February 2009 - xmonad

Issues adapting XMonad.Util.Scratchpad for Conkeror in 0.8.1
by aditya siram 02 Feb '09

02 Feb '09

Hi all, Scratchpad is an XMonad extension that brings up or spawns a terminal window on Alt-F2 (as I have it configured) and hides it in a hidden workspace when I am done. The code looked pretty simple and I tried to adapt this script to do the same thing with my Conkeror window. This script worked until I upgraded to 0.8.1. Now it doesn't detect an existing Conkeror window and keeps launching a new instance. Xprop output shows the class name of Conkeror is: "Navigator", "Conkeror". Since hpaste.org seems to be down, here it is my hacked Scratchpad sans imports and header comment ( if the author of Scratchpad is reading this, yes the code below is pretty much cut-and-paste): --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- | Action to pop up the browser, for the user to bind to a custom key. scratchBrowserSpawn :: X () scratchBrowserSpawn = scratchpadAction $ spawn "conkeror" scratchpadAction :: X () -> X () scratchpadAction action = withWindowSet $ \s -> do filterCurrent <- filterM (runQuery scratchpadQuery) ( (maybe [] W.integrate . W.stack . W.workspace . W.current) s) case filterCurrent of (x:_) -> do if null (filter ( (== scratchpadWorkspaceTag) . W.tag) (W.workspaces s)) then addHiddenWorkspace scratchpadWorkspaceTag else return () windows (W.shiftWin scratchpadWorkspaceTag x) [] -> do filterAll <- filterM (runQuery scratchpadQuery) (W.allWindows s) case filterAll of (x:_) -> windows (W.shiftWin (W.currentTag s) x) [] -> action -- run the provided action to spawn it. -- factored out since it appears in several places scratchpadWorkspaceTag :: String scratchpadWorkspaceTag = "BR" -- factored out since this is common to both the ManageHook and the action scratchpadQuery :: Query Bool scratchpadQuery = (className =? "Conkeror") <||> (className =? "Navigator") -- | The ManageHook, with the default rectangle: -- Half the screen wide, a quarter of the screen tall, centered. scratchpadManageHookDefault :: ManageHook scratchpadManageHookDefault = scratchpadManageHook scratchpadDefaultRect -- | The ManageHook, with a user-specified StackSet.RationalRect, -- eg. -- -- > scratchpadManageHook (W.RationalRect 0.25 0.375 0.5 0.25) scratchpadManageHook :: W.RationalRect -- ^ User-specified screen rectangle. -> ManageHook scratchpadManageHook rect = scratchpadQuery --> doRectFloat rect -- | Transforms a workspace list containing the SP workspace into one that -- doesn't contain it. Intended for use with logHooks. scratchpadFilterOutWorkspace :: [WindowSpace] -> [WindowSpace] scratchpadFilterOutWorkspace = filter (\(W.Workspace tag _ _) -> tag /= scratchpadWorkspaceTag) scratchpadDefaultRect :: W.RationalRect scratchpadDefaultRect = W.RationalRect 0.25 0.375 0.5 0.25 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks ... Deech

2 1

real focus-follows-mouse or selective UpdatePointer
by Kathryn Andersen 02 Feb '09

02 Feb '09

I'm used to having focus-follows-mouse, so I've enabled that with xmonad; however there are situations where the focus does NOT follow the mouse, such as when I switch workspaces; the focus can be in one window, and the mouse can be over another window. The usual way, in those situations, to get the focus where the mouse is, is to move the mouse out of the window and then back in again. I've tried the UpdatePointer module, but that isn't really focus-follows-mouse, that's mouse-follows-focus. This messes things up in, for example, Gimp, where I have Gimp tiled (with IM layout) and then a dialogue window pops up, and the mouse moves position to that window, while still focused in its own window, which can really wreck things when one is trying to do delicate graphics manipulations! So is there a way of having true focus-follows-mouse, or of having some kind of exceptions for UpdatePointer for windows of a given class? There are two problematical use-cases for me. The first is the Gimp one above, where I do not want the UpdatePointer behaviour to apply. The second use-case is when I have selected something in one workspace (for example, the workspace where my web-browser is) and switch to another workspace, where I type a command and then middle-mouse-click to paste what I selected from the previous workspace. But what can happen is that when I switch workspaces, the focus is in terminalA, but the mouse is over terminalB, so what I type goes in terminalA, and what I paste goes in terminalB, which is not what I wanted. In this case, I do want the UpdatePointer behaviour to apply. Any ideas for solutions? Kathryn Andersen -- _--_|\ | Kathryn Andersen <http://www.katspace.com> / \ | \_.--.*/ | GenFicCrit mailing list <http://www.katspace.com/gen_fic_crit/> v | ------------| Melbourne -> Victoria -> Australia -> Southern Hemisphere Maranatha! | -> Earth -> Sol -> Milky Way Galaxy -> Universe

