FvwmButtons
Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: Mar 9 1996
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NAME
FvwmButtons - the FVWM buttonbox module
SYNOPSIS
FvwmButtons is spawned by fvwm, so no command line invocation will work.
DESCRIPTION
The FvwmButtons module provides a window of buttons 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. FvwmButtons only works when fvwm is used as the window manager.
The buttonbox can be of any configuration or geometry, and can have
monochrome or color icons to represent the actions which would be
invoked.
INITIALIZATION
During initialization, FvwmButtons will search for a configuration
file which describes the buttonbox 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.
To use FvwmButtons with several different configurations, you can
invoke FvwmButtons with an optional parameter, which it will use
as its name instead (e.g "Module FvwmButtons SomeButtons").
SomeButtons will then read only the lines in the configuration file
starting with "*SomeButtons", and not the lines belonging to FvwmButtons.
You can also specify an optional configuration file to use instead of
the default fvwm configuration file, by giving a second argument which
is a filename. This will override the setting "*FvwmButtonsFile", see
below.
INVOCATION
FvwmButtons can be invoked by inserting the line 'Module FvwmButtons' in
the .fvwmrc file. This should be placed in the InitFunction if FvwmButtons
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 ModulePath configuration option to attempt
to locate FvwmButtons.
CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
The following options int the .fvwmrc file are understood by FvwmButtons:
- *FvwmButtonsBack color
-
Specifies the background color for the buttons. A relief and a shadow color
will also be calculated from this.
- *FvwmButtonsColumns 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.
- *FvwmButtonsFile filename
-
Specifies that the configuration for this button is found in the file
filename, which will have to be given with full pathname, or is
assumed to be in fvwm's startup directory. The configuration file is in
the same format as fvwm's configuration file, but each line is read as
if prefixed by "*FvwmButtons". Comments are given by starting a line with
"#", line continuation is done by ending a line with a "\".
- *FvwmButtonsFont font
-
Specifies the font to be used for labeling the buttons, or None.
- *FvwmButtonsFore color
-
Specifies the color used for button label text and monochrome icons.
- *FvwmButtonsFrame width
-
Specifies the width of the relief around each button. If this is given
as a negative number, the relief will at all times be the inverse of the
normal relief. In effect, you will get a sunken button, which is raised when
activated.
- *FvwmButtonsGeometry geometry
-
Specifies the FvwmButtons window location. The size should not be specified,
as FvwmButtons automatically chooses a size which gracefully accomodates
all its buttons. The geometry is a standard X11 window geometry specification.
- *FvwmButtonsPadding width height
-
The amount of free space between the relief of the button and its contents
is normally 2 pixels to the sides and 4 pixels above and below, except for
swallowed windows and containers, which are not padded at all, unless
given specific orders. This setting
specifies the default horizontal padding to be width pixels, and the
vertical padding to be height pixels.
- *FvwmButtonsRows rows
-
Specifies the number of rows of buttons to be created. If unspecified,
2 rows will be used.
- *FvwmButtons(options) [title icon command]
-
Specifies the contents of a button in the buttonbox.
The following options, separated by commas or whitespace, can be
given a button:
- widthxheight
-
The button will be width times the normal button width and height
times the normal button height.
- Action [(options)] command
-
Specifies an fvwm command to be executed when the button is activated
by pressing return or a mouse button. If command contains whitespace
it must be quoted. The current options are:
Mouse n - this action is only executed for mouse button n.
One actions can be defined for each mouse button, in addition to the
general action.
- Back color
-
Specifies the background color to be used drawing this box. A relief color
and a shadow color will also be calculated from this.
- Container [(options)]
-
Specifies that this button will contain a miniature buttonbox, more or less
equivalent to swallowing another FvwmButtons module. The options are the
same as can be given for a single button, but they affect all
the contained buttons. Options available for this use are Back, Font,
Fore, Frame and Padding. Flags for Title and Swallow options can
be set with Title(flags) and Swallow(flags.
You should also specify either "Columns width" or "Rows height",
or "Rows 2" will be assumed for purpose of arranging the buttons inside
the container. For an example, see the Sample configuration section.
