September 2009 - xmonad

Bluetile
by gwern0＠gmail.com 05 Sep '09

05 Sep '09

Resources: - Original thread/ANN: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.xmonad/7458/ - Jan Vorberger's OP: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.xmonad/7458 > "I'm planning to decide on a somewhat fixed configuration of XMonad, probably in combination with Gnome as a DE, and then trying to make this functionality available via mouse commands that - hopefully - will be easy to pick up.<br> > I also want to completely rework the whole floating layer thing, as it seems to me to be a fairly foreing [sic] concept for a newcomer and it's awkward to use. My current idea is to instead use a floating layout algorithm, that could work similiar [sic] to a conventional window manager. It could even be set as the default layout algorithm. That way, the WM could almost be a 'drop-in' replacement for - let's say Metacity - greeting the user with the familiar concept of manipulating windows and then leading him to the tiling paradigm once he switches the layout." Jan later [wrote](http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.xmonad/7495) that > "@Don: I will definitely try to contribute back changes and improvements, if I can. Once I start implementing I will also make my repository available for others to try out. Thx for offering assistance, I might come back to that later." But given that Bluetile has been done a while, I guess we'll just have to content ourselves with the repos. - A PDF presentation of some sort is available at http://parsys.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/theses/docs/bluetile_zwischenvort… - Google Translate link, may or may not work: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://parsys.informati… The actual code seems to be broken up into 4 packages; everything is BSD3 so no concerns about reuse: - bluetilutils: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/bluetileutils (Darcs repo: http://tuvok.home.dyndns.org/bluetile-repos/bluetileutils down?) A package of 3 Gtk2hs executables: i. bluetiledock ii. bluetilemockwin iii. bluetilegreet - xmonad-bluetilebranch: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/xmonad-bluetilebranch (I have no local repo for this, although it was presumably at http://tuvok.home.dyndns.org/bluetile-repos/xmonad-bluetilebranch ) - xmonad-contrib-bluetilebranch: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/xmonad-contrib-bluetilebranch (same comment for repo) - bluetile: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/bluetile (repo: http://tuvok.home.dyndns.org/bluetile-repos/bluetile ) Now, looking at the code (bearing in mind I am only reading and haven't compiled/run anything yet): # bluetileutils ## bluetiledock This creates a minimalistic strut app. It supports 14 buttons/commands: - switch to workspaces 0-9 - 4 commands to switch to floating/tiled1/tiled2/fullscreen (presumably tiled1 and tiled2 = 2 windows each on 1/2 screen split horizontal & vertical) Interesting is how bluetiledock achieves this functionality, how it makes xmonad actually do something - it seems to be using a X-based method of IPC, in which a integer is stored in an X atom and xmonad then grabs it and does something with it: ~~~~{.haskell} sendCommandX :: Int -> IO () sendCommandX com = do d <- X.openDisplay "" rw <- X.rootWindow d $ X.defaultScreen d a <- X.internAtom d "XMONAD_COMMAND" False X.allocaXEvent $ \e -> do XE.setEventType e X.clientMessage XE.setClientMessageEvent e rw a 32 (fromIntegral com) XE.currentTime X.sendEvent d rw False X.structureNotifyMask e X.sync d False ~~~~ ## bluetilegreet A splashscreen/help; checks for empty file ~/.bluetilegreet and if it exists, makes it and runs. It then basically displays the XML contents of bluetilegreet.glade, which run something like: ~~~~{.xml} <property name="label" translatable="yes">Quickstart: Open a few windows and notice that you are currently in the traditional layout mode, known from most other window managers. To start tiling, switch to another layout in one of these ways:</property> <property name="wrap">True</property> </widget> </child> <child> <widget class="GtkLabel" id="label3"> <property name="visible">True</property> <property name="label" translatable="yes">* Using the dock on the left (buttons A, S, D or F), * pressing the middle mouse button while holding down the Windows key or * using the keyboard shortcuts Win+A, Win+S, Win+D or Win+F .</property> </widget> <packing> <property name="top_attach">1</property> <property name="bottom_attach">2</property> </packing> </child> <child> <widget class="GtkLabel" id="label4"> <property name="visible">True</property> <property name="label" translatable="yes">You should be fine exploring the tiling paradigm with your mouse alone, but to get the most out of it you might want to look at the keyboard shortcuts at some point. They are documented on Bluetile's website.</property> <property name="wrap">True</property> ~~~~ It might be a good idea to have something similar for XMonad; it's not like it really matters if we dump an empty hidden file in ~/.xmonad ## bluetilemockwin No idea. It creates some sort of widget with the RGB color specified as 3 ints. Grep doesn't seem to show up any use in the main bluetile repo. ~~~~{.haskell} main :: IO () main = do args <- getArgs progName <- getProgName if length args /= 3 then putStrLn $ "Usage: " ++ progName ++ " 0 0 65535" else let r = read $ args !! 0 g = read $ args !! 1 b = read $ args !! 2 in showMockWin (Color r g b) showMockWin :: Color -> IO () showMockWin c = do initGUI window <- windowNew onDestroy window mainQuit widgetModifyBg window StateNormal c widgetShowAll window mainGUI ~~~~ # xmonad-contrib-bluetilebranch Without a repo, it's hard to know exactly what's changed. But by my count, this XMC fork adds the following modules: - XMonad.Actions.BluetileCommands defines `[(String, X ())]`, which seem to support the 14 commands used by the dock, and 4 others (quit, quit-and-start-metacity, increase master, decrease master) - XMonad.Actions.WindowMenu much as it sounds, supporting the following commands: ~~~~{.haskell} actions = [ ("Cancel menu", return ()) , ("Close" , kill) , ("Maximize" , sendMessage $ maximizeRestore w) , ("Minimize" , sendMessage $ MinimizeWin w) ] ++ [ ("Move to workspace " ++ tag, windows $ W.shift tag) | tag <- tags ] ~~~~ - XMonad.Hooks.BluetileDock - XMonad.Hooks.CustomRestart adequately summarized by a snippet ~~~~{.haskell} a <- io $ internAtom d "XMONAD_CUSTOM_RESTART" False when (mt == a) $ do restart prog True ~~~~ - XMonad.Hooks.EventHook Old code? Seems to've been removed in darcs XMC - XMonad.Hooks.RestoreMinimized - XMonad.Hooks.WorkspaceByPos No idea. What I did notice is that it looks like it could use the Maybe monad! ~~~{.haskell} needsMoving :: Window -> X (Maybe WorkspaceId) needsMoving w = withDisplay $ \d -> do -- only relocate windows with non-zero position wa <- io $ getWindowAttributes d w if ((wa_x wa) == 0) && ((wa_y wa) == 0) then return Nothing else do ws <- gets windowset sc <- fromMaybe (W.current ws) <$> pointScreen (fi $ wa_x wa) (fi $ wa_y wa) maybeWkspc <- screenWorkspace (W.screen sc) case maybeWkspc of Nothing -> return Nothing Just wkspc -> do let currentWksp = W.currentTag ws if currentWksp == wkspc then return Nothing else return (Just wkspc) ~~~~ - XMonad.Layout.BorderResize - XMonad.Layout.DecorationUtils Support for the BorderResize? - XMonad.Layout.DraggingVisualizer - XMonad.Layout.MouseResizableTile - XMonad.Layout.NoFrillsDecoration - XMonad.Layout.PositionStoreFloat - XMonad.Layout.ThreeColumnsMiddle just an alias for ThreeColumns - XMonad.Layout.WindowSwitcherDecoration looks like a module to use a mouse to 'drag' a window onto another and swap their positions # bluetile About what you would expect - importing most of the above, running the dock and the greeter. So to conclude this whirlwind tour: I see a lot of valuable stuff. The greeter is something that could definitely be in core (although I think the gtk2hs dep is untenable, so I expect a better idea would be to run an xmessage prompt with a list of keybindings). The dock is a nice alternative to the ridiculously baroque setups for xmobar and dzen - those may be really nice and customizable, but they are absolutely unsuitable for beginners, and even setting up a Gnome panel is a bit much for non-intermediate or advanced XMonaders. And the string atom stuff has already been done by Stumpwm/Ratpoison, and I asked for this in the past - XMonad should be scriptable from the outside. -- gwern

