How to remember what is where [Re: FVWM: Is there a way to ...]

[Michael Großer]

Lucio Chiappetti wrote:
> On Mon, 20 Jun 2016, lee wrote:
> 
>> Interesting :)  It seems very confusing, though.  How do you remember
>> what is where?  I have a plain setup with just 6x6 pages and many times
>> have to flip between them to find the particular page I want to go to.
> 
> Well, after a long time working with 2 desktops each 2x2 pages, a while
> ago I junked the idea of separate desktops and pages. Now I have only 7
> desktops each of 1 page (well, I have buttons to switch them to 2x1 1x2
> and 2x2 but I'd never used them).
> 
> I have the pager almost invariably exposed, and know which desk I am in
> because it is highlighted in the pager in a different colour.
> 
> Three of the desks are named Mail Web and Net, the other are ABCD. I
> know in which desk I am also by a label in the bottom right corner, and
> by the background colour of the root window.
> 
> Although I have root menu entries and keyboard accelerators to switch
> desktops, I almost invariably do it clicking on the pager,
> 
> To know which application is in which desk, I usually rely on habits
> (mail is in Mail, browser is in Web, virtual machines if any are in Net
> etc.) and on the miniicons in the pager,
> 
> In the rare case I forgot what is where (e.g. for the xclipboard, or
> because the window is hidden), I use MB2 bound to FvwmWinList, which
> lists all my windows by title, so I can switch there easily,
> 
> I do use a lot the "sticky" mode of the window menu, to move a window
> across desktops (I make it sticky so it appears on all, switch to the
> final desktop, and unstick it), however I have also functions in the
> window menu to move the window to a specific desktop and I use them
> sometimes.
> 
> 
> You can get a flavour of the old and new approaches (and the configs) in
> http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/WWW/Opinions/window.html

My approach to remember where I am is similar: I have habits. Each
special application and each topic gets the same place every time.

At work, where I deal with many different applications and topics,
my habits involve:

- Desktop cluster 1, desk 3, page 4:
  --> Thunderbird (Icedove)

- Desktop cluster 1, desk 9, page 1
  --> Lotus Notes (32bit app running via chroot)

- Desktop cluster 1, desk 9, page 2, 6 and 10:
  --> Some SSH sessions on the Xen server to monitor the
   server (free -m -t, top, xentop_wide)

- Desktop cluster 3, desk 12:
  - Language tools, usually:
- page 3, 7 and 11 are dict.cc
- page 4, 8 and 12 are dict.leo.org
- page 2, 6 and 10 for the German thesaurus of dict.tu-chemnitz.de
- page 1 and 5 for Google and Bing (for Grammar)

- Desktop cluster 1:
  - 12 desks (144 pages) are more application specific and less topic specific
- desk 1 and 2 (24 pages) for doing software tests
- desk 3 (12 pages) for Icedove, clipboards and Mail related stuff
- desk 4 (12 pages) contains SSH sessions to my mail servers of my test 
scenario
- desk 5, page 1 contains a copy template for Jira
- desk 6 was used for Bugzilla in the past, was empty for some years and is
  used for Confluence now
- desk 7 is for volatile notes
- desk 8 (12 pages) is for Jira issues (is heavily used now)

- Desktop cluster 2:
  - is for to do lists, protocols and agendas (to organize my work)
- mostly, desk 9 is for organizing and 3 pages are usually enough there
- desk 10 is for protocolling
- the other 10 desks are most of the time unused and thus are
  cushion (buffer) for unexpected events

- Desktop cluster 3:
  - is for looking up things and to surf in the web
- desk 12 is for language tools (see above)
- desk 9 with its 12 pages is for weather reports of different providers 
(different web sites)
- desk 11 usually is for Wikipedia sessions
- desk 10 is for Google search engine sessions
- all other desks of cluster 3 I use when I heavily have to investigate
  and research into something