The container button itself (separate from the contents) can take format
options like
Frame and Padding, and commands can be bound to it. This means
you can make a sensitive relief around a container, like
*FvwmButtons(2x2, Frame 5, Padding 2 2, Action Beep,\
Container(Frame 1))
Typically you will want to at least give the container a size setting
widthxheight.
- End
-
Specifies that no more buttons are defined for the current container, and
further buttons will be put in the container's parent. This option should
be given on a line by itself, i.e
*FvwmButtons(End)
- Font fontname
-
Specifies that the font fontname is to be used for labeling this button.
- Fore color
-
Specifies a color of the title and monochrome icons in this button.
- Frame width
-
The relief of the button will be width pixels wide. If width
is given as a negative number, the
relief will at all times be the inverse of the normal relief.
In effect, you will get a sunken button, which is raised when activated.
- Icon filename
-
The name of an X11 bitmap file or XPM color icon file, containing the
icon to display on the button. FvwmButtons will search through the path
specified in the fvwm IconPath or PixmapPath
configuration items to find the icon file.
- NoSize
-
This option specifies that this button will not be considered at all when
making the initial calculations of buttonsizes. Useful for the odd button
that gets just a couple of pixels to large to keep in line, and therefor
blows up your whole buttonbox. "NoSize" is equivalent to "Size 0 0".
- Padding width height
-
The amount of free space between the relief of the button and its contents
is normally 2 pixels to the sides and 4 pixels above and below, except
for swallowed windows and containers, which are by default not padded at all.
This option sets the horizontal padding to width and the vertical
padding to height.
- Size width height
-
Specifies that the contents of this button will require width by
height pixels, regardless of what size FvwmButtons calculates from
the icon and the title. A buttonbar with only swallowed windows will
not get very large without this option specified, as FvwmButtons does not
consider sizes for swallowing buttons. Note that this option gives the
minimum space assured; other buttons might require the buttonbox to use
larger sizes.
- Swallow [(flags)] hangon command
-
Causes FvwmButtons to execute command, and when a window matching the
name hangon appears, it is captured and swallowed into this button.
An example:
*FvwmButtons(Swallow XClock 'Exec xclock &')
will take the first window whose name, class or resource is "XClock" and
display it in the button. Modules can be swallowed by specifying
the module instead of 'Exec whatever', like:
*FvwmButtons(Swallow "FvwmPager" "FvwmPager 0 0")
The flags that can be given to swallow are:
NoClose / Close -
Specifies whether the swallowed program in this button will be unswallowed
or closed when FvwmButtons exit cleanly. "NoClose" can be combined with
"UseOld" to have windows survive restart of windowmanager. The default
setting is "Close".
NoHints / Hints -
Specifies whether hints from the swallowed program in this
button will be ignored or not, useful in forcing a window to resize itself
to fit its button. The default value is "Hints".
NoKill / Kill -
Specifies whether the swallowed program will be closed by killing it or by
sending a message to it. This can be useful in ending programs that
doesn't accept window manager protocol. The default value is "NoKill".
This has no effect if "NoClose" is specified.
NoRespawn / Respawn -
Specifies whether the swallowed program is to be respawn if it dies.
If "Respawn" is specified, the program will be respawned using the original
command. Use this option with care, the program might have a very
legitimate reason to die.
NoOld / UseOld -
Specifies whether the button will try to swallow an existing window matching
the hangon name before spawning one itself with command.
The default value is "NoOld".
"UseOld" can be combined with "NoKill" to have windows survive restart of
windowmanager. If you want FvwmButtons to swallow an old window, and not
spawn one itself if failing, let the command be "Nop":
*FvwmButtons(Swallow (UseOld) "Console" Nop)
If you want to be able to start it yourself, combine it with an action:
*FvwmButtons(Swallow (UseOld) "Console" Nop, \
Action `Exec "Console" console &`)
NoTitle / UseTitle -
Specifies whether the title of the button will be taken from the swallowed
window's title or not. If "UseTitle" is given, the title on the button will
change dynamically to reflect the window name. The default is "NoTitle".
- Title [(options)] name
-
Specifies the title which will be written on the button.
Whitespace can be included in the title by quoting it.
If a title at any time is to long for
its buttons, characters are chopped of one at a time until it fits.
If justify is "Right", the head is removed, otherwise its tail is
removed.
These options can be given to Title:
Center - The title will be centered horizontally. This is the default.
