How to show MRU Most Recently Used Documents on Start Menu?

[musher0]

Hi, Puppus_D.

Thanks for the icon. How do you download it? It seems to be embedded
in a flash thing? Opera says it can go back or forward, but not save it?

In any case, I appear to be idle, but I'm not. I have had power supply
problems on my back-up computer. I learned to unmount it and clean it.
It partially worked (the heat went down), but I finally decided to install a
brand new one because a shaky power supply is a fire hazard. Learned a
couple of things in the process, including demystification of the power
supply box! (It's so easy to change when you know how!)

Back to "Recents": I don't know how useful that would be, but I was
thinking of adding the recent bash history as well, so that the user can
recall terminal scripts and such.

BFN.

musher0

[Puppus Dogfellow]

Hi, Puppus_D.

Thanks for the icon. How do you download it? It seems to be embedded
in a flash thing? Opera says it can go back or forward, but not save it?

In any case, I appear to be idle, but I'm not. I have had power supply
problems on my back-up computer. I learned to unmount it and clean it.
I it partially worked (the heat went down), but I finally decided to install a
brand new one because a shaky power supply is a fire hazard. Learned a
couple of things in the process, including demystification of the power
supply box! (It's so easy to change when you know how!)

Back to "Recents": I don't know how useful that would be, but I was
thinking of adding the recent bash history as well, so that the user can
recall terminal scripts and such.

BFN.

musher0

i was thrown off on how to download an image from google drive at first as well--the interface is different for some reason. you should be seeing a down arrow in the upper left--that's what you click to get the option to either download or (sometimes?) open with an external program.

the separate script entry is a cool idea--i actually found myself opening scripts with geany to be able to activate them from your program--as long as the script's permissions are set to execute, it works. i haven't yet tried to shift + click them to see if they open as text, which is default rox behavior, if i'm not mistaken. a separate entry makes all that all easier and more intuitive, so go for it. the more you get into puppy and use it, the more you see how great these little additions are and the more you come to rely on them (and the more they pile up). a user who hasn't yet gotten into the habit of scouring for convenience, so to speak, wouldn't be adversely affected. other than the work you personally would have to do, i see no downside.



and you're welcome for the icon--thank you for the script.

[johnywhy]

Hello, using xfce now. Some xfce puppies have the MRU, but not Carolina-Vanguard-R2.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=96863

Anyone know how to add it? The MRU menu is available in the xfce places plugin, which is available by itself, or (i believe) part of the xfce goodies package.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... ce-711915/
http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/panel- ... ces-plugin

Anybody know how to install either the places plugin or the goodies package on Carolina pup?

EDIT: Never mind, it's already available in the "Places" panel widget on Vanguard

Thx!

[musher0]

Hello all.

Please find attached a completely redone script to display and recall your
most recent files and directories.

In this version, I focused on files, but in so doing I discovered an easy
way to also access a good many of the directories we have used recently.
I tried to illustrate that in the screen captures.

A lot is new:

• -- use of vovchik's remake of aemenu (with pango, which allows colors
  and spacings, and not only various fonts but also various weights and
  sizes of fonts.
  
  -- presented in sub-folders (please see screen caps) instead of in one go
  
  -- help message and description
  
  -- some theming -- from dark to clear and vice versa
  
  -- calling of GTK-chtheme as needed
  
  -- harmonization with my Weather-in-the-World and DefaultMenu scripts
  (but you don't need those two other scripts to use this MRUF/MRUD utility)
  
  -- access and display of the bash history in less. From there, you can use
  less's "bang" feature (shift-!) to recall them in a less window, on the spot
  
  -- access and display of the mtpaint history
  
  -- apps contained in the "xbel" history presented in their own sub-menu
  
  -- possibility to clean up history files from: "xbel", mtpaint , bash, even
  the old opera (+/- v. 12.16), independently from one another.

Speaking of browsers, I looked for a way to access the history files of
the Mozilla family of browsers from the outside. It's possible, but requires
a sqlite engine, which I thought was too involved for a simple script like
this. The moral of this story is that the best way to clean up your Firefox,
Pale Moon or SeaMonkey histories is from within those browsers, IMO.

Please test and tell me what you think. Although I invested a lot of time
and research in this script, there is still room for improvement, no doubt.

