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Re: X - window manager - desktop



On Fri, Nov 08, 2002 at 01:01:46PM -0500, Bruce Park wrote:
> Paul, I too find having a desktop unnecessary. I do prefer using the 
> command line most of the time because it's quicker. By the time I reach for 
> my mouse, I've already wasted a good second when I could have type 5 or 
> more characters. The reason why I want a desktop is purely for its looks. 
> other times, I may use nautilus to peek at a page with 2 files and I dont' 
> know which is which. Sure I can use a UNIX command to do this but sometimes 
> this is easier and neater. Another reason why I like to have it is because 
> I love having multiple emacs windows open. I usually open 2 files in one 
> window and have about 2 more windows open when I'm developing software. 
> Here, the mouse comes in handy but thats because I haven't gotten used 
> using the alt-tab key yet.

I would suggest you have a look at sawfish then.  It's scriptable using
a lisp dialect (rep) which isn't as scary as it sounds.  I've set it up
so I hardly ever need to touch my mouse:

* shift+f1 opens up a new Eterm

* ctrl-meta-{z,x,c,v,b} controls XMMS from anywhere in X

* ctrl-meta-kp{7,9,1,3,5} moves the current window to the desired corner
  (5 moves it into the centre of the screen)

* ctrl-meta-kp{4,8,6,2} moves the window in the desired direction until
  it hits something

* ctrl-meta-[cursor key] moves the window focus in that direction

* ctrl-alt-[cursor key] moves the window a little in the desired
  direction

* alt-f{5,6,7} maximises the window in both directions, horizontally and
  vertically, respectively.

* shift-alt-f{5,6,7} does the same, but will only fill in free space

Combined with things like winner-mode in emacs and 8 separate virtual
workspaces (ctrl-f{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8}), I hardly ever have to touch the
mouse.  Web browsing is the big one, but the scroll wheel makes it
almost bearable.

-rob

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