Left - The title will be justified to the left side.
Right - The title will be justified to the right side.
Side - This will cause the title to appear on the right hand side of
any icon or swallowed window, instead of below it which is the default.
If you use small icons, and combine this with the "Left" option, you can
get a look similar to fvwm's menus.
- Legacy fields [title icon command]
-
These fields are kept for compatibility with previous versions of
FvwmButtons, and their use is discouraged.
The title field is similar to the option
Title name. If the title field is "-", no title will be displayed.
The icon field is similar to the option
Icon filename. If the icon field is "-" no icon will be displayed.
The command field is similar to the option
Action command or alternatively Swallow "hangon" command.
- The command
-
Any fvwm command is recognized by FvwmButtons. See fvwm(1) for more info
on this. The Exec command has a small extension when used in Actions,
its syntax is here:
Exec ["hangon"] command
When FvwmButtons finds such an Exec command, the button will remain
pushed in until a window whose name or class matches the
qouted portion of the command is encountered. This is intended to
provide visual feedback to the user that the action he has requested
will be performed. If the qouted 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."
- Quoting
-
Any string which contains whitespace must be quoted. This include
commands.
Quoting can be done with any of the three quotation characters;
single quote:
'This is a "quote"',
double quote:
"It's another `quote'",
and backquote:
`This is a strange quote`.
The backquoting is purposeful
if you use a preprocessor like FvwmCpp and want it to get into your
commands, like this:
#define BG gray60
*FvwmButtons(Swallow "xload" `Exec xload -bg BG &`)
ARRANGEMENT ALGORITHM
FvwmButtons tries to arrange its buttons as best it can, by using
recursively, on each container including the buttonbox itself,
the following algorithm.
- Getting the size right
-
First it calculates the number of button unit areas it will need, by adding
the width times the height in buttons of each button. Containers are
for the moment considered a normal button.
Then it considers the given rows and columns arguments.
If the number of rows is given, it will calculate how many columns are needed,
and stick to that, unless columns is larger, in which case you will
get some empty space at the bottom of the buttonbox.
If the number of columns is given, it calculates how many rows it needs
to fit all the buttons.
If neither is given, it assumes you want two rows, and finds the number of
columns from that.
- Shuffling buttons
-
Now it has a large enough area to place the buttons in, all that is left is
to place them right. The algorithm assumes the buttons are all of unit
size, and places them in a left to right, top to bottom western fashion.
Then it looks at button 1, and considers: Is this button larger than normal?
If it isn't, the same thing is done for the next buttons.
When a button is found that is larger than 1x1, space must be provided for
it. The algorithm assumes it is in the right coordinate, its upper left
corner should be unchanged. It then "slides" away the buttons that occupies
the places needed for this button. The buttons are slid to the right,
wrapping around to the next line. When all the space has been cleared for
this button the algorithm continues with the next button, doing the same.
- Containers
-
Containers are arranged by the same algorithm, in fact they are shuffled
recursively as the algorithm finds them.
- Clarifying example
-
An example might be useful here: Suppose you have 6 buttons, all unit sized
except number two, which is 2x2. This makes for 5 times 1 plus 1 times 4
equals 9 unit buttons total area. Assume you have requested 3 columns.
1) +---+---+---+ 2) +---+---+---+ 3) +---+---+---+
| 1 | 2 | 3 | | 1 | 2 | | | 1 | 2 | |
+---+---+---+ +---+---+---+ +---+---+---+
| 4 | 5 | 6 | | 3 | 4 | 5 | | 3 | | 4 |
+---+---+---+ +---+---+---+ +---+---+---+
| | | 6 | | | 5 | 6 | |
+-----------+ +---+-------+ +---+---+---+
4) +---+---+---+ 5) +---+-------+
| 1 | 2 | | | 1 | |
+---+---+---+ +---+ 2 |
| 3 | | | | 3 | |
+---+---+---+ +---+---+---+
| 4 | 5 | 6 | | 4 | 5 | 6 |
+---+---+---+ +---+---+---+
The algorithm starts as in figure 1. The first large button it finds is
number 2, and it will try to free up each of the unit areas it occupies,
in a left to right, top to bottom order. First it sees that button 3
is in its way, and it shifts all the buttons, giving figure 2. Now it
finds that button 4 is in the way, so button 4 to 6 are shifted, yielding
figure 3. Button 4 is still barring progress, so it shifts button 4 to 6
once more, ending up at figure 4. Now all the button units required by
button 2 are freed, and button 2 can be given its real size.
