#+TITLE: ewx: Emacs can do wayland now :)
#+SUBTITLE: This is /the dawn of/ a wayland compositor integrated into emacs.
#+OPTIONS: toc:nil num:nil

~% git clone http://perma-curious.eu/ewx.git~

*This is a demo & not ready for serious usage!*
# But I am planning to use it ;)

# Have a look at this short talk I gave at EmacsConf22:
#+begin_export html
<iframe title="EmacsConf 2022: Emacs should become a Wayland compositor - Michael Bauer" src="https://toobnix.org/videos/embed/6c3c417a-1306-4b23-90e9-4364c3162779" allowfullscreen="" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0"></iframe>
#+end_export

* TOC
- ews.c :: Wayland Server in C
- ewc.el :: Wayland Client in Elisp
- ewp.xml :: Wayland Protocol
- ewl.el :: Wayland layout (named buffer in talk)

* HOW?
Most wayland compositors have the window manager inside the core. This
uses a minimal wayland server that talks to Emacs instead. Wayland is
all about talking and you can just extend it with your own protocols.
This is  what I did.

Check it out @ ewp.xml

I got the idea from [[https://github.com/riverwm/river]]

* YEAH BUT WHY?
1. Show anything that can do a wayland surface inside Emacs
2. Get input & output handling into Emacs
= *NEXT level EXWM*

* QUESTIONS & FEEDBACK
I would appreciate your opinion & design feedback:

1. Think of a more poetic name?\\
   I like the description of the different parts: ew*\\
   But * is tricky and there is already eww.
2. How to surface input handling to the user?\\
   What would be a nice Elisp interface?\\
   Think about EXWM input filtering and simulation.
3. How to embed wayland widgets?\\
   I have not researched this yet. But I think there needs to be some
   support in Emacs core. Xwidgets are there at least.\\
   Maybe there is a more coherent story for embedding in emacs?
   - (CURRENT STATE: nested rectangles\\
                     windows inside a frame | windows show a buffer |\\
                     a buffer is mostly unicode BUT also pictures & widgets)\\
4. Wayland is done by C people. Can we do an even more lispy wayland client?

Patches, ideas, whatever: perma-curious@posteo.de 

If your message should be part of the public discussion please tell me.

* HOW TO DEMO?
If you run guix then good for you and you can just: \\
% guix shell --manifest=manifest.scm -- make check \\
This runs ewx nested under your current window manager.

You do not use guix yet? Just install the dependencies listed
in manifest.scm manually. Afterwards run: \\
% make check

* REFERENCES
- Trailblazers
  - https://github.com/ch11ng/exwm
  - https://github.com/ch11ng/xelb
- Wayland
  - https://wayland-book.com
  - https://wayland.freedesktop.org
  - https://github.com/swaywm/wlroots
  - https://github.com/Hjdskes/cage
  - https://github.com/riverwm/river
- Also
  - https://github.com/stumpwm/mahogany
  - https://git.sr.ht/~shunter/wayflan
  - https://github.com/swaywm/sway
  
* NEXT | WHERE COULD THIS LEAD?

Emacs display engine does the composition (How? Does STEPS help?).
It provides a wayland server for other applications to hook into.

-> WinWin 
   - Emacs stays independent, becomes more powerfull
   - and it can be expected that many things learn speaking wayland
     eventually. So emacs can incorporate (/shell) them.
   - Actual major window manager / wayland helper code could stay a
     plugin based on wlroots?