The wmx window manager, version 8, is now available.

[musher0]

Hello again, wmx lovers!

I've succeeded in coming up with two other themings for wmx-8, in
olive-green and wave-blue variants. You can get them here:
-- https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code ... 726fopkJB7 --

I wanted to do a blackish variant, but I haven't yet found where in the
wmx code to change its font color to a light color.

Screen caps of

-- the blue-wave variant



-- the olive-green variant



The *.pet archive also contains:

• * a potential new /root/.wmx folder under the name wmx-FR. I'll leave it
  __ to you to activate it through a symbolic link because I don't know if
  __ you're already using one of the variants uploaded previously. If you've
  __ done some work in that folder, of course forcing a copy would destroy
  __ it. As I said, I'm leaving it to you. And an EN translation is under way.
  
  * the menu-shareapps.sh script and its loader. It's already integrated in
  __ the new .wmx/wmx-FR "menu" folder. There's a separate discussion
  __ of it here.
  
  * a PuppyMenu at /usr/local/PuppyMenu, again integrated in the main
  __ wmx menu. This is pretty much the usual jwm menu, except in
  __ folder/sub-folder form. Again... an EN translation is under way, but
  __ it's quite usable as is.

TWYL. Enjoy!

musher0

[musher0]

Hello, all.

Please replace the wave-blue themed wmx-8 in the package above with this
attached one. I had forgotten to substitute a matching color for the desktop
number at compile time. (I had left in the color used for the green theme.)
Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience.

BFN.

musher0

[musher0]

Edit, March 18, 20915:
We now have many ways to access our applications in wmx.
Four ways from the wmx menu itself:
* the simili-xdg sub-menu (revised script attached; see below)
* the default-apps sub-menu, which lists all the "default-something"
__ applications on your Puppy
* my "share-Cats" and "share-Apps" listings of what's available in
__ /usr/share/applications
* the /usr/share/applications folder itself, accessible directly from the
__ "Folders" sub-menu

One from outside the wmx
* dmenu2
Hopefully, that is enough?! Best regards. musher0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello, all.

Here is a menu generator for wmx. It derives all entries from the
*.desktop files at /usr/share/applications, not from the jwm menu.

Being able to use awk as the extractor of the data was a big plus.

I solved the "mysteries" I reported a couple of days ago, and version 2 of
the script works quite nicely now.

Do you need a very steady hand to use the wmx menu?
You still need a steady hand to navigate the wmx menu, but with the
layout it's easier than it was. OOTB, you need the hand of a surgeon or of
a concert pianist... not just a regular steady hand. But that's beyond
me, upstream from me, actually: it would be for the author to change.
(He's a musician, BTW, author of the LiliPond software, in addition to
wmx.)

Maybe not.
The solution at the user's end may be to slow down the mouse speed by a
couple of notches, until it feels comfortable for you.

Run pupx from the Desktop sub-menu and set set pixel distance to 16.
Save. If it feels too stiff or too slow, change the pixel distance to 15. And
so on, one down, one down, until you find a speed you're comfortable
with. (The "pixel distance" notion is the distance the mouse will travel on
screen before it starts accelerating.)

Feedback welcome
I would be most grateful for your input on how the script reacts to the
categories in your *.desktop files. There can be small differences in the
spelling of the Puppy categories from one Puppy to the next, for example
(or of official freedesktop categories, for that matter), and a wrong or
different spelling could stall menu creation.

And of course people like to organize their programs their own way. A
menu script would have to incorporate that human aspect as well.

Version 2 of this script takes about 4½ seconds to re-create the wmx
menu on my Puppy Precise 5.4.3. It's not "dynamic", but it's still fast.
Nobody adds a new application to his/her Puppy every minute, so strictly
speaking, a "dynamic" menu is never needed. (IMO.)

I can't remember who said that it couldn't be done, but it's now more than
a proof of concept: a simili-xdg menu can be successfully integrated
in wmx.

Anyway, if you have a couple of minutes and a kind heart, please have a
look at this script -- or simply run it --, and share your impressions and
ideas for possible improvement of the code? Constructive feedback is
always welcome.

Many thanks in advance. BFN.

musher0

[musher0]

Hello, again.

Two screen captures of the new simili-xdg menu for wmx:

Full screen:



Close-up:




One neat thing about wmx is that it provides two accesses to your menu:
an actual menu and a folder-sub-folder access.

BFN.

[Ted Dog]

Interesting.. somewhat like the use of left right of a appwindow for tile and such makes better use of the ultra wide monitors so much wasted pixels on with window managers from the 4x3 era. Wish you would self promote your finds better! seems I find your interesting threads SO late.

[Ted Dog]

What version of puppylinux are these pets for.... any 64bit versions ?

