mntnoe.com

I think it’s about time I post my updated XMonad configuration. This version does not require any patches, at XMonad 0.9 supports modular configurations natively.

New highlights:

• The application pager now uses icons
• Per application configuration.
• Minimize windows by using special workspaces

Note that I have converted my Colemak key bindings to Qwerty to give an idea of the placement I use. Also note that this work is not finished. There are still lot of things I want to behave differently, and I need to do some cleanup here and there.

Still, I hope you can get inspired by some of my ideas. Enjoy

• Whole config (incl. icons)

• xmonad.hs (html)
• App.hs (html)
• BorderColors.hs (html)
• Commands.hs (html)
• Config.hs (html)
• DMenu.hs (html)
• IM.hs
• Layout.hs (html)
• MyApps.hs (html)
• Pager.hs (html)
• Panel.hs (html)
• Utils.hs (html)
• Workspace.hs (html)

I have been using XMonad for about a year now and have finally put myself together to upload my customizations. Highlights:

• Labeled pager addon for DynamicLog
• Fast navigation between workspaces
• Application specific border colors
• Modified Scratchpad using GNU Screen
• Host specific settings (layouts and widgets)

To use these modules, you must put them in ~/.xmonad and then reenable support for user modules in your xmonad source. Simply look for a line in Core.hs containing runProces “ghc” ["--make", "xmonad.hs" ...] and remove the “-i” entry from the list. This switch was unfortunately added to fix a bug on case insensitive file systems. Note that a solution is under development, placing user modules in ~/.xmonad/lib, thus solving the issue with case insensitive systems, see issue 230.

I will try to make some darcs patches for xmonad-contrib if I get time. Until then, I hope you can get inspired by some of my ideas. Enjoy

• xmonad.hs (html)
• xmonad_qwerty.hs (html)
• BorderColors.hs (html)
• DMenu.hs (html)
• Dzen.hs (html)
• Layout.hs (html)
• Obsolete.hs (html)
• Pager.hs (html)
• ScratchpadPrime.hs (html)
• ServerMode.hs (html)
• Util.hs (html)

I have put myself together and cleaned up my Fvwm config to make it shareable:

fvwm-mntnoe-2008-08-1.tar.bz2

It is a 100 % keyboard driven Fvwm config, that aims to make window handling efficient by making the keyboard commands easy to hit. Two instances of conky (one is double buffered, the other in its own window) and xfce4-panel is visible in the screenshots.

All window handling uses the AltGr (right Alt on the US keyboard) key as modifier, to avoid conflicts with applications. AltGr is easy to reach, but seldom used, except for “local characters”. The most frequently used commands are the easiest to hit. For example, instead of using CTRL-F1,F2,F3,F4 to switch workspace, AltGr-U,I,O,P is used instead. The “root menu” is called with AltGr-L.

The window titlebar is replaced by a colored border; the color which depends on the application. This actually improves the readability (IMHO), as the “real” information comes closer to each other. Also it uses less screen space which is crucial on a 12″ laptop

Also, I found a copy of my original Fvwm config from 2005, so it’s available for download again, thanks to the guys at guistyles.com. The link at the post had been broken for a while.

If you need more flexibility than fvwm-menu-directory can give you, you can do the same with GNU find. All you need to do is to create a dynamic menu in your fvwm config

DestroyMenu MenuDaimi
AddToMenu MenuDaimi
+ DynamicPopupAction PipeRead "$[FVWM_USERDIR]/menus/my_menu.sh"

and let the shell script output the menu. I use it, for example, to keep a list of shortcuts to my assignments:

cat << eos
DestroyMenu recreate MenuDaimi
AddToMenu MenuDaimi
eos

echo '+ "dADS1"    Title'
find $HOME/A/aflv_* -name "*.tex" -printf
	'+ %%24x24/mimetypes/gnome-mime-application-x-tex.png%%"%f"\t
	Exec exec gvim -c "cd %H" %p\n'
...

(Note that the find command should be written as one line.) This will list all LaTeX files in $HOME/A/aflv_*, and selecting an entry will start GVIM in the corresponding directory. Nice…

One could get creative and sort the files after date, skip files more than a week old etc. But please be careful not to forget to actually work on the assignments

If you want to include the XDG menus (used in gnome) in your FVWM menu, have a look at Piotr Zieliński’s fvwm-xdg-menu. You’ll need PyXDG to make it work.

BTW he has many other exiting things in his config, so check it out.

Personally I prefer to start my applications from a terminal, but it is useful for programs you don’t use very often. And a little cool

Here are the keybindings I use for window management. As I use FVWM, they are written in FVWM syntax, but you should be able to understand them even if you are not using FVWM. You can easily test a keybinding by entering the line in question into the FVWM Console.

Please keep in mind that these keybindings are the ones that work for me. The best keybindings for you may depend on you way of work, type of keyboard and your preferences. continue reading…

FVWM is fast, reliable and extremely configurable. It puts you in control of your work habits, and can behave just the way you want it. If you work at your computer many hours a day, and want to do that efficiently, you should consider trying out fvwm.

You can’t really describe what FVWM is like. Unlike most other window managers, who has a more or less “specific” way of behaving, FVWM doesn’t have a specific behaviour. Your won’t get a great experience just because you use FVWM. But if you use FVWM with a nice configuration, we are talking a different story…

You’ll need to spend an certain amount of time fine-tuning your configuration. If you don’t have time for that, and is satisfied using the “mainstream environments”, FVWM is probably not for you.

Again, take a look at the thread I linked to in my last post. It contains a nice pep talk and demonstration of some of FVWM’s capabilities.

You may also look at fvwm.org. Unfortunately, the website tries to emulate a window manager, which makes navigating through it a pain. A bit pity if you ask me. Though it may not look so, FVWM is being actively developed.

I tried all sort of fancy stuff out there: Desktop suites, Skins, Desklets, SVG-icons, Mac-alike launchers, you name it. But I just couldn’t get satisfied. My box still wasn’t “nice” enough to work on.

Then one day, like many FVWM-using gentoo’ers did, I stumbled across taviso’s famous post at forums.fvwm.org. First impression: No iCandy? Forget it…

A little later, I saw some awesome screenshots at lynucs.org. Can’t find them now, but they whetted my appetite. I was soon working eagerly with different setups.

My first setup was a completely back-to-the-roots. It didn’t depend on big libraries, so it was fast, and didn’t crash for unexplainable reasons. If something was wrong, you could easily find out what. Oh, and it was, dare I say, good looking…

However, I spent too much time maintaining it, so I found some sort of compromise. My next setup included no fancy themes, and used “bigger” things like the panel from XFCE. This time, it was also fully keyboard driven. This is the one that has evolved to my current setup.

In the next couple of days, I will tell you some of the considerations I made during this period.