Fvwm Goodstuff Manual Page
NAME
GoodStuff - the FVWM button panel module
SYNOPSIS
GoodStuff is spawned by fvwm, so no command line invocation will
work.
DESCRIPTION
The GoodStuff module provides a button panel which sits on the X
terminal's root window. The user can press the buttons at any time, and
trigger invocation of a user-specified command by the window manager.
GoodStuff only works when fvwm is used as the window manager.
The button panel can be of any configuration or geometry, and
can have monochrome or color icons to represent the actions which would
be invoked.
COPYRIGHTS
The GoodStuff program, and the concept for interfacing this module
to the Window Manager, are all original work by Robert Nation.
Copyright 1993, Robert Nation. No guarantees or warranties or
anything are provided or implied in any way whatsoever. Use this program
at your own risk. Permission to use this program for any purpose is
given, as long as the copyright is kept intact.
INITIALIZATION
During initialization, GoodStuff will search for a configuration
file which describes the button panel geometry, color, icons, and
actions. The format of this files will be described later. The
configuration file will be the one which fvwm used during its
initialization.
If the GoodStuff executable is linked to another name, ie ln
-s GoodStuff Term Stuff, then another module called TermStuff can be
started, with a completely different configuration than GoodStuff,
simply by changing the keywords Good??? to Term???. This way multiple
button-bars can be used.
INVOCATION
GoodStuff can be invoked by inserting
the line `Module GoodStuff' in the .fvwmrc file. This can be placed on a
line by itself, if GoodStuff is to be spawned during fvwm's
initialization, or can be bound to a menu or mouse button or keystroke
to invoke it later. Fvwm will search directory specified in the Module
Path configuration option to attempt to locate GoodStuff.
CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
The following options can be placed in the .fvwmrc file
*GoodStuffGeometry geometry
Specifies the GoodStuff window
location and/or size. If the size is not specified, GoodStuff will
auto-size itself in a reasonable manner. The geometry is a standard X11
window geometry specification.
*GoodStuffFont font
Specifies the font to be used for labeling the buttons.
*GoodStuffRows rows
Specifies the number of rows of buttons to be created. If
unspecified, 2 rows will be used.
*GoodStuffColumns columns
Specifies the number of columns of buttons to be created. If
unspecified, the number of columns will be set to the number of buttons
requested, divided by the number of rows. If both the rows and columns
are specified, but do not specify as many buttons as are defined, then
the users columns specification will be ignored.
*GoodStuffFore color
Specifies the color for button label text and monochrome icons.
*GoodStuffBack color
Specifies the color for the buttons.
*GoodStuff[(w x h)] label icon command
Specifies a window manager built-in command, as described in the
fvwm man page, which should be executed when a button is pressed. The
label field is the text which will be written on the button. The icon
field specifies an X11 bitmap file or XPM color icon file, containing
the icon to display on the button. GoodStuff will search through the
path specified in the fvwm IconPath or PixmapPath configuration items to
find the icon file. If the optional (w x h) is specified, then this
button will be w times the normal button width and h times the normal
button height. If label is "-" then the button label will not be
displayed.
If command is an fvwm Exec command, then the button will
remain pushed in until a window whose name or class matches the quoted
portion of the command is encountered. This is intended to provide
visual feed-back to the user that the action he has requested will be
performed. If the quoted portion contains no characters, then the button
will pop out immediately. Note that users can continue pressing the
button, and re-executing the command, even when it looks "pressed in."
A single extension to the fvwm built-in command set is
provided. A command of the form: *GoodStuff junk clock.xpm Swallow
"Clock" rclock & will cause Good Stuff to spawn an rclock process, and
capture the first window whose name or resource is "Clock", and display
it in the button-bar. This is handy for applications like xclock,
xbiff, and xload. Modules can be swallowed by specifying Swallow Module
instead of just "swallow" NOTE: if you use xclock for this application,
you will want to specify xclock -padding 0.
SAMPLE CONFIGURATION
The following are excepts from a .fvwmrc file which describe
GoodStuff initialization commands:
###########################################################
#
Load any modules which should be started during
# fvwm initialization
ModulePath /usr/lib/X11/fvwm:/usr/bin/X11
Module GoodStuff
# Make goodstuff title-bar-less, sticky, and give it an icon
NoTitle GoodStuff
Sticky GoodStuff
Icon "GoodStuff" toolbox.xpm
###########################################################
#Definitions
used by the modules
*GoodStuffFore Black
*GoodStuffBack #908090
*GoodStuffGeometry -135-5
*GoodStuffRows 1
*GoodStuffFont -adobe-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
*GoodStuff Resize resize.xpm Resize
*GoodStuff Move arrows2.xpm Move
*GoodStuff Lower Down Lower
*GoodStuff Raise Up Raise
*GoodStuff Kill bomb.xpm Destroy
*GoodStuff Dopey rterm.xpm Exec "big_win" xterm -T big_win
-geometry 80x50&
*GoodStuff Snoopy rterm.xpm Exec "small_win" xterm -T small_wi &
*GoodStuff Xcalc rcalc.xpm Exec "Calculator" xcalc &
*GoodStuff XMag magnifying_glass2.xpm Exec "xmag" xmag &
*GoodStuff Mail mail2.xpm Exec "xmh" xmh &
*GoodStuff(4x1) - whatever SwallowModule "Fvwm Pager" FvwmPager 0 3
The last line is a little tricky - it spawns an FvwmPager
module, and captures it to display in a quadruple width button. Since
"-" is used for the button label, the Pager will be resized to be as
big as possible within the button's borders. "whatever", of course, is a
non-existent icon file, and will be ignored by GoodStuff.
AUTHOR
Robert Nation
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