Subject: Re: RFC: an introduction to configuring sawfish
From: CAiRO <dev.null@gmx.net>
To: Adam <ack94598@yahoo.com>
Date: 13 Jan 2003 08:22:54 +0100
hi,
i'll just write down what comes to my mind while reading your howto.
> I have written an introduction to configuring sawfish, called "How
To
> Make Sawfish Do Nothing". The official version is and will be at
> http://www.ideogram.com/do-nothing/sawfish.html
> A text version is included below for your convenience.
maybe you should include a table of contents and the possibility to
download the raw, text and html version.
besides i think a chapter with links where to get further information
would be nice. i know, there is a misc chapter already. maybe add
more
links to themes repository etc. there?
> Some specific questions I have:
>
> Right now the instructions use the Configurator to set three
keybindings
> that could equally well be set in ~/.sawfishrc. Reasons to put it
in
> the .sawfishrc are (1) I seem to run into a bug losing the root
menu
> when I set too many keybindings at once, and (2) setting them in
the
> .sawfishrc makes the instructions shorter. Which do you prefer?
why don't you mention both of them in 2 subsections? i also think
they
have both advantages and disadvantages. if you are not a programmer
and
do not like to fiddle around with config files, sawfish-ui is your
friend. on the other hand it can be much faster/shorter to do it
through
your ~/.sawfishrc.
besides i wonder if everybody who is reading the howto is aware of
the
fact that the graphical configuration through sawfish-ui has it's own
config file (~/.sawfish/custom) while the user config file is
~/.sawfishrc.
> 0. Make sawfish your window-manager
>
> The default window-manager for GNOME is metacity. To replace it
with
> sawfish, enter at a terminal window:
>
> $ killall metacity; sawfish &
> (The $ represents the prompt, do not type it.) To save this setup
go
> to the GNOME menubar at the top of the screen, click Actions,
select
> "Log Out", check "Save current setup" on the popup dialog, click
OK,
> and then log in again.
especially if you are using debian you should use
$ update-alternatives --config x-window-manager
to set your default window manager.
if you've allowed user-x-sessions users might be able to start
sawfish
from ~/.Xsession.
some links to howtos on how to configure xfree on debian/redhat etc
might be useful here.
> 1. Root menu and Configurator
> Click the right-pointing triangle at the top-right corner of the
> dialog to get to more tabs.
>
> Click Move/Resize tab. Check the "Show current position of windows
> while moving" checkbox.
>
> Click Sound tab. Check the "Play sound effects for window events."
> checkbox.
>
> Click left-pointing triangle to go back to previous tabs.
these points above should maybe more sound like recommendations than
commands :)
besides, even if your readers are novices, they're not stupid. you
should explain why setting a certain option this way is recommended.
(eg. i doubt that everybody likes to have sound effects turned on)
> This procedure creates the file ~/.sawfish/custom. You should not
> edit it directly, however you can use the GUI to find the string
> corresponding to a desired key combination (for use in
~/.sawfishrc,
> step 2) by adding the keybinding using "Grab..." and reading the
> generated ~/.sawfish/custom.
point out more that ~/.sawfish/custom is the config file from
sawfish-ui. besides i think the part about finding strings is rather
confusing. maybe a chapter with tips & tricks would be better place
where to put this tip on how to find key combinations in the custom
file.
> $ sawfish-client -f restart
>
> If the problem remains, delete ~/.sawfish/custom and add the
> keybindings one at a time (Close the Configurator dialog after each
> keybinding added).
the file should probably renamed first to custom.save or something
before deleting it at once. after the custom files has been renamed,
sawfish has to be restarted.
> 2. Make ~/.sawfishrc
>
> Edit a file in your home directory called .sawfishrc, cut and paste
> the following text not including the cut lines into it, and save
the
> file.
a link to the OPTIONS file (the one that has all options commented
out
in it) might be usefull. http://www.unfactored.org/sawfish/OPTIONS
> 3. Create a theme
i wonder if it is really that good for novices to fiddle around with
themes. maybe it is more useful to write down the names of some good
minimalistic themes that can be found on the net by everybody.
so, that's all so far.
oh, one more thing. it seems that the window menu (process) hangs
sometimes in sawfish 1.2. (at least that's what i've experienced)
setting (setq menu-program-stays-running #f) in your .sawfishrc helps
a
bit.
greets,
CAiRO