- What size will the buttons be?
-
When FvwmButtons has read the icons and fonts that are required by its
configuration, it can find out which size is needed for every non-swallowing
button. The unit button size of a container is set to be large enough to
hold the largest button in it without squeezing it. Swallowed windows
are simple expected to be comfortable with the buttonsize they get
from this scheme. If a particular configuration requires more space
for a swallowed window, it can be set in that button's configuration line
using the option "Size width height". This will tell FvwmButtons
to give this button at least width by height pixels inside
the relief and padding.
SAMPLE CONFIGURATION
The following are excepts from a .fvwmrc file which describe FvwmButtons
initialization commands:
##########################################################
# Load any modules which should be started during fvwm
# initialization
ModulePath /usr/lib/X11/fvwm:/usr/bin/X11
# Make sure FvwmButtons is always there.
AddToFunc InitFunction "I" Module FvwmButtons
AddToFunc RestartFunction "I" Module FvwmButtons
# Make it titlebar-less, sticky, and give it an icon
Style "FvwmButtons" Icon toolbox.xpm, NoTitle, Sticky
##########################################################
*FvwmButtonsFore Black
*FvwmButtonsBack rgb:90/80/90
*FvwmButtonsGeometry -135-5
*FvwmButtonsRows 1
*FvwmButtonsFont -*-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-12-*
*FvwmButtonsPadding 2 2
*FvwmButtons(Title Resize,Icon resize.xpm ,Action Resize)
*FvwmButtons(Title Move ,Icon arrows2.xpm,Action Move )
*FvwmButtons(Title Lower ,Icon Down ,Action Lower )
*FvwmButtons(Title Raise ,Icon Up ,Action Raise )
*FvwmButtons(Title Kill ,Icon bomb.xpm ,Action Destroy)
*FvwmButtons(1x1,Container(Rows 3,Frame 1))
*FvwmButtons(Title Dopey ,Action \
`Exec "big_win" xterm -T big_win -geometry 80x50 &`)
*FvwmButtons(Title Snoopy, Font fixed, Action \
`Exec "small_win" xterm -T small_win &`)
*FvwmButtons(Title Smokin')
*FvwmButtons(End)
*FvwmButtons(Title Xcalc, Icon rcalc.xpm,\
Action `Exec "Calculator" xcalc &`)
*FvwmButtons(Title XMag, Icon magnifying_glass2.xpm,\
Action `Exec "xmag" xmag &`)
*FvwmButtons(Title Mail, Icon mail2.xpm,\
Action `Exec "xmh" xmh &`)
*FvwmButtons(4x1, Swallow "FvwmPager" `FvwmPager 0 3`\
Frame 3)
*FvwmButtons(Swallow(UseOld,NoKill) "xload15" `Exec xload\
-title xload15 -nolabel -bg rgb:90/80/90 -update 15 &`)
The last lines are a little tricky - one spawns an FvwmPager module, and
captures it to display in a quadruple width button.
is used, the Pager will be as big as possible within the button's relief.
The final line is even more magic. Note the combination of UseOld
and NoKill, which will try to swallow an existing window with the
name "xload15" when starting up (if failing: starting one with the
specified command), which is unswallowed when ending FvwmButtons.
The color specification rgb:90/80/90 is actually the most
correct way of specifying independent colors in X, and should be
used instead of the older #908090. If the latter specification
is used in your configuration file, you should be sure to escape
the hash in any of the commands which will be executed, or
fvwm will consider the rest of the line a comment.
COPYRIGHTS
The FvwmButtons 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.
Further modifications and patching by Jarl Totland, copyright 1996.
The statement above still applies.
AUTHOR
Robert Nation.
Somewhat enhanced by Jarl Totland.
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- INITIALIZATION
-
- INVOCATION
-
- CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
-
- ARRANGEMENT ALGORITHM
-
- SAMPLE CONFIGURATION
-
- COPYRIGHTS
-
- AUTHOR
-
This document was created by
man2html,
using the manual pages.
Time: 05:15:52 GMT, June 13, 1996