index.html

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<section class="info">

    <div class="info-text">
        <h2>Do What I Mean. Good Docs. Clean Code. Sounds good?</h2>
        <p>
            Then you will love i3. Watch the <a href="screenshots/">screencast</a>,
            read the <a href="docs/userguide.html">User’s Guide</a> and <a href="downloads/">install i3</a>!
        </p>
        <a class="download" href="downloads">
            <span class="info-arrow">➡</span>
            Download the latest version
            <span class="version">4.24</span>
        </a>
    </div>
    
    <a class="screen" href="screenshots/" title="view more screenshots of i3">
        <img src="screenshots/i3-9.bigthumb.png" alt="i3 screenshot"
             srcset="screenshots/i3-12.bigthumb.jpg 2x">
    </a>
  
</section>

<p>
    i3 is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiling_window_manager">tiling
    window manager</a>, completely written from scratch. The target platforms are
    GNU/Linux and BSD operating systems, our code is Free and Open Source Software
    (FOSS) under the BSD license. i3 is primarily targeted at advanced users and
    developers. Based upon the experiences we made when wanting to hack/fix wmii,
    we agreed upon the following goals for i3:
</p>

<ol>
    <li>
        Write well readable, well <strong>documented</strong> code. Create additional
        documentation on how to extend i3 by explaining its internal workings.
        <br />
        This includes being modifiable by people who do know how to program but who are
        not necessarily familiar with all of X11’s internals. That is, document why
        things happen and when they happen so that the user gets a picture of the whole
        process a Window Manager is responsible of by just reading the source code.
    </li>
    <li>
        Use xcb instead of Xlib. xcb has a much cleaner API and should be faster in
        quite a lot of situations.
    </li>
    <li>
        Implement multi-monitor correctly, that is by assigning each workspace to a
        virtual screen. Especially make sure that attaching and detaching new monitors
        like video projectors works during operation and does the right thing. Also
        provide support for rotated monitors.
    </li>
    <li>
        Use a tree as data structure. This allows for more flexible layouts than
        the column-based approach used by other window managers.
    </li>
    <li>
        Implement different modes, like in vim. You can use different keybindings
        when in the 'resize' mode than when you are in the default mode, for
        example.
    </li>
    <li>
        Implement an IPC interface for other programs. Provide subscription to
        certain events and accept commands.
        <br />
        This approach should be more lightweight than wmii’s usage of the 9P filesystem.
        Furthermore, core functionality does not depend on a separate program, so that i3
        runs faster, especially when your system is under load.
    </li>
    <li>
        Be UTF-8 clean.
    </li>
    <li>
        The usual elitism amongst minimal window managers: Don’t be bloated, don’t be fancy
        (simple borders are the most decoration we want to have).
        <br />
        However, we do not enforce unnecessary limits such as a maximum amount of source lines
        of code. If it needs to be a bit bigger, it will be.
    </li>
    <li>
        Do not add further complexity when it can be avoided. We are generally
        happy with the feature set of i3 and instead focus on fixing bugs and
        maintaining it for stability. New features will therefore only be
        considered if the benefit clearly outweighs the additional complexity,
        and we encourage users to implement features using the IPC whenever
        possible.
    </li>
</ol>

<p>
    In addition to these stated goals, we try our best to uphold the following
    values when considering contributions to the project:
</p>

<ul>
    <li>
        Never break configuration files or existing workflows. Breaking changes
        require a major version bump (v4 → v5).
    </li>
    <li>
        Keep mental complexity low: once you know i3’s key features, other features
        should be easy to understand.
    </li>
    <li>
        Only add features which benefit many people, instead of going to great
        lengths to support rarely used workflows.
    </li>
    <li>
        Only documented behavior is supported. Clear documentation is a requirement
        for contributions.
    </li>
</ul>