Subject: FVWM: .Xresources, .fvwm2rc, and .xsession

From: Jason Wells <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 08 Dec 1997 20:47:10 +0000

Having been a X user at the local university I never knew how much actually
went into creating a _good_ interface. Now that I am writing my own
interface I see that there is much work to do to get it right.

Many interface options that can be set in X can also be set in fvwm2. I
will give an example for the sake of discussion. For example: the
sample.fvwm2rc file has an init function to perform a root window change.
This same behavior can be accomplished via .xsession.

I do foresee a couple issues. 

I use X at home, work, and school. I would like to design my interface so
that it is most portable between platforms. The problem is that fvwm is not
on all three locations. I use fvwm at home and would like my set up
elsewhere to be as similar as it can be to the home box.

The management of interface setting could easily become insane given the
possibilty of putting settings in any combination of different dot-files. I
have already tried to figured out why in the heck my xterm scrollbar as set
in .Xresources wasn't working anymore. (I got it figured out.) How does one
manage these settings in a sane manner?

Given the multiplicity of ways to create a certain interface, what other
issues are there that I might consider? Prior to installing FreeBSD at home
I never had to think much about interface.

Thanks,
Jason Wells
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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 08 Dec 97 16:07:40 -0500

> I do foresee a couple issues. 
[ snip ]

And then some.

The configuration of an X workstation is a problem that needs addressing.
I don't think things like CDE have really solved them.  Rather, some way
of managing it without depending on a limited-configure setup like CDE is
needed.

It is relatively easy to write a program to manage any one individual
file.  But across multiple files, most of which are totally different from
each other, it is much harder.

Still, I wish something like that existed... maybe something of a
theme-editor for X that understand the differenent files and how they
related.  I have seen anything written about this in any kind of serious
detail.

---

From: Bruce Stephens <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 09 Dec 1997 09:58:46 +0000

[email-masked] said:
> related.  I have seen anything written about this in any kind of
> serious detail. 

RedHat 5.0 (and possibly earlier versions, although I don't think it was in 
4.1) has wmconfig, which seems to be somewhat along those lines.  I haven't 
really tried it yet, but the documentation seems to suggest that you can write 
one file defining menus, icons and so on, and get it translated for a number 
of different window managers.  AnotherStep (another RedHat thing), apparently 
uses this, and lets users change between a couple of styles of desktop.

As I say, I don't know how much these do, but they're probably worth a look.  
Both are available in source from a suitable RedHat mirror (see 
<URL:http://www.redhat.com/mirrors.html>).

---

From: Kai Grossjohann <[email-masked]>
Date: 09 Dec 1997 13:05:13 +0100

>>>>> On Mon, 08 Dec 1997, Jason Wells said:

  Jason> Many interface options that can be set in X can also be set
  Jason> in fvwm2. I will give an example for the sake of
  Jason> discussion. For example: the sample.fvwm2rc file has an init
  Jason> function to perform a root window change.  This same behavior
  Jason> can be accomplished via .xsession.

Well, welcome to the world of Unix: ``It must be a config file
somewhere, but *which* config file??''  :-|

The easiest thing would be to install fvwm at work (school?), too.
It's not difficult.  Just follow the instructions.  But do read them
carefully -- they're a bit terse so if you miss a word, you might have
missed too much!

-- 
Kai Grossjohann, Informatik VI        [email-masked]
Uni Dortmund, D-44221 Dortmund        http://ls6-www.cs.uni-dortmund.de/
                                      Vox +49 231 755 5670, Fax -2405
I like both kinds of music.
--
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From: Jim Knoble <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 11:02:19 -0500 (EST)

On Tue, 9 Dec 1997, Bruce Stephens wrote:

: RedHat 5.0 (and possibly earlier versions, although I don't think it was in 
: 4.1) has wmconfig, which seems to be somewhat along those lines.  I haven't 

Nope---this is only in RHL-5.0.  RHL-4.0 to 4.2 had the m4-based
configuration `TheNextLevel' for fvwm{2,95}, and earlier releases just
used fvwm-1.24r.

--jim

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