- Desktop cluster 4:
  - is reserved vor system monitoring and for interfaces to other computers
- desk 1 and desk 2 were for my VNC sessions to Linux
  computers (and are mostly empty now, because VNC turned
  out to be very glitchy / accident-sensitive)
- desk 3 is a remmina session to the Windows machine that contains
  XenCenter
- desk 5, page 1 contains the Trintiy version of ksysguard
- desk 5, page 2 contains an xterm window with a running top

- Desktop cluster 5 and 6:
  - These are the 24 desks (288 pages) where I spend the most amount
of my working time
- cluster 5, desk 1, 2, 3 and 4 contain the documentation
  of the automated test scenario
- cluster 5, desk 5, 6, 7 and 8 give me access to the different
  servers of the automated test scenario (usually Firefox windows)
- cluster 9, 10, 11 and 12 are cushion (buffer) for the case that
  I need more space
- cluster 6, desk 1, 2, 3 and 4 give me access to the different
  servers of the automated 

Re: FVWM: Is there a way to ignore other windows when placing one?

[Thomas Adam]

On 22 Jun 2016 1:24 a.m., "lee"  wrote:
>
> Thomas Adam  writes:
>
> > On 10 October 2015 at 11:53, lee  wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> the subject pretty much says it:
> >>
> >> Can I somehow make it so that fvwm ignores particular windows when
> >> figuring out where to place a new one?
> >
> > Adding a style to ignore windows from placements is the way to go.
> > I'll do this later on.  Would be useful with MinoverlapPlacement, for
> > instance.
>
> Oh, that would be awesome!
>
> How do you think about the idea of possibly giving each window a
> stacking priority?  It might allow for a more fine-grained control
> across all windows than a style could provide.

EWMH defines this, and there's Layers.

Thomas Adam

Re: FVWM: Is there a way to ignore other windows when placing one?

[lee]

Thomas Adam  writes:

> On 10 October 2015 at 11:53, lee  wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> the subject pretty much says it:
>>
>> Can I somehow make it so that fvwm ignores particular windows when
>> figuring out where to place a new one?
>
> Adding a style to ignore windows from placements is the way to go.
> I'll do this later on.  Would be useful with MinoverlapPlacement, for
> instance.

Oh, that would be awesome!

How do you think about the idea of possibly giving each window a
stacking priority?  It might allow for a more fine-grained control
across all windows than a style could provide.


-- 
After using i3 for a while, I totally realized that it is the job of
the window manger to mange the windows, literally.  It is, by all
means, /not/ the job of the user.  Once you realized this, you can see
the irony of calling an operating system "Windows", and you even have
to say they did a good job with that.

Re: FVWM: Recommend Config for Fluxbox user

[Tim Johnson]

* Tim Johnson  [160621 07:30]:
<...> > Up to Fvwm version 2.6.6 you could use the "Setup Form" in the Builtin 
> > Menu (single left click anywhere on the desktop). A good starting 
> > configuration is
> > - FvwmIconMan
> > - FvwmPager
> > - FvwmTaskBar
> > 
> > or
> > 
> > - FvwmButtons
> > 
> > Mark them, click "Copy ...", "Restart ..." and you have it.
> > > 
> > >   But, from that I was not even able to grok how to close a window. Or 
> > > get a
> > >   window menu. 
> > 
> > After a Fvwm restart the windows have now some buttons:
> > left:  a minus => shows a window menu
> > right: a dot => minimize and a square => maximize
> > 
> > Hope this helps.
  That's what I needed. The essential bootstrap. I'm good to go..
  thank you
-- 
Tim 
http://www.akwebsoft.com, http://www.tj49.com

Re: FVWM: Recommend Config for Fluxbox user

[Tim Johnson]

