September 2007 - xmonad

Remote Controlling XMonad: Cases and Materials
by Andrea Rossato 24 Feb '08

24 Feb '08

Hi, this is a follow up of the thread started by Zed Lopez[1] on controlling XMonad remotely. Stefan O'Rear proposed a solution[2] and I implemented it[3]. We briefly discussed this solution on the #xmonad channel[4] and I thought some more documentation was needed on the methodology to use to achieve the goal. allbery_b reported that such an approach has been used by Mozilla, so I wanted to find more examples to study. Zed said that it was missing this feature from Ratpoison.[5] BTW, the successor of Ratpoison, Stumpwm is developed in Common Lisp...;-) So I went to have a look at how ratpoison deals with the subject and this is what I discovered[7,8]. This is what happens in Ratpoison: a. the Client (that sends the command): 1. creates w simple window 1 pixel width 2. sets an atom (RP_COMMAND) with a command to that window 3. sets an atom (RP_COMMAND_REQUEST) in the root window with XChangeProperty: this atom carries the first window id 4. waits for a propertyNotify to be sent to this window b. Ratpoison: 1. gets the property of the root window (which will return the id of the window containing the command string) 2. searches the window with the command string and executes the command 3. writes an atom (RP_COMMAND_RESULT) to the window with the command result. This will send the propertyNotify the will unblock the client. A similar approach is also used by Enlightment (see src/comms.c) and its remote shell Eesh (see Eesh.xs). WMII, instead, uses libipx and a Plan9 approach (I must confess I don't know much about P9), while DWM has no remote control capability. Now, attached you'll find two archives. The first one is a simple way of running commands from an external program, without a two way communication. It is basically a refactoring of the patch I've already sent[3]. It is simple and effective. I had no problem running it here. The second archive (xrcRatpoisonWay.tar.gz) instead is the ratpoison implementation: I literally copied the algorithm. And there's is a problem. This code produces an X server crash every now and then. I cannot reproduce it and, no matter how many times I read it, I cannot find a bug in my code. I believe there's something wrong with Xlib.Extras.rawGetWindowProperty (a null pointer?). Indeed if you change in ServerMode.hs: let c' = Just [118,105,101,119,49] --c' <- io $ getWindowProperty8 dpy c win no more crashes. You may also see that the command execution sometimes fails. Is that something that used to happen in Ratpoison too? Anyway it is something I think it is worth to investigate a bit more. And I think I will. BTW, these patches require a vary small modification to XMonad itself. XMonad has just to wait for a propertyNotify event sent to the root window. If that happens a hook is called (I named that hook serverHook). I do not want you to equivocate: I'm not pushing for this patch to be included, but I thought to report here some of the information I was able to gather on the subject. Moreover, as far as I can understand, there's is not so much interest in this feature. But here this stuff proved to be quite addictive...;-) Thanks for your kind attention. Andrea [1] see http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/xmonad/2007-July/001502.html [2] see http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/xmonad/2007-July/001509.html [3] see http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/xmonad/2007-July/001533.html [4] see http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~dons/irc/xmonad/2007-07-26.txt [5] http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/ [6] http://www.nongnu.org/stumpwm/ [7] see also http://cvs.savannah.nongnu.org/viewvc/ratpoison/src/communications.c?root=r… [8] see also receive_command() and execute_remote_command() and related comments here: http://cvs.savannah.nongnu.org/viewvc/ratpoison/src/events.c?root=ratpoison… [9] http://search.cpan.org/~rbs/Eesh-0.3/

7 11

darcs patch: add XSelection.hs
by Gwern Branwen 22 Oct '07

22 Oct '07

So I said I'd send in Andrea's X selection stuff when 0.3 was finalized and XMonadContrib/ opened up again. Here it is! I hope someone besides myself finds it useful. -- gwern SSCI Coderpunks David tekka CCS NMS CDA Verisign Keyer IRS

2 4

darcs patch: Tabbed: removed two little bugs due to t... (and 5 more)
by Andrea Rossato 04 Oct '07