About the pet archive:
-- AFAIK, all the dependencies are in it.
-- At installation time, an icon for the MRUF-lst script is placed
automatically in the middle of your desktop. You can then drag it
wherever you wish.

Finally, a word to WhineDose refugees: all things considered, this script
does a good job, IMHO, of jogging your memory and Puppy's, about your
recent ramblings. But do not expect it to behave in a way even remotely
similar to the "Recents" utility that exists on WhineDose. It's a different
approach, and... Linux IS NOT WhineDose!

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~
P.S. The 0.6 version that was here has been updated to the 0.7 version,
which is on the next page, 3-4 posts down. The general appearance has
not changed however, so the screenshots are still valid. BFN. musher0

[Mike Walsh]

Morning, musher0.

'Recent documents' is not something I ever made a great deal of use of, back in my Windows days.....but I can see it would have its uses!

Coupla questions, if I may?

1) Which window managers does this work with? I primarily use either JWM or XFCE, although I do have one that employs Openbox; ETP's 'Chromebook' Pup, v.1.

2) Does this work with all file managers, or just ROX? I'm thinking of Thunar, y'see.....mainly in rg66's X-series, of which I use X-Slacko and X-Precise.

Thanks!


Mike.

[musher0]

Morning, musher0.

'Recent documents' is not something I ever made a great deal of use of, back in my Windows days.....but I can see it would have its uses!

Coupla questions, if I may?

1) Which window managers does this work with? I primarily use either JWM or XFCE, although I do have one that employs Openbox; ETP's 'Chromebook' Pup, v.1.

2) Does this work with all file managers, or just ROX? I'm thinking of Thunar, y'see.....mainly in rg66's X-series, of which I use X-Slacko and X-Precise.

Thanks!

Mike.

Morning', Mike!

This script will work with any window manager as long as vovchik's
aemenu-pango is in the path. That I have personally tested: echinus,
jwm, pekwm, icewm, wmx, and aewm (this last: obviously, since
aemenu was designed for it).

As to working with Thumar or other file managers, avoid the last
sub-menu, marked "ROX-dirs", and the MRUD's sub-sections.

The first two sub-menus are based on ~/.recently-used.xbel or
~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel, the general history file for all
debian/ubuntu type distros; the sub-menu for opera URLs is based on,
well, ... opera(!); the images sub-menu is based on the mtpaint
config/history file; and the bash part is based on the .bash_history file.

I think I can safely say that 50% (?) of this MRUF script can be used with
another file manager, because not all of the script relies on ROX.

Since you mention those FM's, I suppose I could generalize and introduce
a FileMNGR variable, except I don't know if Thumar, PCMan, Dolphin and
cousins can launch a file or a program in the background, like ROX does.
I simply have no experience of them. Does anybody know? Anybody can
fill me in?