* Thomas Funk  [160621 01:07]:
> "Tim Johnson"  wrote:
> >   Sorry about the mixup. On my system, .fvwm is created on the first
> >   invocation and file Version is contain in that directory.
> > 
> >   For those unfamiliar with fluxbox, I could just use some config
> >   that enables easy access to window menus. With the vanilla config,
> >   I couldn't even find a way to close a window (other than
> >   terminating the child app).
> 
> Up to Fvwm version 2.6.6 you could use the "Setup Form" in the Builtin 
> Menu (single left click anywhere on the desktop). A good starting 
> configuration is
> - FvwmIconMan
> - FvwmPager
> - FvwmTaskBar
> 
> or
> 
> - FvwmButtons
> 
> Mark them, click "Copy ...", "Restart ..." and you have it.
> > 
> >   But, from that I was not even able to grok how to close a window. Or get a
> >   window menu. 
> 
> After a Fvwm restart the windows have now some buttons:
> left:  a minus => shows a window menu
> right: a dot => minimize and a square => maximize
> 
> Hope this helps.
  Thank you Thomas. 
  I know this will help. I'll get to it shortly.
  regards
-- 
Tim 
http://www.akwebsoft.com, http://www.tj49.com

Re: FVWM: Recommend Config for Fluxbox user

[Thomas Funk]

"Tim Johnson"  wrote:
>   Sorry about the mixup. On my system, .fvwm is created on the first
>   invocation and file Version is contain in that directory.
> 
>   For those unfamiliar with fluxbox, I could just use some config
>   that enables easy access to window menus. With the vanilla config,
>   I couldn't even find a way to close a window (other than
>   terminating the child app).

Up to Fvwm version 2.6.6 you could use the "Setup Form" in the Builtin 
Menu (single left click anywhere on the desktop). A good starting 
configuration is
- FvwmIconMan
- FvwmPager
- FvwmTaskBar

or

- FvwmButtons

Mark them, click "Copy ...", "Restart ..." and you have it.
> 
>   But, from that I was not even able to grok how to close a window. Or get a
>   window menu. 

After a Fvwm restart the windows have now some buttons:
left:  a minus => shows a window menu
right: a dot => minimize and a square => maximize

Hope this helps.

Another possibility is to install Fvwm-Crystal or Fvwm-Nightshade to
get a full featured configuration of Fvwm.

-- Thomas --

Re: FVWM: Is there a way to ignore other windows when placing one?

[Lucio Chiappetti]

On Mon, 20 Jun 2016, lee wrote:


Interesting :)  It seems very confusing, though.  How do you remember
what is where?  I have a plain setup with just 6x6 pages and many times
have to flip between them to find the particular page I want to go to.


Well, after a long time working with 2 desktops each 2x2 pages, a while 
ago I junked the idea of separate desktops and pages. Now I have only 7
desktops each of 1 page (well, I have buttons to switch them to 2x1 1x2 
and 2x2 but I'd never used them).


I have the pager almost invariably exposed, and know which desk I am in 
because it is highlighted in the pager in a different colour.


Three of the desks are named Mail Web and Net, the other are ABCD. I know 
in which desk I am also by a label in the bottom right corner, and by the 
background colour of the root window.


Although I have root menu entries and keyboard accelerators to switch 
desktops, I almost invariably do it clicking on the pager,


To know which application is in which desk, I usually rely on habits (mail 
is in Mail, browser is in Web, virtual machines if any are in Net etc.) 
and on the miniicons in the pager,


In the rare case I forgot what is where (e.g. for the xclipboard, or 
because the window is hidden), I use MB2 bound to FvwmWinList, which lists 
all my windows by title, so I can switch there easily,


I do use a lot the "sticky" mode of the window menu, to move a window 
across desktops (I make it sticky so it appears on all, switch to the 
final desktop, and unstick it), however I have also functions in the 
window menu to move the window to a specific desktop and I use them 
sometimes.



You can get a flavour of the old and new approaches (and the configs) in
http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/WWW/Opinions/window.html

--

Lucio Chiappetti - INAF/IASF - via Bassini 15 - I-20133 Milano (Italy)
For more info : http://www.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/personal.html

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