[musher0]

What version of puppylinux are these pets for.... any 64bit versions ?

Hi, Ted.

Thanks for your reply and interest. No, I've never been much of a
salesman, unfortunately for me...

Regarding the other question, I don't think there is a 64-bit version of
wmx-8 yet. There's only this one, that was published last November. So
it's a "universal" 32-bit version, I suppose. I have an old 64-bit laptop in
my storeroom aka dining room that runs 32-bit Puppies nicely.

This wmx wm should run on a 64-bit, no? (Shucks, something else to
test...)

BFN.

musher0

[musher0]

Finally!

Success with version 2 of the menu script !!! I just updated my previous post
about it. Please re-read? Thanks, and of course...

...enjoy this wonderful wmx window manager!

musher0

[musher0]

Hello.

As announced earlier in the post presenting wmx-8, here is the download URL
for the two fonts required by wmx-8. (Archived as as a 334k *.pet file.)

Best regards.

musher0

[musher0]

Hi!

Below is the edited Config.h that I used to created this great (IMO) port &
cornsilk theme for wmx. ("Port" as in "dark wine color".)



The solution was to replace some dynamic configurations with actual
numbered or named colors as seen in gcolor2. Otherwise, the foreground
(in other words the letters) remained in black print, which made the
info entries on the frame and on the menu unreadable on a dark frame
such as this.

Since I was not and still am not familiar with the logic of the C language,
it took me actually a few days compiling through trials and errors (mostly
the latter!) to discover the proper way to get the result I wanted.

I think this is a breakthrough, in the sense that I have found this info
nowhere on the Internet, and it greatly expands wmx's theming capacity.

We now have access to dark frame colours for wmx, whereas before we
didn't. If the attached can save some people some time, I'll be glad.

BFN.

musher0

~~~~~~~~
Note. The same "port" color was used to theme conky and the rox panel
to give the desktop a unified look.

Photo credit: "Pe aripile vantului". (Unknown photographer.)

~~~~~~~~
Edit, July 29, 2015:
A compatible port color gtk-2.0 theme is attached. My adaptation of the
Dust theme original by Rico Sta. Cruz and Ricardo (Kido) Mariano III,
amended by daman. There's also a series of Dust themes you might want
to dress up in port color on page 108 of gnome-look.org. Untried, but the
Crimson themes at Gnome-Look may also look nice with this wmx theme.
~~~~~~~

[musher0]

Almost forgot...

(Unzip the attached port wmx in /usr/bin and make executable. Then go
back to the initial black console with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace and type

Code: Select all

xwin wmx-8_porto8

to launch it.)

BFN.

musher0

[musher0]

Hello, world!

Finally, the wmx window manager in classy black garb.



Notes:

• -- Photo credit: here.
  -- You'll need the same urxvt script as above for this black wmx to run properly.
  -- The panel at the bottom of the screen capture is bmpanel2.

~~~~~~~~
Edit, July 29, 2015:
This nice gtk-2 theme called "WoW-2" works well with this wmx theme. This author
"nale-12" has also produced similar blackish themes that may be compatible with it.

In the screen capture above I used the "Wolfe" variant of the WoW-2
theme -- which I found God knows where... That "Wolfe" theme is
available at:
-- https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code ... UhIkYWvDm7 --
~~~~~~~~

Enjoy!

musher0

[musher0]

Hello again!

Here is an edited menu creator for wmx (menu_pr_wmx2.sh; version 2b,
bearing today's date), issued separately.

It's still a work in progress. I think the general script structure for
processing the *.desktop files for wmx is sound, but there are a lot of
menu categories out there, a lot of combined menu categories as well,
and I can't know of all of them.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Note:
If this script doesn't appear to work for you, please be kind enough as to
open it in your geany, uncomment the < set -xe > (at the top of the
script) and the < set +xe > (at the bottom of the script), run it with F5
and let me know what geany's run window says when it stops with the
error message. The error number is not that interesting; it's the 3-4 lines
above that actually tell what to change in the script. Thanks in advance.
~~~~~~~~~~