(BTW, now that I've discovered a "format", any app that has a history
could be processed in the same way. Any suggestion off the top of your
mind? )

~~~~~~~~
About using an MRUF/MRUD utility or not:
it's a matter of personal habit, I suppose. As for me, I find it quite
convenient: no more file digging to find what I put where, I turn to my
MRUF/MRUD script. It saves me time and frustration.

BFN.

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, musher0.

O-kayyy. I'm in 'Chromepup' now (that's what I call it!); ROX, JWM and Openbox is the combination. I appear to have /.local/share/recently-used.xbel, though not /.recently-used.xbel. Does it matter which, as long as I have one or the other?

I noticed a bit farther back in the thread (page1, stu91.....4 years ago, actually!), there is mention of a app posted on the then extant Crunchbang forum, specifically for Openbox. Did you ever give this one a try, by any chance? (I've got yours sitting in my Apps directory already, but I want to try that one on a JWM-based Pup.) I just happened to be in 'Chromepup' today (which uses Openbox), and.....I was just curious, really.

I will confess, although I don't need such a thing in the normal course of events, there are occasions when I really need to do a bit of serious digging.....and I've got that many years-worth of files. Which haven't always been as well-organised as I'd like, y'know?


Mike.

[bigpup]

musher0,

Thanks for the update and improvements to MRUF-lst!

Hope you posted this as a program in the "Additional Software" section of the forum.
Sure seems like something to post there

Not sure how many people are going to see it, 3 pages into a posting in "Beginners Help".

[musher0]

Hi, musher0.

O-kayyy. I'm in 'Chromepup' now (that's what I call it!); ROX, JWM and Openbox is the combination. I appear to have /.local/share/recently-used.xbel, though not /.recently-used.xbel. Does it matter which, as long as I have one or the other?

I noticed a bit farther back in the thread (page1, stu91.....4 years ago, actually!), there is mention of a app posted on the then extant Crunchbang forum, specifically for Openbox. Did you ever give this one a try, by any chance? (I've got yours sitting in my Apps directory already, but I want to try that one on a JWM-based Pup.) I just happened to be in 'Chromepup' today (which uses Openbox), and.....I was just curious, really.

I will confess, although I don't need such a thing in the normal course of events, there are occasions when I really need to do a bit of serious digging.....and I've got that many years-worth of files. Which haven't always been as well-organised as I'd like, y'know?

Mike.

Hello again Mike

Yeah, stu91 tipped us off about their solution at the time.

I'd have to go back and check how much of their code subsists in this
version! They gave me a model and off I went!!!

It doesn't matter which XBelle your Puppy has!

But your remark this morning got my fingers itching and I ended up with
this "file-manager-agnostic" version. (Please see attached.) So now it
shouldn't matter which file manager you use nor which window manager
you use: you can use this script. With the warning not to use the "ROX-
dirs" section if your FM is Dolphin, for ex.

This version relies entirely on jemimah's xdg-open and/or on BK's default-
handler (we Puppy-ists are lucky to have two launchers, aren't we!) to
show the files in the lists. I also shaved 1 kb off the size of the script by
using more variables.

It's safer than the previous version -- this one will show a script in leafpad
rather that execute it. I like it better that way: if the user wants to re-run
something, then it's his responsibility -- not mine -- if it blows anything up
on his computer or erases a precious file.

Image management has been improved. Clicking on the name of an image
shows it in the viewer not in mtpaint. Again playing it safe here, although
I'll grant you that it wouldn't be as bad as re-running a remove script...

Finally, If you don't have the old opera installed, in this version, the opera
URLs won't be displayed at all. Simply a note telling you to manage your
visited sites in your default browser.

There you have it. Do not enjoy, do not pass GO, do not collect US$200!

TWYL.

~~~~~~~~~~
Edit: Please find the latest version a couple of post down. Thanks.

[musher0]

musher0,

Thanks for the update and improvements to MRUF-lst!

Hope you posted this as a program in the "Additional Software" section of the forum.
Sure seems like something to post there

Not sure how many people are going to see it, 3 pages into a posting in "Beginners Help".

Hello bigpup.

Thanks for condescending to visit this lowly "Beginners" thread!!!

In any case, I cut the pear in half, I half-followed your advice: there is now
an advertisement of this thread and of my new script in the "additional
software" section.

And an explanation, there, of why it's staying here, in this thread.

Sorry for any ruffled feathers.

BFN.

[Mike Walsh]

Hiya, musher0.

Hey, thanks for having a 'play-around' with it! I'll d'l the new version, then spend some time experimenting with all my Pups. I'll let ya know how I get on with it. (Might be a few days, though..!)

No worries about Dolphin; KDE & Plasma, great fun though they are, are too darn 'heavy' for my liking...

Cheers.


Mike.

[musher0]

Hello, all.

Very latest version!

Following Mike W.'s idea, I added a choice of file managers.

I tested rox (Nohhh... Really?) and Midnight Commander (special script
included for mc, BTW).

Now all that's left for you to do, Mike Walsh, is to test this script with
your thunar Viking and other file managers! And to tell us if they work?!

If they don't, perhaps suggest a couple of hints to make them work with
this script!?

I also added:
-- a MRUF / MRUD section for Geany and
-- one for the "GTK-Bookmarks" (if you have any of those, of course).

Finally, there are no warning messages before deleting the various
history files or sections, BUT back-ups are made. (With a double back-up,
actually, for when you do it the 2nd time.)

If the scare-a-dee cats among you need a warning message, I'll write
one, but at this time I feel double back-ups are sufficient protection.

Feedback welcome. TWYL.

[musher0]

Hello all.

Here is version 9:
-- Compacted / rationalized the bash code down to 12 K from 15k, to
180 lines from 300 lines. No functionality lost, either; that's the
beautiful part!

