-.Disclaimer: read this first, please.-
Note that this is now a "bit" old, I do not use this config anymore, and it might be a bit buggy and not on sync with the current fvwm features. This is completely unsupported, and unmaintained. I keep it only for historical purpose, and, well, because the screen shots add a bit of color and candy to the web site :p
-.Index.-
- Versatile
- I don't like to read much, a feature list?
- Frequently asked questions
- Thanks
- Licensing
- Screenshots
-.Versatile.-
Yes, I suck at giving names, but for now I will tar it as "versatile", which is the first thing that came to my mind. This thing is what you see when you first login into this configuration. Click to enlarge to 1600x1200, which is the resolution in which the screenshot was taken.
This is how it will look in case you have a system tray program, amarok, xosview, bubblemon and wmsmixer. If you don't have any of these applications, don't worry, you config will still look good. Like this one:
Well, now that you know that your desktop will not screw up when a program is missing, let me tell you that your desktop will not screw up either because of missing icons: the configuration is shipped with all the needed icons, while keeping the download size small. This is possible due to the use of SVG icons, but I will explain that later.
One of the reasons why I started to make this configuration was "reusability". This configuration aims to be able to do well under most circumstances. So, for me it is very important that this doesn't screw up when using different setups. Now you will see another thing:
If you click in the image to enlarge it you will check that it is a 832x624 jpeg file. No, I didn't resize it. That is the size of the desktop where I took the shot. Actually, the desktop has the ability to adapt to any resolution, and under smaller ones, it disables the left side panels, which are not so critical to perform OK. In small resolutions, space is more vital. As you can see, the rest of the panels also adapted. The task bar now holds only three columns of items, instead of the six it had on the 1600x1200 resolution. That avoids getting too small cells, where you would not be able to see the contents. On resolutions that are larger than (or equal to) 960 pixels height, all the panels are displayed, and you get also an option in the menu to hide those panels (which is remembered between sessions).
So, is there a similar option to enable the panels on lesser resolutions? No. I don't want you to screw up your desktop. This is for one thing: even if you remove the applet panels, you would not be able to see the text on the menu panel, because the cells would be too small.
One thing might be scaring you. What are those strange words on my screen? Well, it is an ancient language called "Spanish" :P Surelly, if you asked, you don't know what that is, but it exists, I swear. The good news are that the configuration has localization support. At the time of writing this, there are locales available for dutch, German, Spanish, french and English. The locale is selected in accordance with your user account locale settings. If no matching locale is found, you will see everything in English. To make a new locale is easy because I include all the locale sources in the package. If you are interested and want to know more about exact details, just let me know, and I will help you.
The configuration will also choose the default settings for you, but many FVWM options can be turned on/off just using the menus. There is also a thumbnailer menu, which will show a list of available wallpapers (the config search for many locations, and set the wallpaper directory wherever it finds such directory). To use this feature you need feh or imagemagick installed. Probably I will add more soon, as soon as I feel like installing esetroot and any other one to check how it works, since imagemagick is not the best drawing backgrounds.
It's pretty much usable without any extra software, but probably you will get the most of it if you have urxvt and screen. Nothing more is really needed to use the config. Having imagemagick is handy as well because it will allow you to use the nice thumbnails on your wallpapers directory menu.
Now, you might have noticed that the thumbnails in the right column are not the same that the ones in the previous page, they show my FVWM Versatile config in action, so, go mid-click on them and let them load in other tabs while you continue reading my words.
-.I don't like to read much, a feature list?.-
Well, here you have some of the features that comes to my mind right now. Bear in mind that you NEED a CVS snapshot of FVWM with svg support, as well as my patch that is available in my file repository.
- All the layout is dynamic, it should just work with any resolution of 640x480 and above.
- Some panels disappears on lower resolutions, this is intentional and a feature, not a bug. No, we can't make an elephant fit in the display of your calculator :P
- You can switch panels off on big resolutions as well if you need so. There is an option for such purpose on the menus.
- Alt+Enter is full-screen for every app (that is able to maximize).
- Many pre-made decorations, colorsets and font themes (fonts not included, so, they might work or not depending on your font's settings).
- Capable of locating a wallpapers directory. If Imagemagick is installed, a wallpapers menu is autogenerated. You can change the wallpaper from the menu, imagemagick can do, though feh is recommended. You can open the wallpapers and thumbnails directories from the menu on your default browser.
