Roxset (Improved)

Message

Sylvander · #31 Post by **Sylvander** » Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:59

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

Or stay with the existing one [openbox?]

seaside · #32 Post by **seaside** » Thu 27 Aug 2009, 16:02

Sylvander wrote: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 · #33 Post by **aragon** » Thu 27 Aug 2009, 16:51

DaveS wrote: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 · #34 Post by **Sylvander** » Thu 27 Aug 2009, 19:08

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 · #35 Post by **aragon** » Fri 28 Aug 2009, 07:33

@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

Sylvander · #36 Post by **Sylvander** » Fri 28 Aug 2009, 08:10

1. "what do you want to achieve?
a. Having a filemanager with 2 panels? "
I wanted to see whether a dual-window Rox would be worth having in addition to, or instead of Xfe [which I think is GREAT!

].
I'm seeing it said that Rox can do interesting things and that a dual-pane Rox is even better.
Best way to see what it can do is to try it out.

seaside · #37 Post by **seaside** » Fri 28 Aug 2009, 21:27

aragon wrote:
DaveS wrote: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

aragon,

I tried to pass the option for No auto-resize by the SOAP command line interface (even though the documentation says nothing about this option, just in case it wasn't documented) and nothing seemed to work.

I very much like your code for making two equal panes that cover the desktop based on actual screen size - checked it for a variety of screen resolutions and they worked nicely with only the 800x600 having a slight overlap which is due to WM bickering (not enough to be a real problem).

Some questions to all before I repackage Roxset with Aragon's nice work---

It seems to me that the best use of Roxset is to run it without auto-sizing and thus making it for all practical purposes a two-paned fixed window environment.

With that in mind, just changing the Rox Options file to "filer_auto_resize">2 at the beginning of the Roxset script would achieve this, but place Rox in "No-autosize" mode.
(The next time Rox is run it won't Autosize, unless the Options part of Rox is reset)

This wouldn't be of much concern to me - I'd just change the option back if I wanted to, but perhaps this might confuse others.

The other way would be to just note that one of the panes should be right-clicked and under Options>Filer windows>Never automatically resize be selected.

Any thoughts on this........

trapster · #38 Post by **trapster** » Sat 29 Aug 2009, 11:24

Fluxbox has an option to save size and location of windows (among others). Right click on the title bar and unselect "Remember Position"and "Remember Dimension". These settings are stored in /root/.fluxbox/apps.

I would presume other *box wm's have something similar (?).

roxset works ok if you set the size of the window in ~/.fluxbox/apps and choose "Remember Dimension", but it seems to work best if you dont have flux remember Dimension or Position and set those in roxset.

Nice little app!

`f00 · #39 Post by **`f00** » Sat 29 Aug 2009, 15:09

@Sylvander
Blackbox wm (here's a nice one, trim the 'excess' styles as you like

thread here for further info) is fairly simple and close (enough) to Openbox for an auxiliary/special-case wm - as noted, simply switch the Rox option for resize and set the BB mainmenu/config for however you like your window placement (bottom-to-top, left-to-right, etc.. it's pretty much bulletproof and quick) .. rolling/sloppy focus and such is fairly intuitive (a few items like delay might be better set in /root/.blackboxrc if you really like BB

). You can even edit BB's 'base' menu for a very quick switch to Openbox wm (wm only, it may keep the blackbox bg if that's set in the BB-style) from BB. A 'full' switch is better done by other means like Exit to Prompt...

aragon · #40 Post by **aragon** » Sat 29 Aug 2009, 19:19

seaside wrote: I very much like your code for making two equal panes that cover the desktop based on actual screen size - checked it for a variety of screen resolutions and they worked nicely with only the 800x600 having a slight overlap which is due to WM bickering (not enough to be a real problem).

for 800 x 600 try to play with the percentages (0.94 and 0.98 ) in these lines:

Code: Select all

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 '.'`

seaside wrote: Some questions to all before I repackage Roxset with Aragon's nice work---

It seems to me that the best use of Roxset is to run it without auto-sizing and thus making it for all practical purposes a two-paned fixed window environment.

With that in mind, just changing the Rox Options file to "filer_auto_resize">2 at the beginning of the Roxset script would achieve this, but place Rox in "No-autosize" mode.
(The next time Rox is run it won't Autosize, unless the Options part of Rox is reset)

This wouldn't be of much concern to me - I'd just change the option back if I wanted to, but perhaps this might confuse others.

The other way would be to just note that one of the panes should be right-clicked and under Options>Filer windows>Never automatically resize be selected.