-- Detection of installed file managers rather than simple choice, as
previously. Only your installed FM's will show in the menu, although
the original choice of six is still there. The code for it is:

Code: Select all

for flmngr in MidnightCommander_mc.sh PcMan_pcmanfm ROX-Filer_rox Xfe_xfe
# Other / autres : Dolphin_dolphin EmelFM2_emelfm MuCommander_mucommander.sh Thunar_thunar # Etc.
do [ "`which ${flmngr#*_}`" ] && echo "cmd \"${flmngr%_*}\" \"echo ${flmngr#*_} > /var/tmp/FileMan\"" >> /tmp/recents;done

You can add to the list any FM running on your Puppy by using the above
splitting pattern.

I ran successful tests using this script with pcmanfm and xfe, in addiion
to the previous one with Midnight Commander. I was unable to do a full
install of Dolphin, but I saw enough of it to validate its calling syntax in
this script. I didn't attempt anything with Thunar after my failed Dolphin
experiment.

Again, please see above item concerning how you can "detect" and call
other FM's from this script. If your FM is not listed above and you need
help, ask me: it's almost easy!

A Midnight Commander wrapper is included (if you need it), because
M.C. cannot be launched directly from a menu such as this.

-- Now included are fonts OpenSans-Light (used to display the menu)
and Monaco (used by less to show the description and the bash history).
You can change them later, but you now have something decent as a
starter. This is why the archive has grown in size, BTW.

-- The international strings section is now stored separately in
/usr/doc/MRUF-lst, should a native speaker wish to complete them for
his / her language. The only localizations in the script now are the ones
in English and in French.

-- Finally -- please forgive me for not mentioning it before, it had
escaped me -- you will need the real less (any version from v. 450 up)
as a dependency to view the description and the bash history. Less
version 481 (the latest as of this writing) is here.