14 20

dead spaces / monitor borders
by Csillag Kristof 05 Sep '09

05 Sep '09

Hi all, I am using two displays (with different resolutions), united by RandR. Sometimes I access my desktop via VNC: one big, full-screen VNC window covers both monitors. (I am not even running any window manager at the client side.) However, the information about the two physical monitors (and the resulting dead space) is not transmitted by VNC to the server, so the applications (including the window manager), which are running at the server, have no idea about the physical layout. Question: can Xmonad be configured to - handle the two displays as separate entities (despite being covered by a single VNC session), and - consider the dead space? If you, how do I do that? (Please note, I am not yet a Xmonad user, but I have a feeling that I might be, very soon.) Thank your for your help: Kristof Csillag

2 1

How to swap screen in a multihead environment?
by Felix Bou 04 Sep '09

04 Sep '09

I have just started to use xmonad, and it seems to me a great software for multihead screens. At his moment, I am using two physical screens and I would like to use a key binding to do the following thing: "swap screens". By swap screens I mean moving from -the configuration [1 2] to the configuration [2 1] -the configuration [1 3] to the configuration [3 1] -the configuration [4 2] to the configuration [2 4] etc When I say configuration [1 2] I mean that workspace 1 is on left screen and workspace2 in on right screen; and the same idea for [2 1], [1 3], etc Does anybody know how to do this?

