for Unix-like systems. History In 1993, during his work analyzi ...

FVWM95 FVWM95 is a window manager for the X Window System based on the popular FVWM 2 window manager. It is similar to the original FVWM, but is designed to closely resemble the look of Windows 95. FVWM95 was for a while a rather popular window manager ...

* Goomwwm * Hackedbox *

IceWM IceWM is a stacking window manager for the X Window System, originally written by Marko Maček. It was written from scratch in C++ and is released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. It is customizable, relatively lightwe ...

* JWM *

KWin KWin is a window manager for the X Window System and a Wayland compositor. It is released as a part of KDE Plasma 5, for which it is the default window manager. KWin can also be used on its own or with other desktop environments. KWin can be c ...

(with compositing turned off) * MWM * Mutter * olwm * Openbox * PekWM * PLWM *

Sawfish Sawfish, also known as carpenter sharks, are a family of rays characterized by a long, narrow, flattened rostrum, or nose extension, lined with sharp transverse teeth, arranged in a way that resembles a saw. They are among the largest fish ...

* swm *

tvtwm tvtwm is an X window manager derived from twm to which it adds the virtual desktop feature from swm. All of these window managers were originally written by Tom LaStrange. The current maintainer of tvtwm is Chris Ross. James Tanis believes he ma ...

twm twm (Tab Window Manager) is a X window manager, window manager for the X Window System. Started in 1987 by Tom LaStrange, it has been the standard window manager for the X Window System since version X11R4. The name originally stood for Tom's Wi ...

Window Maker Window Maker is a free and open-source window manager for the X Window System, allowing graphical applications to be run on Unix-like operating-systems. It is designed to emulate NeXTSTEP's GUI as an OpenStep-compatible environment. Window Maker ...

* WindowLab * wm2 *

wmx Wikimania is the Wikimedia movement's annual conference, organized by volunteers and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Topics of presentations and discussions include Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, other wikis, open-source software, f ...

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft

Windows 1.0 Windows 1.0 is the first major release of Microsoft Windows, a family of graphical operating systems for personal computers developed by Microsoft. It was first released to manufacturing in the United States on November 20, 1985, while the Euro ...

displayed windows using a

. In Windows 2.0, it was replaced with a stacking window manager, which allowed windows to overlap. Microsoft kept the stacking window manager up through

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

, which presented severe limitations to its ability to display 3D-accelerated content inside normal windows. Although it was technically possible to produce some visual effects using third-party software. From

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

onward, a new compositing window manager is the default on compatible systems.

History

* 1970s: The

Xerox Alto The Xerox Alto is a computer designed from its inception to support an operating system based on a graphical user interface (GUI), later using the desktop metaphor. The first machines were introduced on 1 March 1973, a decade before mass-market ...

which contained the first working commercial

GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

used a stacking window manager. * Early 1980s: The

Xerox Star The Xerox Star workstation, officially named Xerox 8010 Information System, is the first commercial personal computer to incorporate technologies that have since become standard in personal computers, including a bitmapped display, a window-based ...

, successor to the Alto, used

tiling Tiling may refer to: *The physical act of laying tiles * Tessellations Computing *The compiler optimization of loop tiling *Tiled rendering, the process of subdividing an image by regular grid *Tiling window manager People *Heinrich Sylvester T ...

for most main application windows, and used overlapping only for dialogue windows removing the need for full stacking. * The Classic Mac OS was one of the earliest commercially successful examples of a

which used stacking windows. * GEM predated Microsoft Windows and used stacking, allowing all windows to overlap. *

Amiga OS AmigaOS is a family of proprietary native operating systems of the Amiga and AmigaOne personal computers. It was developed first by Commodore International and introduced with the launch of the first Amiga, the Amiga 1000, in 1985. Early versions ...

contains an early example of a highly advanced stacking window manager.

References

External links

Graphical User Interface Gallery
{{XWinSys Window managers X window managers