04 Oct '07

Hi, this is the invisible data type, plus the related updates to Tabbed, DragPane and WindowNavigation. David, is this what you mean? Andrea Fri Sep 28 10:55:13 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * Tabbed: removed two little bugs due to the mess during the transition (my fault, sorry ;) Fri Sep 28 15:19:06 CEST 2007 David Roundy <droundy(a)darcs.net> * add new WindowNavigation module. Fri Sep 28 20:58:08 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * Tabbed now uses Invisible Fri Sep 28 20:58:32 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * DragPane now uses Invisible Fri Sep 28 20:59:07 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * WindowNavigation now uses Invisible (plus some vertical alignement) Fri Sep 28 21:01:07 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * Added Invisible to store layout state Invisible is a data type to store information that will be lost when restarting XMonad (the idea came from David Roundy)

2 1

darcs patch: set border color more judiciously, so layouts can cust...
by David Roundy 02 Oct '07

02 Oct '07

This does much less resetting of border colors, but in my testing does enough. The result is that WindowNavigation can display which neighboring windows can be navigated to by giving them blue (or other) borders, which seems a bit handy. David Fri Sep 28 19:53:46 EDT 2007 David Roundy <droundy(a)darcs.net> * set border color more judiciously, so layouts can customize this.

2 1

New module, XMonadContrib.ResizableTile
by MATSUYAMA Tomohiro 01 Oct '07

01 Oct '07

Hi. I have hacked a default tile layout a little to be allow us to change a width/height of window. Although I am a newbie in haskell and xmonad, I want to contribute it as a new module of XMonadContrib so that many people could use it. Thanks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- | -- Module : XMonadContrib.ResizableTile -- Copyright : (c) MATSUYAMA Tomohiro <t.matsuyama.pub(a)gmail.com> -- License : BSD-style (see LICENSE) -- -- Maintainer : MATSUYAMA Tomohiro <t.matsuyama.pub(a)gmail.com> -- Stability : unstable -- Portability : unportable -- -- More useful tiled layout that allows you to change a width/height of window. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- module XMonadContrib.ResizableTile (Tall(..), MirrorResize(..)) where import XMonad import Operations (Resize(..), IncMasterN(..)) import qualified StackSet as W import Graphics.X11.Xlib import Control.Monad.State import Control.Monad -- $usage -- -- To use, modify your Config.hs to: -- -- > import XMonadContrib.ResizableTile as T -- -- and add a keybinding: -- -- > , ((modMask, xK_a ), sendMessage MirrorShrink) -- > , ((modMask, xK_z ), sendMessage MirrorExpand) -- -- and redefine "tiled" as: -- -- > tiled = T.Tall nmaster delta ratio (repeat 1) data MirrorResize = MirrorShrink | MirrorExpand deriving Typeable instance Message MirrorResize data Tall a = Tall Int Rational Rational [Rational] deriving (Show, Read) instance Layout Tall a where doLayout (Tall nmaster _ frac mfrac) r = return . (\x->(x,Nothing)) . ap zip (tile frac mfrac r nmaster . length) . W.integrate handleMessage (Tall nmaster delta frac mfrac) m = do ms <- (W.stack . W.workspace . W.current) `fmap` gets windowset case ms of Nothing -> error "" Just s -> return $ msum [fmap resize (fromMessage m) ,fmap (\x -> mresize x s) (fromMessage m) ,fmap incmastern (fromMessage m)] where resize Shrink = Tall nmaster delta (max 0 $ frac-delta) mfrac resize Expand = Tall nmaster delta (min 1 $ frac+delta) mfrac mresize MirrorShrink s = mresize' s delta mresize MirrorExpand s = mresize' s (0-delta) mresize' s d = let n = length $ W.up s total = n + (length $ W.down s) + 1 in Tall nmaster delta frac (modifymfrac mfrac d (if n == (nmaster-1) || n == (total-1) then n-1 else n)) modifymfrac [] _ _ = [] modifymfrac (f:fx) d n | n == 0 = f+d : fx | otherwise = f : modifymfrac fx d (n-1) incmastern (IncMasterN d) = Tall (max 0 (nmaster+d)) delta frac mfrac description _ = "Tall" tile :: Rational -> [Rational] -> Rectangle -> Int -> Int -> [Rectangle] tile f mf r nmaster n = if n <= nmaster || nmaster == 0 then splitVertically mf n r else splitVertically mf nmaster r1 ++ splitVertically (drop nmaster mf) (n-nmaster) r2 -- two columns where (r1,r2) = splitHorizontallyBy f r splitVertically :: RealFrac r => [r] -> Int -> Rectangle -> [Rectangle] splitVertically [] _ r = [r] splitVertically _ n r | n < 2 = [r] splitVertically (f:fx) n (Rectangle sx sy sw sh) = Rectangle sx sy sw smallh : splitVertically fx (n-1) (Rectangle sx (sy+fromIntegral smallh) sw (sh-smallh)) where smallh = floor $ fromIntegral (sh `div` fromIntegral n) * f --hmm, this is a fold or map. splitHorizontallyBy :: RealFrac r => r -> Rectangle -> (Rectangle, Rectangle) splitHorizontallyBy f (Rectangle sx sy sw sh) = ( Rectangle sx sy leftw sh , Rectangle (sx + fromIntegral leftw) sy (sw-fromIntegral leftw) sh) where leftw = floor $ fromIntegral sw * f

