Subject: FVWM: How to do a twm window placement feature in fvwm2?

From: Chris Siebenmann <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 18:08:20 -0500

twm has a very useful feature where if you click Button3 while placing
a new window it, well, let me quote the manpage (which says it better
than me):
	Clicking pointer Button3 (usually the right pointer button)
	will give the window its current position but attempt to make
	it long enough to touch the bottom the screen.
(twm clips the new window size based on sizing constraints, obviously).
I find this a really convenient thing for easily creating large windows,
must faster than placing and then resizing and much more convenient than
having a large number of 'create (this|that|the other) in (80x24 80x50
80xwhatever)' menu options.

 Inserting this in fvwm2 likely requires source code hacks, since I
don't think I've seen any options to control how window placement is
done (not even an option to turn off keyboard control of it, which I'd
just love[*]). Does anyone have suggestions on the best place and way to
add this option in the fvwm2 source? Is there a clever way of achieving
this in fvwm2 as it stands? Has anyone already done this?

	- cks
[*: people who are heads-down typists, like me, can get hit by the
    asynchronous nature of new window placement stealing our keyboard
    input halfway through a sentence we're typing; one can even have
    a new window placed inadvertently if a return keystroke is stolen
    at just the wrong moment. Since I don't normally use the keyboard
    placement, I'd love an option to turn it off.]
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---

From: [email-masked] (A.J.vanWerven)
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 09:58:07 +0100 (MET)

>  Inserting this in fvwm2 likely requires source code hacks, since I

I guess you're right about that.
Fvwm is very configurable, but not completely programmable :)

> not even an option to turn off keyboard control of it

Sure there is !
There are 2 possibilities:

1) Use something like
Key A C Left CursorMove Left (or something alike, I don't remember by heart)

2) You could use xmodmap (if available on your system) to completely map
the mouse to the keyboard.
Then, you won't even need the mouse _buttons_ because they're on the keypad
already.

> Is there a clever way of achieving

As far as I know, nope.

> [*: people who are heads-down typists, like me,

Just try practicing a lot - it really helps !
I usually am a head-down typist too, but I try as much as I can to
force myself looking to the screen instead of the keyboard.
It does take some patience, if you're (just like I) used to looking to
the keyboard when typing.

Hope this helps,

CIAO !

A. van Werven
Dept. of Computer Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands
Phone: +31 6 54212683
E-mail: [email-masked]
URL: http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/~avwerven

Life would be easier if I had the source code.