Roxset (Improved)

[seaside]

Eyes-Only,

Vous êtes très gentil. (This drives my spell checker crazy!)

You are very kind to have posted your enthusiasm for Roxset and it is only through the wonderful program- Xdotool - that any of this is possible. My skills are quite meager and not even in the same universe as someone like Mark.

Thanks again and I am very pleased that you found a wide use for this small utility.

Regards,
s

[Sylvander]

1. Had to 1st complete some necessary housekeeping:
e.g.
(a) Had to increase the size of my BoxPup 2GB ext2 partition to 3GB.

(b) Rebooted to Puppy 4.2.1-rc3 held on a 1GB USB2 Flash Drive, and used GParted to do the necessary.

2. As suggested in a PM, I installed Rox [rox_filer-2.8-pup1 as in the Package Manager].
Once that was installed Roxset worked just fine.
Duh, naturally and of course!
But honestly, being a newbie to Puppy I thought it was installed as part of Roxset.
Wouldn't it be logical for Roxset to check if wasn't already installed, and install it if not?

[Sylvander]

Is there any way to get the two windows to open tiled?

i.e. For each to occupy half of the screen; either side-by-side, or top-and-bottom, with no empty space on screen?

[seaside]

Is there any way to get the two windows to open tiled?

i.e. For each to occupy half of the screen; either side-by-side, or top-and-bottom, with no empty space on screen?

Sylvander,

The window size and placement on the screen is controlled by the code lines "xdotool windowsize $WID 5 190 &" (where the 5 represents the width and the 190 represents the height)
and "xdotool windowmove $WID 425 5" (where 425 and 5 represents the x and y coordinates of the upper left corner of the window).

You can play with these numbers and change things somewhat, but I think what you're looking for is what I'd like as well - two rox panes in two FIXED windows that do not change. Rox is designed to optimize window size and placement according to content, and that works well for a single pane file manager.

Glad you were able to get it working and I've edited the main post to mention that the Rox file manager is a requirement.

Sometimes these things can be a pane

[DaveS]

You can get close to what you want. Size the two panes to what works on your screen by editing the script. Next, open a Rox window, right click on the background somewhere, and from the pop-up menu select 'options'. In the pop-up pane, select 'filer window', and check the radio button 'never automatically resize'.
That will give you a nice little work around.

[aragon]

based on the code barry provided on the woff-thread, here's the code to get the actual screensize:

width:

Code: Select all

xwininfo -root | grep '\geometry' | cut -f4 -d ' ' | cut -f1 -d 'x'

height

Code: Select all

xwininfo -root | grep '\geometry' | cut -f4 -d ' ' | cut -f2 -d 'x' | cut -f1 -d '+'

by implementing this code, i t should be possible to setup 2 half-screen ROX-windows.

aragon

[Sylvander]

What I've just now done:

1. Used Roxset to open 2 windows and resized them so they each occupy half screen, tiled left & right.

2. Used the idea of DaveS:
Opened a Rox-filer window and set "never automatically resize".
This is working.
But should I have done this only AFTER the Roxset window sizes were specified?

3. Used the idea of aragon:
Running the code he supplied gave:
Width = 1024
Height = 768
But I don't understand this.
How come there's only ONE width and height for TWO windows.
To specify the locations and sizes of 2 windows, wouldn't it be necessary to specify X & Y co-ordinates for the two corners [of the 2 windows], then then specify the width and height of the 2 windows?
Exactly as mentioned by seaside.

4. @seaside
(a) I assume the values to be altered are those in the /usr/local/bin/roxset executable file.

(b) Tried the following changed values, but it seemed to make no difference.
Having been educated in Engineering I'm well accustomed to the use of X & Y co-ordinates.
I'm assuming 0,0 [the origin] is top left, and X is horizontally to the right, and Y is vertically downward.
Is this assumption correct?

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
rox 
WID=`xdotool getactivewindow`
xdotool windowsize $WID 512 384 &
xdotool windowmove $WID 512 0

rox /
WID=`xdotool getactivewindow`
xdotool windowsize $WID 512 384 &
xdotool windowmove $WID 0 0