Please leave below any constructive questions or comments that you
would have. TWYL.

~~~~~
Edit, afternoon of Sept. 6 2016: -- Erratum --

Hello all.

Please copy the bash code below, paste it in /usr/local/bin as file
< erratum-MRUF.sh >, make executable and run. This will correct lines 150
and 152 of the script. Applying this erratum will make the bash history
visible again and not just flash.

My sincere apologies.

musher0

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
# /usr/local/bin/erratum-MRUF.sh
# musher0, Sept. 6, 2016
####
cd /usr/local/bin
replaceit --input=MRUF-lst-0.9.sh MRUD-apps bashHist
# Will correct lines 150 and 152 and make the bash history visible again.
# Sincere apologies.

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/MRUF-lst-0.9.sh
### 30 ###

[Mike Walsh]

Hiya, musher0.

Have tried v.8 (can't keep up with ya!) in Tahrpup, X-Slacko, and Chromepup. WM's covered are JWM, Openbox and XFCE. File managers covered are ROX and Thunar.

I'm pleased to report it appears to work flawlessly.....and reminds me of things I may have done days before (some of my Pups get more use than others!)

Yeah. Works nicely. You can give yourself a pat on the back from me, old son! Spot-on. Does everything I could want from it.....


Mike.

[musher0]

Hiya, musher0.

Have tried v.8 (can't keep up with ya!) in Tahrpup, X-Slacko, and Chromepup. WM's covered are JWM, Openbox and XFCE. File managers covered are ROX and Thunar.

I'm pleased to report it appears to work flawlessly.....and reminds me of things I may have done days before (some of my Pups get more use than others!)

Yeah. Works nicely. You can give yourself a pat on the back from me, old son! Spot-on. Does everything I could want from it.....

Mike.

Many thanks for the compliment, Mike.

I'm glad it's working for you, and helping you jog your memory a bit!

Just a reminder: If you install version 0.9 (two posts up), don't
forget to run the erratum file at the bottom of the post as well.
I was the typical "absent-minded professor" on that one!

Have a great day!

[Puppus Dogfellow]

cool you're still developing this, musher. seems to work well in tahr64, can't get it to run in a rather flaky xenpup install, and can't read the menus for beans. any way to ditch the effects and colors and such? it starts off with an independant gtk theme, but loses this when you try to change it from its menu? was that supposed to happen? anyway, my eyes are going and i found it hard to read, the green especially. overall though, looks great (feature wise. from what i can see.)

[musher0]

cool you're still developing this, musher. seems to work well in tahr64, can't get it to run in a rather flaky xenpup install, and can't read the menus for beans. any way to ditch the effects and colors and such? it starts off with an independant gtk theme, but loses this when you try to change it from its menu? was that supposed to happen? anyway, my eyes are going and i found it hard to read, the green especially. overall though, looks great (feature wise. from what i can see.)

Hi Puppys Dogfellow.

Glad you like it! Thanks again for the "rd" icon you composed for this
script a while back. (Official icon for this script!)

Yeah, still developing it. There were many bugs in the older versions,
and that "bugged" me.

As to your question, I suppose I could write an alternative plain version
without any color, like for the traditional aemenu. Also I have a real color
chooser sub-menu on another script that I could attempt to import/adapt
to this one. But I've been upgrading this MRUF script non-stop for like a
week +/- , so I'm taking a breather for a couple of days!

In the meantime, have you tried any item of the "Dress-up" menu?
One changes the colors from dark to light and vice versa. The other one
calls the "change GTK theme" utility. Maybe if you choose a different
GTK theme the contrast will make the green entries in the menu more
readable? A more white-ish or on the contrary more black-ish GTK
theme, perhaps? Just a thought.

TWYL.

[Puppus Dogfellow]

cool you're still developing this, musher. seems to work well in tahr64, can't get it to run in a rather flaky xenpup install, and can't read the menus for beans. any way to ditch the effects and colors and such? it starts off with an independant gtk theme, but loses this when you try to change it from its menu? was that supposed to happen? anyway, my eyes are going and i found it hard to read, the green especially. overall though, looks great (feature wise. from what i can see.)

Hi Puppys Dogfellow.

Glad you like it! Thanks again for the "rd" icon you composed for this
script a while back. (Official icon for this script!)

Yeah, still developing it. There were many bugs in the older versions,
and that "bugged" me.

As to your question, I suppose I could write an alternative plain version
without any color, like for the traditional aemenu. Also I have a real color
chooser sub-menu on another script that I could attempt to import/adapt
to this one. But I've been upgrading this MRUF script non-stop for like a
week +/- , so I'm taking a breather for a couple of days!

In the meantime, have you tried any item of the "Dress-up" menu?
One changes the colors from dark to light and vice versa. The other one
calls the "change GTK theme" utility. Maybe if you choose a different
GTK theme the contrast will make the green entries in the menu more
readable? A more white-ish or on the contrary more black-ish GTK
theme, perhaps? Just a thought.

TWYL.

my themes are readable elsewhere (the ones in question anyway), and i didn't want to swap them out for the one app, but i found some of my older themes worked okay and are livable, so--all the more reason for you to take a break from this for a bit.

glad you like the icon enough to use it--a little large for my tastes, but that's fixable. (you got a script to shrink stuff to 20 pixels along its longest axis and maybe another to rotate all the images in a folder 333 degrees? (just thought i'd ask while i've got your attention...i'm pretty sure they've actually been posted before)).

problematic xenial701 install i mentioned froze while i was posting so i'm scrapping it. still have one 32 bit install going i can test with. anyway, thanks for this.

[musher0]

Hi, Puppus Dogfellow and all.

@Puppus: I believe this version 0.9.1 will solve your reading contrast
issue. (Please see screen capture.)

Aside from that, I tried to improve the readability of the code by flagging
more clearly the beginning and end of each section.

I also redid the digging routine for the "xbel" file; seems to produce more
really recent results now (I paid closer attention to the time the file was
"modified" in the routine).

Finally, I touched-up the description panel.

But essentially I introduced no new feature.

~~~~~~~~~
Reading vovchik's "Pango Mark-up" Reference Sheet (which is in PDF) to
accommodate Puppus' request (which I was glad to do, BTW; his request
adds something useful), I noticed that Evince has a history file. Do you
guys think it would be useful to have a "PDF history" section in this menu?

Furthermore, if you people know of any other interesting application that
generates a worthy history file, and you would like it included in this MRUF
menu, please let me know? TIA.

~~~~~~~~~
Constructive feedback always welcome. TWYL

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, musher0.

Now, then; just out of curiosity, where in your scripts are the fonts located? I'm just wondering if it's possible to alter the font in use by the app. I've got a rather swoosh TTF font (TrSah Dungeon TTF) that I wouldn't mind trying to use with it. In fact it's not that dissimilar to the one you've used in your most recent version (v.0.91? I'm getting lost, mate..! )

See below for example.


Mike.