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

From: Dominik Vogt <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 1 Aug 1999 06:30:05 +0200

On Fri, Jul 30, 1999 at 11:13:36AM -0500, Paul E. Johnson wrote:
> 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.  

We're always eager to hear comments from new users. Why don't you
write a few lines to describe that since you know best what you
would have liked to see in the man page. I will out it in the
appropriate place then.

> 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.

We - the authors - think a bit differently about the man page. In my
eyes (and I think most of the other developers will agree) it's quite
lousy. It's much too large and not nicely structured.

> 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

We are working on a web page with screen shots. Could you please
convert it to .gif format and send it to me? I'll add it to that
page then.

> 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?

No.

> 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?

No, although some work is going on there.

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

No.

> 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?

Not really, but you could use only the pixmaps without text and mini
icons. You would have to draw the text of the menu items into the
pixmaps and you won't be able to hilight the text.

> 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.

I don't use it myself, so I'm only guessing. It seems that FvwmIconBox
has an icon representation of *every* open application in the box as
long as the application has the 'NoIcon' style set. I can't see a way
to remove de-iconified applications from the icon box. The are several
other modules to manage icons/windows: FvwmTaskBar, FvwmWinList,
FvwmIconMan and the builtin IconBox style. I recommend you try
the 'IconBox' style and/or FvwmIconMan.

Bye

Dominik ^_^

--
Dominik Vogt, [email-masked]
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---

From: Scott Scriven <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 02 Aug 1999 13:43:58 -0600

> convert it to .gif format and send it to me? I'll add it to that

Why .gif?  For most recent (fancy) desktops, jpeg looks better and has a
smaller file size.  Or, for lossless compression, .png works well.

But it's really not important; I'm just nit-picking.  :)

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---

From: Dominik Vogt <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 04:26:08 +0200

> smaller file size.  Or, for lossless compression, .png works well.

Simply because all our screenshots are already in .gif format.
There were some reasons for choosing gif, but I don't remeber
them and I really don't care either.

Bye

Dominik ^_^

-- 
Dominik Vogt, Hewlett-Packard GmbH, Dept. BVS
Herrenberger Str.130, 71034 Boeblingen, Germany
phone: 07031/14-4596, fax: 07031/14-3883, [email-masked]
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---

From: Dominik Vogt <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 04:26:08 +0200

Bye

Dominik ^_^