Re: RFC: an introduction to configuring sawfish
Here is my reply to the previously forwarded email feedback.
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Thank you for your email.
May I post your email on my website? I wish to record contributions
and show critiques so that future reviewers can read what has been
said and express agreement or disagreement.
To clarify, this is not a HOWTO. It is a recipe, simple step-by-step
instructions to achieve a particular configuration of sawfish, namely
the configuration I like to use.
As a recipe, it should be tasted first. If you don't like the results
of this recipe, you can go back and fiddle with it. You can look for
other recipies. You can eventually make up your own recipies. (I
will add a section on undoing the changes made.)
Novice users like my mom get confused if you offer them many options
at the beginning. They do not know enough to know what they want and
become afraid of making the wrong choice. That is why the recipe is a
simple linear sequence. (Although I will add links to optional steps
for experts.) (You could argue that users that inexperienced would
not use Linux and I am targeting the wrong audience, to which I have
no reply. The only way to find out is to put it out there and see if
people find it useful.)
An observant user following the instructions will notice that things
can be done differently. For example, someone who does not want sound
probably does not need to be told he can turn it off by unchecking the
checkbox labelled "Play sound effects for window events.". (I will
put [Optional] in front of some of the steps.)
I wrote this recipe because:
1. The existing sawfish documentation is scattered, sparse, and
outdated. I had to Google, read pages closely, and read functioning
examples (that were more complex than I needed) to figure out what to
do.
2. It is simple enough for novices. It is an excellent teaching
example because it doesn't do much (thus the name "How to make sawfish
do nothing"). There are few steps, the files to be created are short.
3. It is powerful enough for experts. I am an expert. I spend much
time fighting software that does things for me when I know exactly
what I want to do. I prefer software that does nothing.
This recipe touches on all the ways to configure and extend sawfish
short of modifying the source. After reading it an expert will be
able to use any theme or Lisp package and create his own, hopefully
saving him the hours of web browsing I spent.
I also believe that because sawfish is so easy to configure and the
results are so immediate, configuring sawfish can provide a gentle
introduction to programming for the non-programmer.
Responses to individual points:
> maybe you should include a table of contents and the possibility to
> download the raw, text and html version.
It is too short for a table of contents, and it is intended to be read
linearly, not as a reference. I see no reason to provide a download
when you can simply save the html to a file. I do not expect anyone
will need to read it more than once.
> 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?
There is a link to a themes repository under 4. More themes.
> 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.
This could be handled with an optional link as I mentioned above.
> 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.
This is mentioned at the end of 1. Root menu and Configurator.
> especially if you are using debian you should use
> $ update-alternatives --config x-window-manager
> to set your default window manager.
Thank you, I will look into this.
> 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.
~/.Xsession and configuring xfree are beyond the scope of the
document. I think experts will either know it or be able to figure it
out, while it is too much information for novices.
> 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)
See general comments above. I will add [Optional} before these steps.
> point out more that ~/.sawfish/custom is the config file from
> sawfish-ui.
I am not sure this is necessary.
> 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.
Yes, I will probably move finding key combinations to an optional
link.
> > 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.
I don't think it will help to save the file if sawfish always has
problems starting up with it.
I will add a note to restart sawfish.
> 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
I will add a link to this under 6. Miscellaneous.
> > 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.
I did not find any themes that did what I wanted, and why should I
keep looking when it is faster to create it? And, I believe that
creating themes using sawfish is easy enough for nonprogrammers. And,
there is no reason to use sawfish if you are not interested in
configuring it.
> 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.
Thank you, I will try it.
> CAiRO
Thank you for your time and effort. I found your input very helpful
and it forced me to think through and explain my goals for this
document. Please do not hesitate to continue sharing your thoughts.
Thanks,
Adam
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