Introduction to FvwmButtons

taviso · Last edited by taviso on Fri May 21, 2004 1:25 pm; edited 1 time in total

FvwmButtons, also known as GoodStuff, is sometimes overlooked by new fvwm users, despite being the most powerful software for creating desktop panels available today.

I've written this guide to introduce FvwmButtons to new users, and take anyone interested step by step through creating a simple panel. Hopefully this will help get you started a little quicker than the man page alone

.

This is the panel I am going to create.

http://dev.gentoo.org/~taviso/goodstuff1.png

It's very simple, has a set of nine buttons that can be bound to applications or window controls. It also has an xclock along the top.

Of course, FvwmButtons has many, many features I havn't mentioned here, but this should be enough to get started

Step 1: Planning

Fvwm uses a flat text based configuration, which is not an intuitive method for designing user interfaces. The solution is to use a graphics package to create a template to work from. You can use any package you like, The GIMP, xpaint, dia, or even xfig.

Here is a screenshot of me planning this panel in dia..

http://dev.gentoo.org/~taviso/goodstuff2.png

As you can see I have an outline and the approximate layout of the buttons all plotted in dia. Don't worry about this template being perfect, we are just going to use it to estimate the dimensions in the next step.

Step 2: Dimensions

Now that you have a template to work from, you can calculate what the minimum grid size you will need in order to contain your buttons.

This is a lot simpler than it sounds, we just need to know how many rows and columns we should split our panel into. Each button can take up any whole number of grid squares, so we just have to make sure we have enough.

http://dev.gentoo.org/~taviso/goodstuff3.png

As you can see, we need a minimum grid of 7 rows and 3 columns so that each button occupies a whole number of grid squares. The top button requires one row and 3 columns, the other buttons need 2 rows and 1 columns.

Step 3: Create Buttons

Now that we have the dimensions needed, we can make an absolute minimum FvwmButtons configuration to test the dimensions.

You can tweak the button geometries and grid size until everything looks right.

blue.sca · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 10:11 am Post subject:

YOU ARE TOO COOL

thank you, you brought me to fvwm and now you will get me deeper and deeper

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X · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 4:08 pm Post subject:

Thanks.

That was an informative document.

ikaro · Advocate Joined: 14 Jul 2003 Posts: 2527 Location: Denmark

I think i can do some cool things with this ....

Thanks !

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tommy_fila · Guru Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 450 Location: Phoenix, AZ

Great work! Thank you so much for your contributions to the community! Keep it coming!

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Chickpea · l33t Joined: 03 Jun 2002 Posts: 846 Location: Vancouver WA

This is the best explanation of FvwmButtons I have read. I finally understand what those geometry numbers

Souperman · Posted: Wed May 19, 2004 7:10 pm Post subject:

monotux · Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 1:55 am Post subject:

wow, this was some really good reading!
I've been struggling to understand how your "FvwmShelf" works (so I can take some of it's functions hehe), but now I decided to make one of myself, and it actually works!

thanks, man

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Moloch · Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 2:36 am Post subject:

Wow pertty, I may have to try FVWM. I've been using KDE cause I'm too lazy. I don't mind an initial setup, but I need an quick and easy way to add new applications with an icon.

kosine · n00b Joined: 02 Oct 2003 Posts: 57

a good tutorial, help me a lot to understand your FvwmShelf

paramthegreat · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 12 Aug 2002 Posts: 78

what code do i need to add to make the buttons have a tooltip. i am making a button bar that has 1 row and 9 buttons. i do not want to add titles as i want the bar to be fairly small.
thanx,
paul
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mikegpitt · Advocate Joined: 22 May 2004 Posts: 3224

soigres · Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:00 pm Post subject:

i want an autohide taskbar on the left side... can i put there the fvwmtaskbar or is it better to make my own taskbar with fvwmbuttons and fvwmwindowmenu? i can use Swallow or Panel options in fvwmbuttons to have windows list... not? or what else?

taviso · Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 10:11 am Post subject:

soigres · Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 10:13 am Post subject:

njmartin88 · Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:34 pm Post subject:

Surprised nobody has asked this yet. Maybe because its a stupid question :lol:

but...

