Subject: FVWM: Setting background images for page, speed...

From: Tom Alsberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 15:17:13 +0200

Hi there :-)
I would like to be able to have different background (root window)
images for different pages in FVWM. I tried using FvwmPager, but it
seems to only support either running an external program to set the
background or just setting it to a solid color. Right now I am using
solid colors, but I want to be able to have images as backgrounds. The
problem with it invoking an external command for it is that it is
rather slow... That command has to read the image from the disk every
time, and it keeps no cache, and doesn't leave it in the shared
memory... So whenever I switch pages, I have to wait a few seconds
(approximately 3 to 6 seconds) before the background image is set, and
until then I remain with the previous one. I tend to switch pages
often, so this is a bit annoying, especially if I switch pages for
just one second or so and it draws the image of that page only after
I'm not already in it.
With CTWM I could specify xpm files as backgrounds for the workspaces
after the colors of the buttons in the Workspace Manager in the
WorkSpaces section. With the same images I feel a significant lag with
in FVWM, in CTWM they would draw immediately.
I tried using the xpmroot command that comes with FVWM, xsri (which I
downloaded from Red Hat and compiled), display from ImageMagick, and
John Bradley's xv as the external commands to set the images, and I
tried with XPM, and PNG, and JPEG formats, none was satisfactory fast.

Any idea on what I can do to get it fast in FVWM?

  Thank you, any help appreciated,
  -- Tom

-- 
  Tom Alsberg - certified insane, complete illiterate.
        e-mail: <[email-masked]>
	Homepage: http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~alsbergt/
  * An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it.
--
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---

From: Mikhael Goikhman <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 23:03:42 +0000

> Any idea on what I can do to get it fast in FVWM?

FvwmBacker (at least in 2.4.x) supports many things using colorsets.
You may set a tiled pixmap, or 8 types of gradients as a background.

Of course, setting a big pixmap or complex gradient is always slow, but
this may be more optimal than calling external program to do the same.

Regards,
Mikhael.

---

From: Dominik Vogt <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 20:59:55 +0100

> Any idea on what I can do to get it fast in FVWM?

You want to use FvwmBacker.  Take a look at question 6.6 in the
fvwm FAQ:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

6.6  How do I set the background with fvwm?

A: Setting the background image is not really part of the window
   manager.  If you are using one of the Linux distributions,
   most likely, some part of the distribution is setting the background
   for you.

   There is a program that comes with fvwm (xpmroot) which you can use
   to set the background to a pixmap.  Other programs like "xv", "xli",
   "xloadimage", and "display" are more robust, they can put most common
   image types on the root display.

   If you just want a static image on your background, you might invoke
   one of these programs from your .xsession or .xinitrc file.  You can
   also invoke one of these programs from the InitFunction in your
   .fvwm2rc.

   The fvwm module FvwmBacker can be used to change the background
   depending on the desk you are currently on.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Bye

Dominik ^_^  ^_^

 --
Dominik Vogt, [email-masked]
Reply-To: [email-masked]
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---

From: Tom Alsberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 23:29:57 +0200

Hi there...
I know it is possible by spawning an external command from
FvwmBacker. That method is just very bad in reaction/speed. I
explained all that in my message...
Anyway I'm now using FvwmTheme Colorsets, as proposed by Mikhael... It
works great... I just didn't know Colorsets can do that...

  Thank you - Dominik, Mikhael,
  -- Tom