*bspwm* is a tiling window manager that represents windows as the leaves of a full binary tree.
It only responds to X events, and the messages it receives on a dedicated socket.
*bspc* is a program that writes messages on *bspwm*'s socket.
*bspwm* doesn't handle any keyboard or pointer inputs: a third party program (e.g. *sxhkd*) is needed in order to translate keyboard and pointer events to *bspc* invocations.
The outlined architecture is the following:
```
PROCESS SOCKET
sxhkd --------> bspc <------> bspwm
```
## Configuration
The default configuration file is `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/bspwm/bspwmrc`: this is simply a shell script that calls *bspc*.
When *bspwm* receives a new window, it inserts it into a window tree at the specified insertion point (a leaf) using the insertion mode specified for that insertion point.
The insertion mode tells *bspwm* how it should alter the tree in order to insert new windows on a given insertion point.
The user can specify a region in the insertion point where the next new window should appear by sending a *node -p|--presel-dir DIR* message to *bspwm*.
The *DIR* argument allows to specify how the insertion point should be split (horizontally or vertically) and if the new window should be the first or the second child of the new internal node (the insertion point will become its *brother*).
After doing so the insertion point goes into *manual* mode.
The ratio of the preselection (that ends up being the ratio of the split of the new internal node) can be changed with the *node -o|--presel-ratio* message.
The *automatic* mode, as opposed to the *manual* mode, doesn't require any user choice. The way the new window is inserted is determined by the value of the automatic scheme and the initial polarity settings.
When the value of the automatic scheme is `longest_side`, the window will be attached as if the insertion point was in manual mode and the split direction was chosen based on the dimensions of the tiling rectangle and the initial polarity.
When the value of the automatic scheme is `alternate`, the window will be attached as if the insertion point was in manual mode and the split direction was chosen based on the split type of the insertion point's parent and the initial polarity. If the parent is split horizontally, the insertion point will be split vertically and vice versa.
In state *X*, the insertion point, *2* is in automatic mode.
When we add a new window, *4*, the whole tree rooted at *b* is reattached, as the second child of a new internal node, *c*.
The splitting parameters of *b* (type: *horizontal*, ratio: *½*) are copied to *c* and *b* is rotated by 90° clockwise.
The tiling rectangle of *4* in state *Y* is equal to the tiling rectangle of *2* in state *X*.
Then the insertion of *5*, with *4* as insertion point, leads to *Z*.
The *spiral* automatic scheme generates window spirals that rotate clockwise (resp. anti-clockwise) if the insertion point is the first (resp. second) child of its parent.
