My dwm fork has reached a critical point.

 Since I implemented pixmap borders, the code complexity has increased.
 It got a lot worse when I  started  using  X11's  SHAPE  extension.  I
 needed that extensions to add a titlebar to each window.

 Where to go from here?

    o Focus on simplifying the code and making it cleaner. Refrain from
      adding *any* new features.

    o Starting all over. It might be easier and cleaner to write a  new
      window  manager  from  scratch,  more specifically a re-parenting
      window manager. A lot of the current complexity  stems  from  the
      fact  that  --  despite having elaborate pixmap borders -- my dwm
      fork is still not a re-parenting WM. The SHAPE stuff would not be
      needed if it were a re-parenting WM.

    o Use  another WM or maybe an older (thus shorter, cleaner) version
      of dwm.

 It also bothers me that dwm has its own bar. This is necessary because
 of  dwm's  tagging  system  --  which  I  don't  use.  I  use  tags as
 workspaces.

 There's a lot of room for simplification.


                          ____________________


 I'm making slow progress with my Arduino based alarm  clock  (see  [1]
 and [2]).  What do I have so far?

    o A  radio  controlled  clock  (DCF77),  showing the time on a neat
      7-segment  display.  Decoding  the   DCF77   radio   signal   was
      surprisingly easy.

    o A  button  to  start  the  DCF77  time  sync.  This  is also done
      automatically every night at 2:00.

    o Automatic dim: Between 20:00 and 6:00,  the  display  is  set  to
      minimum brightness -- maximum brightness otherwise.

    o A  button,  which,  while  pressed,  causes  the  display to show
      seconds instead of hours and minutes. (I guess  I'll  ditch  that
      one in the final version.)

    o Basic  alarm functionality: A speaker beeps in intervals once the
      programmed time is reached. Pressing  another  button  turns  the
      alarm  off.   The  beeping  goes on until the alarm is turned off
      (unlike a lot of other alarm clocks which automatically turn  the
      alarm off after some time).

 The  most  challenging  part  is  to  build a case / box, so I have an
 actual alarm clock instead of wires  and  individual  parts.  On  this
 field,  I  really have no experience whatsoever. I have no idea how to
 build this, especially when it comes to the buttons: This is an  alarm
 clock,  so  when I'm half-sleeping, I might not pay attention and slam
 my hand on the "off"-button! This means my case must be very sturdy...
 Hum.

 I  also need a good sound processor. Right now, I simply use Arduino's
 "tone()" which is not a very pleasent noise. I want to play WAVE files
 which good quality.

 Fritzing[3] is a good program to make schematics.

 ____________________

 1. gopher://uninformativ.de/0/twitpher/2014-06/2014-06-19.txt

 2. gopher://uninformativ.de/0/twitpher/2014-07/2014-07-13.txt

 3. http://www.fritzing.org