Subject: Re: FVWM: .fvwm2rc syntax guide?

From: John Latham <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 18:48:55 +0100

> Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 14:45:50 +0200
> From: Imre Vida <[email-masked]>

>  On Sun, Aug 25, 2002 at 08:29:50PM -0400, Dan Espen wrote:
>  > Are you aware that you can start fvwm with no config file at all,
>  > press F1 or any mouse button on the root window and fvwm will
>  > offer to create a few different configurations for you?
>  
>  yes, it is mentioned in the man
>  but it appears at line 365 in a very 
>  modest 2 line sentence (context: .fvwm2rc).  
>  it is repeated in a somewhat more extended 
>  version at ~1100 (Built in K&M Bindings).
>  
>  while I agree that structurally these are 
>  apropriate locations, i believe not many
>  newbies can spot and pick up the message
>  (i personally missed them when first read/
>  scanned through the manual. mind you it is 
>  8000+ lines of heavy text).
>  
>  I think it would be helpful to 
>  - to put a "To the Impatient" setion at the very 
>  begining of the man with this info
>  - mention this also in one of the INSTALL and/or 
>  README files (e.g. README.sysrc).

My own `newbie' experience years ago was a burning baptism, rather than a
gentle drift into expertise. So this question is to others, expecially recent
newbies. A tutorial document has been suggested. Would it be useful to have
one that helps a new user build ``their own'' simple .fvwm2rc from almost
scratch, without wholesale importing of any ready made themes or bits of
configuration?

Each FVWM feature would be explained, as the user includes it into their
config, and they could run FVWM at various stages as it develops. They would
start off from a known place: a really simple config that contains only emacs,
or another editor of their choice (nedit?), a restart menu item, and perhaps a
program runnign to monitor the error output from FVWM (e.g. the error monitor
from AnotherLevelUp). This initial config would be explained in the first
section. Next sections would give step by step instructions for adding more
features. Later sections would tell them what is wanted, but get them to find
out how to do it from the man pages, and try it first with FvwmConsole before
adding it to their file, etc..

It would cover the sort of things that newbies want to do: choose a
background, get an xterm on the menu, choose window frame features, have a
task bar, have multiple desk tops,have some fvwm buttons, ... Is this a
sensible sort of order? Perhaps it could evolve through it's readers
sugegsting what things they want to do next.

By the end the student of fvwm (!) would have basically copied a simple
config, but feel able to risk being creative. Maybe some exercises could be
suggested for further learning.

Does such a thing already exist? Would it be welcome? I'm not quite on the
verge of volnteering to think about writing something...

Best wishes, John Latham
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