Where did you get your icons from?

EDIT: Never mind, found it looking through your .fvwm2rc. Thanks for this great HOWTO.

spadearcher · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 8:34 am Post subject:

I've been trying to implement Taviso's instructions above for creating a panel of buttons, but am failing to understand exactly what I do in response to the following step:

"You can enter this in your fvwm2rc and restart, or paste it into an FvwmConsole. I've used DestroyModuleConfig so that if you paste the configuration into FvwmConsole twice, fvwm knows that you are not trying to continue the same configuration.

"Now lets try starting the panel, enter the following into your FvwmConsole

"Code:
"Module FvwmButtons -g 178x207 LaunchTime""

Specifically, what do I label what I "paste" and into which "FvwmConsole" -- FvwmConsole directory or existing FvwmConsole file, or create a new one in the FvwmConsole directory, and where do I insert the "Module..." code line???

I'm at a real loss to understand what I am actually expected to do at this point. Am I really being that dense?

ThomasAdam · Guru Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 448 Location: England

spadearcher · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 7:27 pm Post subject:

Thomas: Please, a bit more further clarification regarding "FvwmConsole," where to find it, etc.

Here's the path through which I've located items labeled "FvwmConsole:"

/root/fvwm-2.5.19/modules/FvwmConsole.

That of course is a directory. Within that are files labeled "FvwmConsole" and others variously labeled "FvwmConsole" *.

Do I create a new FvwmModule for this purpose, or add my code to one of the existing ones?

What am I missing in my undersanding of all this, which is presented by you and Taviso as fairly simple and straight-forward?

Thanks (yet again) for your help.

ThomasAdam · Guru Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 448 Location: England

spadearcher · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 8:43 pm Post subject:

Thomas: I'm beginning to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Executing "fvwm-config -m" gets me "/usr/local/libexec/fvwm/2.5.19"

When I go there I see a listing of many files, of which three are designated "FvwmConsole," FvwmConsoleC" and "FvwmConsoleC.pl" respectively.

Again, to get back to where I started from, into which do I paste Taviso's multi-lined button code?

Also -- and here I'm really dumb -- what action do you mean by the verb "issue" when you instruct me regarding what to do with "Module FvwmConsole"? (As I'm a lawyer, I'm aware that ordinary words in each profession often become "terms-of-art" with special meanings.)

You're up late again! Regards, Jim

ThomasAdam · Guru Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 448 Location: England

spadearcher · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:27 pm Post subject:

Thomas: Further to your instructions:

If I wanted to paste a "module configuration" into "FvwmConsole," of the three I located -- "FvwmConsole," FvwmConsoleC" and "FvwmConsoleC.pl" -- when I "cat" them the first two do not seem to be text files. Only the last one is. Therefore if I attempt to paste the "module configuration" (which is in text format ) into "FvwmConsole" (which does not appear to be in text format), how does that work or how do I manage it?

I am quite coversant already with adding instructions to my pre-exiting menu, so that should be no problem. It might also be useful to have the button panel I am trying to configure appear on startup. My main problem as I perceive it, now is (yet again) how and where to paste the "module configuration." It may not appear so yet, but you're being very helpful, and I believe I really am learning along the way (albeit slowly). Thanks again. Jim

ThomasAdam · Guru Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 448 Location: England

spadearcher · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:12 pm Post subject:

Thomas: OK, you've said the magic words!

"...when you launch FvwmConsole from FVWM, it opens up its own window into which you can paste whatever you want -- it's that window you want." Previously I was trying to work via the command line, not from within FVWM. I have now created a "FvwmConsole" menu item from within FVWM (which I could also have accomplished via the command line by modfying my "menus-extra" file), and -- as you predicted -- I now have a screen in which to paste my configuation code. How very simple! Why didn't you say so in the first place!!! (Lame joke.)

Now I can proceed, and you can go to bed -- if you ever really do so!

Also re your comment "You shouldn't be cat'ing anything into anything," I use the "cat" command to read files without or prior to editing them., i.e., "cat (file-name)" | more.

Thanks ever so much. Jim