Any thoughts on this........

i would recommend to not change the autoresizing in the script. What you could do is to place an pinstall.sh (postinstall-sript) in the pet-file which automatically runs a xmessage-message with the info.

aragon

DaveS · #41 Post by **DaveS** » Sat 29 Aug 2009, 20:11

Perhaps a better way all round might be to install pcmanfm (like in Crunchbang), which supports tabs. Drag and drop between tabs is really intuitive, and overall it is probably running with less resource than two instances of Rox. I have managed to get it to run in Puppy, but with no icons in the file window pane. It needs a gtk theme, and as yet I cant figure out how to achieve it.
Pcmanfm works well with the various *box window managers I believe.....

aragon · #42 Post by **aragon** » Sun 30 Aug 2009, 06:55

Dave,

see this post for running pcmanfm on puppy and regarding your question about the icon theme

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=25699

aragon

DaveS · #43 Post by **DaveS** » Sun 30 Aug 2009, 07:32

aragon wrote:Dave,

see this post for running pcmanfm on puppy and regarding your question about the icon theme

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=25699

aragon

Thanks aragon. Just downloaded this .pup and will give it a try.

seaside · #44 Post by **seaside** » Mon 31 Aug 2009, 18:42

I've just updated Roxset as follows:

Roxset now opens two windows - side by side - based on your SCREEN SIZE! (thanks Aragon). If you prefer the two panes to stay in place and not move, a brief message will come up reminding you to right-click on any blank part of either pane and select- Options > Filer windows > Never automatically resize.

Enough space has been left at the bottom of the two panes to expose the desktop drive icons (and any other icons you choose) to provide easy access to a third window opening across the two panes for even more drag & drop fun.

NOTE: While extensively testing this, I discovered that sometimes an initial window will not accept something being dragged into it. If this happens, just slightly move the rejecting window and it should work.

Sylvander · #45 Post by **Sylvander** » Tue 01 Sep 2009, 08:32

1. "a brief message will come up reminding you to right-click on any blank part of either pane and select- Options > Filer windows > Never automatically resize"
How about including a "Close" button on that so that the user can take as much time as they like to full understand the information, and only then click "Close"?
In case the user did nothing you could have LONGER display time, when it would then close automatically.
It caught me off guard, and was gone before I had fully read and understood, so I had to close and restart to read it a 2nd time.

seaside · #46 Post by **seaside** » Tue 01 Sep 2009, 15:13

Sylvander,

If you prefer, you can make the message stay until clicked by changing the code in Roxset as follows:

At the end of the Roxset script you'll find this line -

Code: Select all

yaf-splash -timeout 10 -font..........

remove "-timeout 10" so that it looks like this -

Code: Select all

yaf-splash  -font........

It will now stay on the screen until clicked.

Hope the new screen size basis is better for you now and have you seen the Whaw - Window Tiling Daemon here -
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=46080

Sylvander · #47 Post by **Sylvander** » Tue 01 Sep 2009, 23:16

Got Whaw installed and it's pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it.

But I'd still much rather have the two Rox windows open tiled instead of having to do it each time.
Perhaps one day.

Changed [the appropriate part of] the roxset script to:

Code: Select all

yaf-splash -font "8x16" -outline 0 -margin 4 -bg green -text "To keep two FIXED panes, right-click empty space in either pane
select- Options > Filer windows > Never automatically resize.
Click on this info window to close it."

Sylvander · #48 Post by **Sylvander** » Thu 03 Sep 2009, 10:01

How do I get the whaw -d command to auto-run at EACH startup of BoxPup?

seaside · #49 Post by **seaside** » Thu 03 Sep 2009, 14:13

Sylvander wrote:How do I get the whaw -d command to auto-run at EACH startup of BoxPup?

Sylvander,

Create a file that looks like this

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash 
killall whaw || whaw -d

Name the file "whaw-start-stop" and drag this file to ~/Startup, make sure it's executable by right-clicking the file and choosing Properties > and x the first line "Exec" box under Permisions.

This will run Whaw at startup and if you put this file on the desktop, and click it while Whaw is already running, it will turn it off. Click it again and it'll turn it back on.

Have fun.

Sylvander · #50 Post by **Sylvander** » Thu 03 Sep 2009, 17:04

1. With the exception of putting whaw on the desktop...
Everything is done, and whaw is auto-running at Startup, and functioning well.

2. "put this file on the desktop"
How is that done?
Isn't it best/easiest to put a symlink on the desktop, and how?
Is there a folder that represents the desktop?
Do I put a symlink there?

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Roxset (Improved)

Roxset with two windows based on SCREEN SIZE