- Thumbnail size in the menu is customizable. Yes, thumbnails will be autoregenerated if the size you choose is different of the size of any already present thumbnail.
- Set random wallpaper feature.
- Random slideshow mode to set wallpapers.
- Size of regular icons on the menu is customizable.
- Display size changeable via menu, only present if xrandr is found.
- Menus like colorset and such will mark the current option with a different icon.
- Desktop number of pages customizable via menu.
- Middle click over taskbar item shows a "send to page" menu. This option honours the layout of the desktop, displaying a correct menu for the current desktop layout.
- Simple controls for amarok.
- Xosview, Wmsmixer and bubblemon are used if found.
- A system tray is used if found.
- A clock applet made using FvwmScript.
- Dynamic menus, only options relevant to the current state of the window are shown.
- Dynamic menus, some applications have additional options on their menu.
- Urxvt launcher that can handle URLs and start applications on another terminal.
- Side panel with applications, it searches for many applications to fill the panel. If no application is found for a given button, it does not show.
- You can change the active application (by right-clicking it) and build a custom panel, just clicking!
- Growing menu database, each day more applications are added.
- Only applications that are detected will be put in the menus, the rest are hidden.
- Autostart folder, at $[FVWM_USERDIR]/init/, usually this is ~/.fvwm/init/. You can open it in your preferred browser using the menu.
- Localization support using FVWM gettext support. Look into $[FVWM_USERDIR]/locale/ to see .pot file, if your locale is not implemented, messages will appear in english.
- Kuake support, if yakuake is found, it is used, if not, if urxvt and screen are found, they are used. A screen resource file is included in my config, so, don't worry about it. Additionaly, if htop is found, it is loaded into a tab on screen.
- Edge resistance is changeable via the menu, you can set it to infinitum if you don't like to traverse thru the pages of your desktop by crossing the screen edges.
- Focus policy is changeable via the menu, default is sloppy, which means focus follows mouse, but windows don't lose focus unless you enter any other window that is able to accept if. Plain "follow mouse" and "click to focus" policies are also available.
- If your version of FVWM accepts that feature, you can choose to use rounded (default) or squared) window corners.
- You can hide/unhide panels.
- Useless panels will never be shown, if the core app of the panel is not found, it is removed, and the rest of the panels resize conveniently.
- There is an option to revert to the default settings.
- All the stuff you need to make it work correctly is in one tarball. A sample Xdefaults file is also included, in case someone needs my urxvt settings, I hope to fix this dependency in the future.
-.Frequently asked questions.-
- A - Why doesn't your config has a {README,CREDITS,CHANGELOG} file?
- B - Why don't you import feature XXX from PERSON_X's config?
- C - Will you support karamba/superkaramba/whateverdesklets in your config?
- D - Can I send you a patch/diff/suggestion?
- E - How can you write such a bad english?
- F - Why don't you have pixmaps in your window decorations?
- G - Your config is a bit heavy
- H - Some of the configuration menus are really slow
- I - And so, why don't you use language X which is cooler/faster/better to do so?
- J - Feature X doesn't work, you are a lier!
A - Why doesn't your config has a {README,CREDITS,CHANGELOG} file?
Someday I will do the documentation. When I have the time (TM).
B - Why don't you import feature XXX from PERSON_X's config?
In case that feature is not Taviso's thumbnailing, just drop me a mail, and I will consider it. If it is Taviso's thumbnailing function, well, then put it yourself. I don't plan to incorporate desktop thumbnailing because a) is slow, and an superfluous overhead, and b) I find it stupid to have stuff below your windows. Everything you need is on the panels. Stuff below a window is useless stuff for me.
C - Will you support karamba/superkaramba/whateverdesklets in your config?
They are as supported as they can be. You put your script into ~/.fvwm/init/ and it will be run at startup, kind of like the kde Autostart folder. If you are asking about any other kind of integration, reffer to B: no.
D - Can I send you a patch/diff/suggestion?
Of course. That is no guarantee that it will be merged in the config, though. Patches are always welcome, and I have already merged several that people sent me via email. New colorset files, font themes and decorations (please, compatible with the config structure) are always welcome. Translations are good to have as well, look into the locale directory to see the locale files. You can take the english one (or any other you understand) and translate it to your locale language, then send me the file if you want it to be included upstream.
E - How can you write such a bad english?
You know... I must confess that it's not my mother tongue. :P
F - Why don't you have pixmaps in your window decorations?