[aragon]

sylvander, please read carefully screensize not windowsize

please try this code, it a little rough but works:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
SW=`xwininfo -root | grep '\geometry' | cut -f4 -d ' ' | cut -f1 -d 'x'`
SH=`xwininfo -root | grep '\geometry' | cut -f4 -d ' ' | cut -f2 -d 'x' | cut -f1 -d '+'`
SH2=`echo "scale=0; $SH*0.94" | bc -l | cut -f1 -d '.'`
HSW=`echo "scale=0; $SW/2*0.98" | bc -l | cut -f1 -d '.'`
HSP=`echo "scale=0; $SW/2-1" | bc -l | cut -f1 -d '.'`

rox 
WID=`xdotool getactivewindow`
xdotool windowsize $WID $HSW $SH2 &
xdotool windowmove $WID $HSP 0

rox /
WID=`xdotool getactivewindow`
xdotool windowsize $WID $HSW $SH2 &
xdotool windowmove $WID 0 0

aragon

[Sylvander]

1. "please read carefully screensize not windowsize"
Right...
Wasn't sure what you were intending, but when I saw the numbers I guessed they were the screensize, so I used those [as you will have noticed no doubt].

2. This new code...
No idea what it is intended to achieve. Could you explain?
It opened 2 Rox windows each with unsuitable dimensions and location.
Below is a screenshot of the resulting output in the Sakura terminal window.

[DaveS]

aragon, the option to not auto resize works well. It comes from the rox option setting

Code: Select all

<Option name="filer_auto_resize">2</Option>

Do you see a way to pass that as a command line arguement in the roxset script such that it would be effective for that session only?

[aragon]

@sylvander
it's the content for the script.

@dave
possible i will look at this later.

aragon

[DaveS]

Sylvander, this should work on your screen

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
rox
WID='xdotool getactivewindow'
xdotool windowsize $WID 500 600 &
xdotool windowmove $WID 510 5

rox
WID='xdotool getactivewindow'
xdotool windowsize $WID 500 600 &
xdotool windowmove $WID 5 5

Good luck.
BTW, it makes no dif when you set the 'do not autoresize' option.

[Sylvander]

1. "this should work on your screen"
(a) I'm afraid it didn't produce the needed result.
Gave 2 equi-sized rectangular windows [longer than high] in the middle of the screen, slightly offset from each other.
Are those numbers in millimeters [mm]?

(b) I notice that each time I run Roxset...
1) Both windows come up the same size.
AND...
2) The 1st window is ALWAYS in the same location in the middle of the screen.
AND...
3) The 2nd window appears in a different RANDOM location each time Roxset is run.
[But NEVER located exactly on top of the 1st window]
This is consistent with the way other windows behave under the control of the BoxPup window manger.
e.g. The smm ["SaveMyModem"] window appears in a different random location each time it is run [and a real pest it is too].
Is this to be considered a feature or a fault [bug]?

[DaveS]

Ah, understood. The roxset script works with JWM, but clearly not with box. I have no knowledge of *box window managers so can help no further. Sorry............

[aragon]

Is this to be considered a feature or a fault [bug]?

this is a feature of openbox and some other wm called smart-placement.

i think we will first try to implement a working solution for jwm (as this is the default wm for puppy) and then try to find a solution for other wm.

aragon

[Sylvander]

Should I try to install and use a different window manager?

Or stay with the existing one [openbox?]

[seaside]

Should I try to install and use a different window manager?

Or stay with the existing one [openbox?]

Sylvander,

Perhaps Openbox has a tiling option and if not, you may want to look into a tiling window manager - see

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=258224

Hope your windows get clearer.

[aragon]

aragon, the option to not auto resize works well. It comes from the rox option setting

Code: Select all

<Option name="filer_auto_resize">2</Option>

Do you see a way to pass that as a command line arguement in the roxset script such that it would be effective for that session only?

short progress report:
i'm able to temporarely change the rox-option and restore the previous options after running the script. problem is, that the new 'side-by-side'-windows pick-up the restored setting, so that we have the same as without it.

so for the moment the way is to set the option to not auto-resize in rox. after that the script as posted runs fine (for me).

i will report if i find out more.

aragon

[Sylvander]

1. Was reading here about a "tile" program for openbox.

2. Found the tile-0.7.8.pet at this webpage, and installed it and rebooted...
But I cannot see how it works.
No menu entry.
Not listed by a terminal.
Though it IS listed by the Package Manager as installed.

[aragon]

@sylvander

it is listed because it is installed. What you have installed is a theming engine for tk http://tktable.sourceforge.net/tile/

but one question, as this is not very clear to me:
what do you want to achieve?
a. Having a filemanager with 2 panels?
b. Having a tiling windowmanager?
c. ...

a. There are some (only a selection)
- Tuxcommander : http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=27599
- Midnight Commander http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=30729
b. I won't recommend that. It's a very nice concept but very different in usage compared to 'usual' wm's.
c. ???

aragon