2nd edit:
To flesh out a bit the main level of the wmx menu, I've attached some
more items: a "Puppy default apps" sub-menu, a wmx doc sub-menu
(with wmx cheat sheets), and a folders sub-menu (for easy access via
ROX to important folders of the Puppy hierarchy).
Provided in French or in English.
~~~~~~~~~~

BFN.

musher0

[musher0]

Hi.

I've just edited my posts above for the port & cornsilk wmx and for the
black wmx to include suggestions of gtk-2 themes that should go well
with those wmx themes.

BFN.

musher0

[musher0]

Hello again.

I added some sub-menus to flesh out the main level of the wmx menu.
(See my edited post on the wmx menu creator above.)

BTW, feel free to add your own items to that main level, even with their
own sub-folders (aka sub-menus, since this is the way the wmx menu
works). As long as you don't touch the automatically generated Puppy
menu, it's ok.

BFN.

musher0

[musher0]

This post is being kept for historical purposes. Please use instead the latest
version of the wmx Menu Creator, located here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello all.

Please find attached a better, tighter, wmx menu creator than the one I offered last
year. It requires awk (preferably mawk) and tree. It tends to group similar sub-menus
together, so be warned: it's not a carbon copy of the usual jwm menu, for example.

The attached script is perfectly functional, it tries to structure the wmx menu for ease
of use, but it will incorporate Radky's excellent PupMenu (if you have installed it on
your Puppy), should you prefer an alternative approach.

Enjoy!

[musher0]

Hello again.

A word about separators in the wmx menu.

IMO, they are essential to structure the wmx menu and make it basically useable.

Let's get used to it: the wmx menu will never be as user-friendly as the pekwm
menu. The wmx menu will forever remain cramped. (You can shed a tear or two
now, everybody will understand!)

Perhaps the wmx menu was designed to be used as a directory of symlinks, rather
than a true click-on-backdrop menu. As a menu folder, it works great, but as a
menu per se, not so much.

So we need separators as work-arounds, to give the wmx menu structure, and give
your hand or mouse some freedom of movement.

I've attached some separators to use with the wmx menu. They are basically "wavy"
lines. In the illustration, the one circled in red is the essential one, it gives the wmx
menu adequate width. The next ones in importance are the ones in blue: they
structure the top and bottom of the folders section.

The rest are alphabetized: crude as they are, they can be inserted in the wmx menu
to structure long lists of applications. (An illustration of the alphabetized separators
has already been provided a few posts up.) You can adapt them to your needs.

I hope this helps. BFN.

[musher0]

Another user's note:

if you slide your mouse to a wmx sub-menu and the originating menu repeats itself,
it may be because of two things:
1) the sub-folders and the files in them don't have the proper permissions. This one
is rather simple to solve: go to the /root/.wmx, right-click on it and redo the
permissions. From terminal the one-liner is: chmod -R +x /root/.wmx

2) do not put a script that creates a sub-menu in the sub-menu it's creating. (Duh?)
Recursion can be a good thing but in this case it's counter-productive. Place that
script in the dir. above the menu directory it will be creating. Copying it from
somewhere else won't help either. I must confess the latter was one of my finest
bird-brain moments! Very hard to top!

BFN.

[musher0]

Edit, Sat. Jan. 7, 2017:
This post kept for historical purposes. Please see below for a much faster
and more structured wmx menu, at
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... ost#938468

Sorry for any inconvenience, this has been a work in progress...

Thanks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello all.

Here is a refined Menu Creator for wmx-8. It replaces all previous wmx
menu creators. (Edit: please see note above.)

The refinements are that
1) all categories (aka sub-menus) are now prefixed with an underscore, except the
"Favorites" sub-menu, which makes it stand out. And

2) the menu now places the utilities you flagged as "Favorite" in Radky's PupMenu
in that "Favorites" sub-menu in wmx.

It looks like this (please see attached).

Enjoy!
~~~~~~~~~
Edit, 23 h 35, same day:
Replaced the script uploaded this afternoon with a more compact one.
~~~~~~~~~
Edit 18 h 40, May 16, 2016.
Same thing; again. This one clocks in at 9.6 seconds for 148 desktop entries. It
shaves 1.5 seconds relative to the previous version. Did you know that < grep -l >
can be faster than < ls -1 > in certain contexts? Wow. I have to stop doing this...
~~~~~~~~~
Edit 21 h 28, May 17, 2016. Changes:
Now uses case ... esac statements for creation of most Categories/subdirs.
Does not repeat creation if subdir created.
No need to make scripts executable twice...
Eliminated a "sleep" that was there as a needless precaution.
End result: now clocks in at 5.8 seconds instead of 11.6 s (initial version).

[musher0]

Hello all.

i updated the wmx menu-creator script twice in the last 24 hours. "Never
say never", of course, but I think it's the best it's ever going to be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Edit, Sat. Jan. 7, 2017:
This post kept for historical purposes. Please see below for a much faster
and more structured wmx menu, at
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... ost#938468

Again, sorry for any inconvenience, this has been a work in progress...
Hopefully it's getting better with each new version.

Thanks for your understanding.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I went into details with this one, testing the time / benefit ratio of almost
every line used in it. Any weirdness, let me know; there shouldn't be any
left, but just in case.

Hopefully, all this focused work will make the wmx experience more
enjoyable for users. Please see the post above for illustration and download.

BFN.