I don't like them, I don't use them. I don't make them. Feel free to submit any and if it works and I don't have to do any effort but to merge it into the config, I will include it. If you plan to do so, put the deco into the decorations/ directory, and the pixmaps into a subdirectory with the same name of the .deco file (except for the extension, that is). Please, don't mess up my bindings.config file if you want to make something fancy with your deco. Each deco file has to include all the bindings for the buttons that that deco provides. If you need additional support contact me if you want your deco to be included upstream. Nothing is carved in stone.
G - Your config is a bit heavy
Can a fly fly without wings? Gosh, I hope no. There are plans to freeze this at some point, make some cleaning and reorganize it from the ground up. But don't expect this config to fit in a single 500 lines archive, functionality is not born from air, but from codelines, and each time I press a key, the size grows. :P
H - Some of the configuration menus are really slow
A pity, but it is the price to pay for portability. Since most dynamic stuff that is not doable thought pure FVWM is handled via bash, there is no fix for this slowness. The wallpapers menus uses identify and convert from imagemagick, those tools are not the fastest ones available out there, I know, but they are almost standard in most Linux systems. That is why I use them. The resolutions menu is also a bit slow, I will try to look into optimizing a bit the strings filtering commands to make the generation of the menu a bit faster, but -even if I do try- don't expect any miracle.
I - And so, why don't you use language X which is cooler/faster/better to do so?
"A pity, but it is the price to pay for portability. Since most dinamic stuff that is not doable thought pure FVWM is handled via bash, there is no fix for this slowness..." I'm sure you get the idea, ;) I will not add any more dependencies to my configuration.
J - Feature X doesn't work, you are a lier!
I know that I am, but in this case, probably, you are wrong. Probably you did not read all I said above, and now you are suffering the consequences. ^_^
- If you can't see the icons, you need a version of FVWM compiled with SVG support, because the icons are -guess what- in SVG format.
- If you can't see the applets, install them or make them available using your $PATH.
- If you can't see a wallpaper, install imagemagick, or better, feh.
- If you can't see the wallpaper menu, install imagemagick.
- If you can't see the resolutions menu, please, install xrandr.
- If you can't see a given application in the menu, send me its name (or a patch) and I will include it in the database.
- If you can't hear system sounds, install ogg123 or sox.
- If you can't see a system tray, install stalonetray, trayer or peksystray
- If the alt+f2 launcher does not work, install usxvt, grun or gmrun.
- If the kuake console does not work, install yakuake or urxvt + screen.
- If the amarok panel does not work, for now, install amarok.
- If you want useless shadows and true transparency, install xcompmgr and transset-df and use them from the utilities menu.
- If fake transparencies are broken check that XShape is on in your server (xextmod is loaded)
- If the corners are always squared, use the rounded corners patch, included in the patchset in my repository.
-.Thanks.-
To Robert Nation for being the father of FVWM and RXVT, without him, FVWM would not exist, and RXVT-Unicode wouldn't either. So, thank you.
To all the FVWM developers and contributors, that made it possible to get to its current status. Oh! and I don't forget about their cats. I am pretty much sure that the fvwm-cats are a core piece of FVWM.
To all the people in the FVWM lists and forums, they helped me much, and I continuosly stole inspiration from all of them. Special mention to Nick Fortune, Thomas Adam and Taviso in no special order, and to MasterOne, didgeridude and Swimmer for their help with german and dutch translations and some diffs and fixes. And to everyone that helped me here and there to understand better this wonderful Window Manager, a big THANK YOU!. If I forget anyone, just let me know, I can't remember everyone, but I feel thankful anyway :)
Thanks to Danny Allen for his FlatSVG icons. The default icon theme for this config is a subset of FlatSvg. You can find it at kde-look.org, and, probably, at gnome-look.org.
And finally, a special mention of honour to Clara García, whose help was unvaluable with the translations, the refactoring of many core parts of the config and the UI design, at which I also suck. I almost forget, thanks also to my own cat, of course :P
-.Licenses.-
- FVWM is driven by the people in the fvwm-workers mailing list, and is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2.
- The FlatSVG icons are property of Danny Allen and are distributed under the Lesser General Public License.
- Versatile FVWM was created and is currently maintained by Jesús Guerrero, and is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2.
- The default wallpaper's license and author are unknown. That is why probably it will be replaced soon for a custom one.
-.Screenshot gallery.-
