Subject: FVWM: Comment on FvwmIconMan

From: Kai Grossjohann <[email-masked]>
Date: 01 Oct 1996 09:38:39 +0200

Good morning,

thanks to the new SendToModule command and some GREAT support added to
FvwmIconMan, I can have the function I most sorely missed from *twm: I
can now move up and down in the icon manager with the keyboard.
Here's what I have in my .fvwm2rc file (snarfed right out of the man
page for FvwmIconMan, modified slightly):

Key j A	3 SendToModule FvwmIconMan sendcommand focus focus + 1 Focus
Key k A	3 SendToModule FvwmIconMan sendcommand focus focus - 1 Focus

I'm a nasty boy now: I'm still not quite satisfied.  When I hit, say,
Alt-j, the window below the current window in the icon manager is
given focus.  The *twm icon managers allowed me to define one key to
move among the windows and another to specify one.  (Move the
selection up and down the icon manager -- WITHOUT any window being
raised or deiconified or anything -- and then hit a special key to
deiconify, raise and warp to the window currently pointed to.)

Is there anything I can do to achieve the same behavior with
FvwmIconMan?

Thanks a lot for this feature as it is, though, it's great!
kai
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---

From: Brady Montz <[email-masked]>
Date: 01 Oct 1996 14:07:27 -0700

> Thanks a lot for this feature as it is, though, it's great!

As you know, there are three ways you can specify a button: abolutely
(like button 4), relative to the focused button, or relative to the
selected button. In the current state of things, when the cursor is
outside of the manager window, there is no selected button, so 
you can't use that in your SendToModule command, and that's what you
(and I) would like to be able to do. I left that ouy cause I couldn't
decide which would be better: to remember what the last selected button
was, and use that if none is selected, or start at someweel known place, 
like button 0. 

The other problem with using the focus button for this is that you can't
give the focus to an iconified window, so any iconified window will
act as a barrier. 

I'm probably going to switch to using the syntax that the Next and Prev
commands use, but I still haven't figured out an elegant way to handle
the complications of: specifying the "current" button from which the
command is relative, and specifying the manager as well as the window.

As to the second one, FvwmIconMan is basically a two dimensional window
list, so the simple syntax that Next uses isn't quite sufficient.

So, since you're a consumer, what kinda of behaviour and syntax would 
you like?

-- 
 Brady Montz
 [email-masked]

---

From: Kai Grossjohann <[email-masked]>
Date: 02 Oct 1996 09:35:48 +0200

>>>>> Brady Montz writes:

  Brady> As you know, there are three ways you can specify a button:
  Brady> abolutely (like button 4), relative to the focused button, or
  Brady> relative to the selected button. In the current state of
  Brady> things, when the cursor is outside of the manager window,
  Brady> there is no selected button, so you can't use that in your
  Brady> SendToModule command, and that's what you (and I) would like
  Brady> to be able to do. I left that ouy cause I couldn't decide
  Brady> which would be better: to remember what the last selected
  Brady> button was, and use that if none is selected, or start at
  Brady> someweel known place, like button 0.

I think I don't really want to start from the button that has last
been selected.  Here's what I want:

  - Simple case: There is a window that has focus and it is displayed
    in IconMan.  In this case, start moving relative to the button
    corresponding to the window that currently has focus.
  - Complicated case: No window has the focus or the window that has
    focus isn't displayed in IconMan.  In this case, the best thing
    would be, I guess, to remember which of the windows displayed in
    FvwmIconMan last had focus and to start moving relative to that.

I think this is a rather intuitive behavior, especially for the
"simple" case.  For the complex case, one could imagine a different
behavior: pretend the window that currently has focus were inserted
into the IconMan and start moving relative to that position (which is
between two buttons, of course).  For an alphabetically sorted list,
this could conceivably be what someone wants, but I find it strange.

  Brady> The other problem with using the focus button for this is
  Brady> that you can't give the focus to an iconified window, so any
  Brady> iconified window will act as a barrier.

I didn't want to move the focus, I wanted to move the selection and
have a key that focuses the selected window.  To clarify: suppose the
button corresponding to the window that currently has focus is red;
suppose the selected button is green.  Suppose further that the
IconMan contains buttons for windows A to E in that order, and that C
is red (ie has focus).  Suppose I hit CursorUp, then I want the red
button to disappear, and I want B to be green.  Then hitting
CursorDown should move the green to C, then to D.  Then hitting Return
should focus D so that D becomes red.  See?

  Brady> I'm probably going to switch to using the syntax that the
  Brady> Next and Prev commands use, but I still haven't figured out
  Brady> an elegant way to handle the complications of: specifying the
  Brady> "current" button from which the command is relative, and
  Brady> specifying the manager as well as the window.

I have no strong feelings about the syntax.  Choose whichever syntax
you like.  As long as there is an example in the man page that shows
me how to get what I want, I'm happy :-)

Did I explain clearly enough so that you can understand what I'm
trying to say?  What do you think about my suggestion?  Can this be
implemented?

regards,
kai

---

From: Brady Montz <[email-masked]>
Date: 02 Oct 1996 11:15:24 -0700

> I didn't want to move the focus, I wanted to move the selection and

I know, I was just rambling and giving yet another reason why you don't
want to move the focus.

> trying to say?  What do you think about my suggestion?  Can this be

It can be implemented rather easily, but I'm not sure when I'll have the time
to do it.