Miracle-WM 0.11 has been released as the latest update to the Mir-based Wayland compositor, with a new overview mode for navigating windows and workspaces, window urgency support, expanded IPC functionality, and several other improvements.
The release also moves Miracle-WM to Mir 2.29, a Canonical’s set of display server and Wayland compositor libraries that Miracle-WM uses to handle displays, input, rendering, and Wayland protocol support.
The main user-facing addition in Miracle-WM 0.11 is the new overview mode. It shows a visual overview of windows and workspaces, making it easier to see what is open and jump directly to another workspace or window. The overview opens by tapping or double-tapping the primary action key.
Moreover, window urgency support has been added. This lets an application on a workspace that is not focused signal that it needs the user’s attention.
The IPC interface also gets several improvements. Plugins can now publish IPC events and handle IPC commands themselves, giving extensions and external tools more ways to communicate with Miracle-WM.
There is a new GET_KEYBINDS IPC command that returns all active keybindings. Miracle-WM 0.11 also introduces a new background_color configuration option to change the compositor’s default background color.
It’s also worth noting that the release enables additional Wayland protocols through Mir, including:
- ext_image_copy_capture_manager_v1
- ext_output_image_capture_source_manager_v1
- ext_foreign_toplevel_list_v1
- ext_data_control_manager_v1
- ext_input_trigger_action_manager_v1
- ext_input_trigger_registration_manager_v1
Window placement has improved as well. Applications requesting a specific output can now be placed there, while shell windows without a preference use the currently focused display.
Another change lets the workspace placement policy switch between tiling and floating. Workspace switching performance has also improved.
Finally, several bugs have been fixed. Focus now follows windows correctly when they move between workspaces, and the release also addresses crashes involving surfaces disappearing during animations and race conditions in the IPC connection manager. Window resizing during animations has been corrected as well.
For additional details, see the changelog. You can see all the new features and improvements in action in this video.