4 4

darcs patch: Commands: added recent layout commands
by Andrea Rossato 01 Oct '07

01 Oct '07

Sun Sep 30 23:32:25 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * Commands: added recent layout commands

1 0

Issue 49 in xmonad: XMonad sometimes stops responding to alt key
by codesite-noreply＠google.com 01 Oct '07

01 Oct '07

Issue 49: XMonad sometimes stops responding to alt key http://code.google.com/p/xmonad/issues/detail?id=49 Comment #1 by david.maciver: Update: When this happens, the last selected window remains bordered in red. When I close windows this doesn't trigger laying out of the new one. Similarly, I can open new windows but they're just opened on top of the existing layout. I'm not sure, but it's possible that I might have accidentally pressed alt-q (I haven't got around to rebinding the keys yet as I couldn't think of a non-annoying alternative). Because of its proximity to the window swapping keybinding it's possible that I've accidentally pressed it before, so I'll try rebinding that at least. -- You received this message because you are listed in the owner or CC fields of this issue, or because you starred this issue. You may adjust your issue notification preferences at: http://code.google.com/hosting/settings

1 0

darcs patch: make Tabbed use XUtils (and 4 more)
by Andrea Rossato 01 Oct '07

01 Oct '07

Sat Sep 29 19:28:23 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * make Tabbed use XUtils Sat Sep 29 19:28:49 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * make DraPane use XUtils Sun Sep 30 11:54:41 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * Tabbed: moved string positioning to XUtils Sun Sep 30 15:19:36 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * Tabbed: reintroduced shrinker configuration option and removed the unneeded Read instance Sun Sep 30 20:19:12 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * Removed fromIMaybe from Tabbed ad added it to Invisible

1 0

darcs patch: Added XUtils: a library for drawing (and 5 more)
by Andrea Rossato 01 Oct '07

01 Oct '07

ops, this is something I owed to David: the reintroduction of the shrinker configuration option, hidden inside an invisible Maybe. With a HUGE but: on restart we must fall back to shrinkText. So I ask: is this useful? Is there another way? Andrea Sat Sep 29 19:27:54 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * Added XUtils: a library for drawing Sat Sep 29 19:28:23 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * make Tabbed use XUtils Sat Sep 29 19:28:49 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * make DraPane use XUtils Sun Sep 30 11:52:15 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * refactor paintAndWrite to take the alignment and hide string positioning Sun Sep 30 11:54:41 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * Tabbed: moved string positioning to XUtils Sun Sep 30 15:19:36 CEST 2007 Andrea Rossato <andrea.rossato(a)unibz.it> * Tabbed: reintroduced shrinker configuration option and removed the unneeded Read instance

2 1

darcs patch: enable color setting in WindowNavigation.
by David Roundy 01 Oct '07

01 Oct '07

You can't yet customize the color. I'll add that when it's clear that this is seen as an improvement. David Sat Sep 29 07:45:31 EDT 2007 David Roundy <droundy(a)darcs.net> * enable color setting in WindowNavigation. This is still somewhat experimental, comments welcome.

3 2