Subject: FVWM: FVWM 2.0 suggestions

From: [email-masked] (Jonathan Monahan)
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 95 10:37:44 BST

Hello all,
    I am currently using fvwm 1.24l (I believe) and aim to upgrade to
fvwm 2.0 as soon as I get to my new job in two weeks time.  However, in the
meantime, I have a few suggestions for improvements over 1.24 that could
perhaps go into 2.0 or later.  Maybe these have already been covered - it's
difficult to tell without actually installing 2.0, and having only recently
joined the mailing list.

  1) The ability to add and delete desktops without restarting fvwm.  I
     currently use two desktops with just one page on each (ie. no scrolling).
     I use the first desktop (named "Main") as a general desktop, and the
     second (named "Net") as a surfing desktop which xrn, Mosaic, xftp, etc.
     are configured to start on.
     However, I found yesterday, that I had already filled "Main" and "Net"
     with windows, and I wanted to start another "task" which would ideally
     use a new desktop...  See the problem ?  In the end I resorted to
     iconifying all the windows on "Main" to make space for the new work I
     wanted to do.

  2) The system menu of my windows include items such as Iconify and
     (Un)Stick.  I believe these were predefined in the sample
     system.fvwmrc.  I would like these menu items to perform in the same
     way as in mwm, ie. Iconify (aka Minimize) would be greyed out once the
     window is iconified.  In the same vein, we could then have a Restore,
     as mwm has which would be greyed out when the window is already
     restored, but would be active when the window is iconified or maximised
     in any way.
     A slighty different approach might be applied to (Un)Stick seeing as it
     is a two-state option, rather than the three-or-more-state option which
     minimize/restore/maximize/etc. is.  In this case, the text of the
     option might change - ie. if the window is "stuck", the option might
     say "Unstick", and if it is "free", the option might say "Stick"...

  3) Programs that use the Motif system of adding menu items to the system
     menu of the window do not work.  A Motif program can also then activate
     and deactivate those menu items using the WM_PROTOCOLS atom.

  4) The IconBox functionality in 1.24 seems to line up icons on their
     top-left corner.  If the icons are different sizes and shapes this
     looks very ragged.  I'm not sure however what a better strategy would
     be, other than my next suggestion for an enhancement...

  5) Add an option to the IconBox functionality that applies gridding to the
     icons based on the size of them.  This allows the user to easily drag
     icons around and have them line up nicely.  Perhaps the first step
     would be to just set a grid size in pixels, rather than base it on the
     size of the icons themselves.  I guess mwm kind of cheats here by
     forcing all icons to be the same size - it makes gridding rather easy.
     If this is added, then the following could be an enhancement to it:

      o Force no more than one icon to a grid position - thus if the user
        drops an icon into a grid position that is already occupied, it is
        dropped instead into the nearest empty grid position.

  6) Another nice feature would be to allow icon names to stay expanded
     whilst they do not have focus.

Any comments anyone ?  If I get a chance in my new job, and some of these
haven't been added, I wouldn't mind getting my hands dirty.    ;-)

BTW, thanks Rob and Chuck for your commitment.

Cheers,
  Jonathan.

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Jonathan Monahan - X/Motif Systems Programmer, GUI Technology Group    |
|           Micro Focus Ltd., 26 West St., Newbury, Berks., RG13 1JT, UK  |
|  Email: [email-masked]  or  IBMMAIL(GBHFFTHF)                          |
|  Telephone: <44> (01635) 565517 (Direct line)                           |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Geek code: (see WWW: http://krypton.mankato.msus.edu/~hayden/geek.html) |
|  GCS d>++ s+:- a- C+++ UACHUV++++ P+ L E--- W++ N+++ w O- M- V !PS !PE  |
|  Y PGP- t- 5? !X R- tv- b++ ?DI D++ G++ e++ h--- r+++ z+++              |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
--
To unsubscribe from the list, send "unsubscribe fvwm" in the body of a
message to [email-masked].
To report problems, send mail to [email-masked].