| GoodStuff(1) | General Commands Manual | GoodStuff(1) |
GoodStuff - the FVWM button panel module
GoodStuff is spawned by fvwm, so no command line invocation will work.
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.
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.
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 TermStuff, 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.
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 ModulePath configuration option to attempt to locate GoodStuff.
The following options can be placed in the .fvwmrc file
If command is an fvwm Exec command, then 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."
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 GoodStuff 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 SwallowModule instead of just "swallow" NOTE: if you use xclock for this application, you will want to specify xclock -padding 0.
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/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.
Robert Nation
| Jan 28 1994 | 3rd Berkeley Distribution |