1 0

Fullscreen games
by Joseph Garvin 01 Feb '09

01 Feb '09

What's the best window setting for fullscreen games with xmonad? I want tiling most of the time, but for fullscreen games I'd prefer to have xmonad keep its hands off. But if I use doFloat, then my game is almost fullscreen but has an ugly red border around it (I like the border when I'm using tiled windows, just not for fullscreen games, otherwise I'd just disable it entirely), and if I use doIgnore, then my game gets mouse focus but not keyboard focus. Neither option is optimal. Is there a way to disable the border on a per window basis, or to make it give an ignored window keyboard focus before ignoring it, or some other clever hack?

3 2

Module for evaluating Haskell expressions in xmonad
by Daniel Schoepe 01 Feb '09

01 Feb '09

I wrote a module that uses hint[1] to manipulate the state of xmonad using normal Haskell expressions during runtime(like emacs' eval feature), which is available here: http://code.haskell.org/~asgaroth/xmonad-eval I've put this in a separate package instead of using a contrib-module, since that'd introduce hint as another dependency which should be avoided, if someone doesn't want that feature and it should be a simpler solution for the user than to add another flag to xmonad-contrib.cabal. The expressions are typechecked and can return an result whose type is an instance of Show(The expressions to be interpreted have to be monomorphic and this approach seems better than having the user supply a type witness or such all the time). The error handler and the module/imports context of the expressions can be customized. It might be possible to somehow wreck xmonad by some expressions, but only to that extent to which it is already possible in xmonad.hs. Anyhow, I'm not sure whether this could cause any other instabilities, so any comments on that would be appreciated. After that I will prepare a package and upload it to hackage for easier installation. [1] http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/hint

2 2

New layout in GridVariants
by Norbert Zeh 01 Feb '09

01 Feb '09

After using GridVariants.TallGrid for a while, I got fed up with the fact that the meaning of columns and rows get exchanged when TallGrid is rotated using Mirror (as well as with other small nuisances). The attached patch contains a new layout, GridVariants.SplitGrid, which allows the orientation of the split between the master and the slave grid to be specified as a parameter, thus doing away with the need to use Mirror or Reflect with this layout. What SplitGrid and TallGrid do should be achievable using the standard Grid layout plus a layout combinator. However, the automatic assignment of clients to the master/slave grids would require more plumbing in xmonad.hs, which is why I opted for writing this as a separate layout. Cheers, Norbert

2 1

darcs patch: Make X an instance of Typeable
by Daniel Schoepe 01 Feb '09

01 Feb '09

This patch lets X derive Typeable so that expressions that return an X action can be interpreted in a type-safe way using hint(to allow runtime evaluation of haskell expressions in the context of the running xmonad). Wed Jan 28 22:54:06 CET 2009 Daniel Schoepe <asgaroth_(a)gmx.de> * Make X an instance of Typeable New patches: [Make X an instance of Typeable Daniel Schoepe <asgaroth_(a)gmx.de>**20090128215406 Ignore-this: bb155e62ea4e451460e3b94508dc49d2 ] hunk ./XMonad/Core.hs 128 -- newtype X a = X (ReaderT XConf (StateT XState IO) a) #ifndef __HADDOCK__ - deriving (Functor, Monad, MonadIO, MonadState XState, MonadReader XConf) + deriving (Functor, Monad, MonadIO, MonadState XState, MonadReader XConf, Typeable) #endif instance Applicative X where Context: [Add uninstallSignalHandlers, use in spawn Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20090122002643 Ignore-this: d91bde6f965341a2619fe2dde83cc099 ] [Create a new session for forked processes Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20090122000423 Ignore-this: f5d9cf254a0b07ddbf204457b7783880 ] [TAG 0.8.1 Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20090118083910] [Close stdin in spawned processes Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20090117040024 Ignore-this: 2e372ed6215160adae8da1c44cdede3d ] [Document spawnPID Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20090117035907 Ignore-this: 1641bdcf5055b2ec7b9455265f5b1d52 ] [Asynchronously recompile/restart xmonad on mod-q Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20090117035300 Ignore-this: 753d8746034f818b81df79003ae5ee0d ] [Add --restart, a command line flag to cause a running xmonad process to restart Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20090117034959 Ignore-this: 45c8c8aba7cc7391b95c7e3fb01e5bf9 ] [Bump version to 0.8.1 Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20090116223621 Ignore-this: 2e8e9dc7b6ca725542f4afe04253dc57 ] [Remove doubleFork, handle SIGCHLD Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20090116204742 Ignore-this: f9b1a65b4f0622922f80ad2ab6c5a52f This is a rather big change. Rather than make spawned processes become children of init, we handle them in xmonad. As a side effect of this change, we never need to use waitForProcess in any contrib module -- in fact, doing so will raise an exception. The main benefit to handling SIGCHLD is that xmonad can now be started with 'exec', and will correctly clean up after inherited child processes. ] [Main.hs: escape / in Haddocks gwern0(a)gmail.com**20081207020915 Ignore-this: 2c4525280fbe73c46f3abd8fc13628e9 This lets haddocks for Main.hs, at least, to build with 2.3.0. ] [More flexible userCode function Daniel Schoepe <asgaroth_(a)gmx.de>**20090110221852] [Call logHook as the very last action in windows Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20081209233700 Ignore-this: 4396ad891b607780f8e4b3b6bbce87e ] [Accept inferior crossing events. This patch enables fmouse-focus-follows-screen Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20081205045130 Ignore-this: 3ac329fb92839827aed0a4370784cabd ] [Tile all windows at once Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20081118074447] [Factor rational rect scaling into a separate function Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20081118072849] [Change screen focus by clicking on the root window. Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20081106224031 This is a modification of a patch from Joachim Breitner. ] [Fix #192. Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20081021220059] [select base < 4 for building on ghc 6.10 Adam Vogt <vogt.adam(a)gmail.com>**20081013214509] [add killWindow function Joachim Breitner <mail(a)joachim-breitner.de>**20081005001804 This is required to kill anything that is not focused, without having to focus it first. ] [add'l documentation Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080927234639] [Regression: ungrab buttons on *non* root windows Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20081007214351] [Partial fix for #40 Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20081007212053 Improvements: - clicking on the root will change focus to that screen - moving the mouse from a window on a screen to an empty screen changes focus to that screen The only remaining issue is that moving the mouse between two empty screens does not change focus. In order to solve this, we'd have to select motion events on the root window, which is potentially expensive. ] [Track mouse position via events received Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20081007203953] [Fix haddock Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20081007094641] [Move screen locating code into pointScreen Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20081007094207] [Make pointWithin a top-level binding Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20081007090229] [sp README, CONFIG, STYLE, TODO gwern0(a)gmail.com**20080913024457] [Use the same X11 dependency as xmonad-contrib Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20080921061508] [Export focusUp' and focusDown' -- work entirely on stacks Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20080911214803] [add W.shiftMaster, fix float/tile-reordering bug Devin Mullins <me(a)twifkak.com>**20080911053909] [TAG 0.8 Spencer Janssen <spencerjanssen(a)gmail.com>**20080905195412] Patch bundle hash: 0a0f2945747d8fa660487df2b4967f984faf54ad

2 1

Making utility windows "dock like"
by Gregory Maxwell 01 Feb '09

01 Feb '09

I've been using xmonad with great success with my thinkpad x61 tablet. Although xmonad is so keyboard focused it still works quite well without one— so long as the compromise of a panel desktop switcher is used (I'm using gnome-panel). One issue I haven't solved yet is cellwriter (http://risujin.org/cellwriter/) According to xprop cellwriter is a "utility window", not a dock, and doesn't provide the struts field, even when it is set to dock mode. As a result, when I unhide it using the notification icon it pops up as a float in the middle of my screen. What I'd like to do is treat it as a dock: Accept the size it assumes, force it to bottom of the screen (just above my existing panel), and prevent anything from overlapping it or it from overlapping anything (shrinking the tiled area as a result). I expect that other people might find the same kind of behavior useful for things like calculators, but perhaps not— since it wouldn't be important to have a calculator on all workspaces. :) Can someone point me to some starting points on how I can get it to behave this way?

4 3