Subject: FVWM: new user experiences/makeing fvwm2 work like WindowMaker

From: "Paul E. Johnson" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 11:13:36 -0500

Greetings from a new user!

I've been a WindowMaker/Enlightenment user for a couple of years, but
some trouble came up with desktop management in a program I need for my
research, so I had to join the fvwm club.

Some things about fvwm2 are quite befuddling and I think you could save
new users trouble.  I may have missed something obvious, but I can't
find anywhere in your documentation or faq a simple explanation of how
users are supposed to create desktops and navigate them.  Just about
every other windowmanager comes with preconfigured key combinations to
change desktops.  It is hard to understand why fvwm2 makes it so
mysterious when so many other options are written out in such detail.  

Anyway, I set out to make fvwm2 behave as much like WindowMaker as
possible, and in doing that I discovered the true beauty of fvwm2.  Many
many features can be customized.  I found editing the .fvwm2rc file to
be somewhat troublesome because of the problem of "ordering" as commands
override each other.  Still, most of that resolves itself with some
patience. The man page is really quite excellent and I compliment the
authors.

I think I've gone about as far as I can go in fiddling the .fvwm2rc file
and the immitation-WM functionality is not bad.  I've got the staples of
the WindowMaker style interface, including:

   Alt-number to switch to desktop number
   Alt-tab    to cycle (and circulateRaise applications)
   Alt-left click anywhere in a window to move it.
   Alt-right click anywhere to resize
   left Double click title bar to shade
   right click title bar to show window ops menu.

I've got buttons with pixmaps I ripped from the Enlightenment ShinyMetal
theme.  I've gotten rid of the motif style as much as possible.

The Wharf can do most of the "look" of the WM dock, but has none of the
feel and ease of configurability. Too bad.

I took a screenshot and put it here:
http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~pauljohn/WindowMaker/FVWM2likeWM.jpg
And my .fvwm2rc is here
http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~pauljohn/WindowMaker/fvwm2rc

There are some things I cannot figure out, perhaps somebody in this list
can help me.

Question 1.  Can fvwm2 be compiled to support png or tiff format
pixmaps?

Question 2. I figured how to tile pixmaps in the title bar, but I can't
figure how to scale them. Is it not possible?

Question 3.  Is it possible to make the side handles have width 0 but
have the bottom resize bar have with 5?

Question 4.  I would like to do something pretty with the root menu.  I
was trying to put a pixmap on the background for each menu item, as in
WindowMaker or Enlightenment. But I couldn't make it work.  Possible?

Question 5.  I had an entirely unhappy experience with FvwmIconBox. 
With gnome running, it is filled up with grey squares which, I think,
represent the gmc icons on the desktop.  Can someone give me a few
pointers on what this module is supposed to do? I imagined it would be
like the icon box in Enlightenment, which is empty until you minimize
something, and then it shows in the box.

-- 
Paul E. Johnson        			email: [email-masked]
Dept. of Political Science     		http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~pauljohn
University of Kansas           		Office: (785) 864-9086
Lawrence, Kansas 66045         		FAX: (785) 864-5700
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