4 3

gnome: workspace with one window -> make it float -> (function) keys on desktop icons don't work anymore
by Jan Müller 04 Sep '09

04 Sep '09

Hi, I see the following behavior: - start gnome and xmonad - go to a workspace with a single window open - make this window float by using right mouse button - click on a desktop icon - press F2 to rename it -> F2 doesn't reach the desktop, instead it is applied to the floating window, although the desktop should have the focus this behavior is not restricted to F2, but is valid for all keys (at least I guess so) I'm running the latest official xmonad release on ubuntu 9.04 my xmonad.hs does not include anything fancy. the basis is: main = xmonad $ gnomeConfig { layoutHook = avoidStruts $ smartBorders $ layoutHook gnomeConfig manageHook = manageDocks <+> myManageHook <+> manageHook gnomeConfig } mymangeHook is copied from the wiki and includes some windows.

1 0

Unmarking modules 'Unstable' in contrib
by Adam Vogt 03 Sep '09

03 Sep '09

Hello, Most (152/159) modules are marked as unstable in contrib. A good number of these 'unstable' modules have not been modified since a number of releases. Here's a rough total number of modules with a last-modified date (per year): > (for x in `find .`; do; (darcs changes $x | tail -n 2 | head -n 1); done) > lastmod > for x in {2007,2008,2009}; do; grep $x lastmod | wc -l; done 64 43 17 I wouldn't trust those numbers, since the total falls short of 159, but the point still stands: many so-called unstable modules have not changed in a long time, which could make it difficult for users to avoid modules that may actually change. Does anybody mind if I change the oldest modules (unchanged since 1.5 years) to be stable? -- Adam

2 2

Issue 230 in xmonad: Modular config support
by codesite-noreply＠google.com 03 Sep '09

03 Sep '09

Comment #16 on issue 230 by vogt.adam: Modular config support http://code.google.com/p/xmonad/issues/detail?id=230 The patch that extends the ghc search path to ~/.xmonad/lib has been applied. We still need some documentation for this feature. The man page blurb sjanssen requested is here: http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/xmonad/2009-September/008473.html -- 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

Automatically move Firefox download dialog
by Omari Norman 03 Sep '09

03 Sep '09

Hi folks, When I download a file in Firefox, it pops up a download dialog box where I can pick the location I want the file saved to. It pops up too far to the lower-right corner of my screen, so that I have to drag the dialog box up a bit just so I can see the "Save" and "Cancel" buttons. Is there a way to automatically move this box so that it is in a better location in my screen? I figure this would involve some sort of ManageHook; I read this http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Xmonad/General_xmonad.hs_config_tips#Managin… but can't see how I would tell XMonad to move a window the way I can with the mouse. Thanks for your help! Omari

2 2

xmonad-fork
by Gwern Branwen 02 Sep '09

02 Sep '09

I came across this today linked in #darcs: http://physics.oregonstate.edu/~roundyd/codes.php "xmonad-fork xmonad-fork is a modified version of the xmonad window manager that I use. You can get a copy of the source with darcs get http://physics.oregonstate.edu/~roundyd/code/xmonad-fork" 'twould seem Andrea and David have been collaborating extensively on xmonad (by my count, there ~106 patches in this repo not present in core/xmc). Some of them look interesting, but others deal with internals I'm not very familiar with. -- gwern

3 2

Re: Bug in XMonad.Actions.DynamicWorkspaces
by David Roundy 02 Sep '09

02 Sep '09

I'm not the maintainer of the module, and don't use xmonad, so maybe you could contact the xmonad mailing list? David 2009/9/2 Léo Gillot-Lamure <leo.gillot(a)navaati.net>: > Hello. > > I found an annoying bug in XMonad.Actions.DynamicWorkspaces : the > computation removeWorkspace removes the current workspace even if it > contains windows. This leads to chaotic behavior : the windows which > were presents on the removed workspace are moved elsewhere. > > I don't know how internally works XMonad, so I can't fix this by > myself. As you are the maintainer of the module, could you please > resolve this problem ? > > Léo Gillot-Lamure

1 0

xmonad border strangeness on OSX vs. Linux
by Curtis Spencer 02 Sep '09

02 Sep '09

Hi, I have been a user of xmonad for a few months now on Linux, and I thought I would try to bring the tile based sweetness over to my OSX machine. So I fired up X11, followed the tutorial on the Haskell Wiki and got a generally usable setup. I have noticed an issue on the xmonad 0.8.1 with the borders around the windows and focusing. I am using the exact same configuration as on linux: import XMonad import XMonad.Hooks.DynamicLog import XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks import XMonad.Util.Run(spawnPipe) import XMonad.Util.EZConfig(additionalKeys) import System.IO main = xmonad $ defaultConfig { borderWidth = 1 , terminal= "urxvt" , normalBorderColor = "#ff0000" , focusedBorderColor = "#00ff00" } `additionalKeys` [((mod1Mask, xK_t), spawn "urxvt")] The linux version sets the focused window to have a green border and the rest of the windows to have a red border. When I use this on OSX, I can sometimes get a red border to partially show up around one of the terminals by resizing it, but I never get the focused green border. Is there some setting I am missing or is there something I need to do differently with OSX X11? Here are the links to the images if anyone wants a viz of what is going on. OSX: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30313430@N08/3882016252/ Linux: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30313430@N08/3882016216/ Thanks, Curtis

2 2