Actual Window Manager Today

The actual handoff is precise: the window manager routes the event to the correct process based on its internal map. But the map is always slightly out of date. Because your input arrives asynchronously—interrupts, device drivers, kernel queues, compositor scheduling—the window manager must guess which window is actually under the cursor at the moment of click, not when the event was recorded.

Published: Interface Quarterly

We live surrounded by windows. Not the kind that let in light, but the kind that contain spreadsheets, chat threads, and infinite browser tabs. Every day, you drag, resize, minimize, and close these rectangles. You call the software that enables this magic your . actual window manager

This is the deepest truth: