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Old 03-09-2008, 01:23 AM   #1
shadowsnipes
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Window/Workspace List Popup software with Fluxbox


I'm using Fluxbox 1.0.0 on Slackware 12 built with imlib2 support (so png files can show up in my root menu, etc). What I am looking for is:

1) a popup menu when I want to switch windows
This should be similar to the one in KDE and Xfce if you use ALT-TAB, for instance, and should allow me to not select a window until I let go of the ALT button. Ideally, there would be icons for each window listed and the currently selected window would be outlined, but this is not crucial.

2) a popup menu when I want to list all workspaces and their respective windows.
Fluxbox almost already does what I want here. However, it has all the windows listed under a separate menu for each respective workspace. I want to be able to see all of them at once (ideally with icons, similar to what is available in KDE and Xfce).

If there is a way to accomplish these things natively in fluxbox then great. As of right now I don't know of any ways to do this other than putting together an ugly hack with something like xmessage. I can set my keyboard shortcuts to run any chain of commands, so running special software for these popups is not a problem.

Any suggestions for any light (on resources and on library usage - no KDE or GNOME libs!) software that can do this for me?

Thank you in advance for any responses.
 
Old 03-09-2008, 07:16 AM   #2
unSpawn
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shadowsnipes View Post
Any suggestions for any light (on resources and on library usage - no KDE or GNOME libs!) software that can do this for me?
Check out IceWM. Good shortcut support was one of the reasons I moved to it a long time ago.
 
Old 03-09-2008, 09:46 PM   #3
shadowsnipes
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unSpawn,

thanks for the reply. Fluxbox's shortcut support is extremely customizable. I can set keyboard shortcuts to anything pretty much, and I like the fact that I can switch keymodes on the fly as well (I don't think IceWM can do this). IceWM might be something that I try out in the future, but for now I want to see if I can find something that I can use with fluxbox, instead of using something other than fluxbox.

Any other suggestions?
 
Old 03-10-2008, 05:15 AM   #4
unSpawn
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Apparently I got it all wrong where it read "any suggestions". Sorry, no other suggestions.
 
Old 03-10-2008, 01:49 PM   #5
shadowsnipes
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Sorry, unSpawn. I should have specified that I prefer something that I can use with fluxbox (or another *box WM). I have a really nice configuration for it and I would prefer to make good use of it. However, if what I am looking for can't be done in fluxbox then I will probably check out IceWM. Again, I appreciate your response.

I wonder if I can use my config with OpenBox and if it does what I am looking for...
 
Old 03-21-2008, 11:56 AM   #6
shadowsnipes
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I found an example of what I was looking for: superswitcher
Unfortunately, the box I need this for does not have a Windows key. I might be able to use xmodmap to map my Fn key to it, but that may screw up other things...

I also tried out Openbox and liked it a lot. It is just as flexible as fluxbox and even has pipe menus, which are really cool. It also has the window/workspace switching popups that I want. However, it doesn't allow you to have icons in the root menu which I would prefer. It also doesn't have the AutoArrange action and does not allow grouping of windows. Also, even though there seems to be a script for converting themes, there is not one for converting all your preferences
 
Old 03-23-2008, 04:31 AM   #7
marrowsuck
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i just discovered "superswitcher". i was also looking for that kind of tool.
you can assign the capslockkey to switch windows with
Code:
$ superswitcher -C
 
Old 03-23-2008, 05:10 PM   #8
shadowsnipes
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marrowsuck,

how is superswitcher working for you? What WM and distro are you using with it? I found it to be a little buggy, but the author seems to be pretty active on the google wiki. I posted some problems and I received comments that same night!

The problem with assigning the caps lock to superswitcher is that you can't use the caps lock for anything else (even after you kill superswitcher) unless you remap it using xmodmap. I'm hoping the author will introduce a config file so that you can customize the tool for your own keybindings, color schemes, etc.

It is a tool with some great promise. I like how it lists the windows in the workspaces. It is very organized looking.
 
Old 03-24-2008, 10:36 AM   #9
marrowsuck
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I haven't used it much. No errors so far.
WM is fluxbox 1.0.0 on slackware-current.

The fact that superswitcher uses the Capslock-key doesn't bother me much, because I never use it for any other purpose. But the possibility to assign own keybindings would be nice.
Color-scheme is defined by gtk.

Its a great tool and I will definitley use it.
 
Old 03-24-2008, 08:27 PM   #10
shadowsnipes
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marrowsuck View Post
WM is fluxbox 1.0.0 on slackware-current.
That's what I am using. However, I built mine using the official slackBuild and I inlcuded imlib2 (used the slackBuilds.org script) support (so I can have icons in my root menu, for instance).
 
Old 03-24-2008, 08:43 PM   #11
shadowsnipes
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Oh, I forgot to mention that I also found another couple of possible solutions from the fluxbox mailing list.

For a popup for just the windows you can use bbkeys. It does not show icons, however.
Another solution I read about was someone decided to get a list of the windows using wmctrl and zenity. They bound a key to this:
Code:
wmctrl -ia `wmctrl -l | cut -d' ' -f1,4- | zenity --list --column Window | cut -d' ' -f1`
I think there is a slackBuild for wmctrl, but I think you need GNOME libs for zenity, so this is not a good solution for me.

The bad news is that one of the archived threads contained a response from one of the main developers where it was said that they did not think there was a need for this kind of stuff. So, it is very likely that fluxbox will never support these kinds of options.

As a result, it seems superswitcher is the best solution found thus far.
 
  


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