Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual

In computing, the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual (ICCCM or I39L short for "I", 39 letters and "L")[1] is a standard protocol for the X Window System. It specifies communication for clients of a common X server. It is primarily used for communication between the window manager and the X server's other clients.

"Ice Cubed" redirects here. For the form of water ice, see Ice cube. For the high speed train, see ICE 3. For other uses, see Ice cube (disambiguation).

History

It was designed by David S. H. Rosenthal of the MIT X Consortium in 1988 with version 1.0 released in July 1989 and version 2.0 in early 1994.

Background

X deliberately specifies "mechanism, not policy" for how windows interact. As such, an additional specification beyond the X protocol itself was needed for client interoperation.

Features

The ICCCM specifies cut and paste buffers, window manager interaction, session management, how to manipulate shared resources and how to manage device colours. These low-level functions are generally implemented within widget toolkits or desktop environments. This isolates application programmers from working directly with the ICCCM itself, as this functionality is delegated to the implementing toolkit.

Criticism

The ICCCM is notorious for being ambiguous and difficult to correctly implement.[2] Furthermore, some parts are obsolete or no longer practical to implement.[3]

Efforts to update and clarify the ICCCM for current needs have resulted in the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH), which has gained fairly broad acceptance and continues to be extended as the need arises.

List of Window Managers that are ICCCM Compliant
  • aewm — a stacking window manager.
  • alloywm — partial compliance.
  • awesome — a dynamic window manager that is configured in Lua.
  • blackbox (version 0.65 and later) — a stacking window manager that was later discontinued.
  • Compiz
  • dwm — can be configured for compliance
  • enlightenment — also serves as a Wayland compositor.
  • evilwm — partial compliance
  • EXWM (Emacs X Window Manager) — features ICCCM and EWMH compliance
  • fvwm
  • IceWM
  • KWin — default window manager and Wayland compositor of KDE Plasma.
  • Metacity — default window manager of GNOME 2.
  • musca
  • Openbox — the default window manager used by LXDE and LXQt.
  • vtwm
  • wmfs
  • xfwm
  • xmonad

References
  1. The X-Windows Disaster Don Hopkins, UNIX-HATERS Handbook
  2. - [chat] Re: [SLUG] Ximian / Gnome and Xalf
  3. Re: ICCCM compliance?
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