Window Maker Applications Menu
Some ideas for use within the Window Maker Preferences Utility. Some of these settings are specific to my configuration: screen resolution, fonts available, logfiles generated, etc.
My basic goal was to quickly open some common windows via items from the Application menu. Micq is normally off to the left about 2/3 down, and for testing, a tail following access_log on the lower left, and another following ipflog on the lower right of the screen. I also wanted to use smaller fonts than the default.
After some experimenting, I found wTerm to be nicer to work with and use less memory than xTerm. The xTerm and Rxvt menu items sat one click away on the Applications menu, those were removed. In their place is the custom item Terminal, and a submenu which has the other custom items listed here. Use wterm -help to get a list of options for use when launching wterm, and for more options in general see man X. The X man page is rather long, to get a list of installed fonts use xlsfonts. RGB colors are 16 bit hex values seperated by slashes.
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micq |
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wterm -geometry 50x27+0+336 -tr -fn '-schumacher-clean-medium-r-normal-*' -e micq
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Here is one place the screen resolution is important, the geometry option specifies the size and location of the window. 50x27 means the window is 50 characters wide by 27 high, and +0+336 corresponds to 0 pixels from the left edge, and 336 pixels from the top. tr means the background is transparent, and fn specifies a font name. Finally, micq is the command to execute immediately.
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access_log |
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wterm -title 'access_log' -geometry 130x11+0+626 -tr -fn '-schumacher-clean-medium-r-normal-*' -e tail -f /var/www/logs/access_log
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In this case, a title is used for the wterm window. This shows as the window title, otherwise it would be titled tail since that's what is actually called when opening it. The window is wider and shorter than normal at 130x11 characters, and sits nicely at the bottom left corner of the screen. I tried the geometry option of +0-0 and it did place it in the lower left, but it seemed everytime I restarted Window Maker the access_log window inched its way up from the bottom. This window is also transparent and the log file is followed in realtime.
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ipflog |
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wterm -title 'ipflog' -geometry 150x13+244+606 -tr -fn '-schumacher-clean-medium-r-normal-*' -e tail -f /var/log/ipflog
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This one follows the ipf log file. I want it on the bottom right corner of the screen, with its title bar sitting just above the access_log window. This is accomplished by making the window 13 characters high, and using an offset 244 pixels from the left edge of the screen. The font is the same as the one used for micq and access_log, it is an easy to read font at this small size. Keep in mind though that the wildcard may match a different font on other systems.
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Terminal |
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wterm -bg black -fg rgb:ee00/ee00/9000 -geometry 80x40 -fn '-schumacher-clean-medium-r-normal--10-100-75-75-c-60*'
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Terminal is a window I use as my main terminal. I got rid of the xTerm and Rxvt menu items and added this one. It uses a background color of black, and a foreground color I specify in RGB, I'm told it's Canary Yellow. I like it to be a bit larger than the default wTerm size, so man pages fit left to right for example. But I don't want to specify a location, WM can handle that based on other preferences. Also, the font is more specific, instead of finding the smallest match, I use a wider format to make it easier to read. Also, the command for this is Run Program instead of Execute Shell Command.
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Terminal 2 |
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wterm -sl 500 -bg black -fg rgb:9000/ee00/9000 -geometry 80x40 -fn '-schumacher-clean-medium-r-normal--10-100-75-75-c-60*'
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Terminal 2, for lack of a better name at this time, is similar to Terminal above. The main difference is that it has a scrollback buffer of 500 lines instead of the default (64?). This is useful at times, but not always necessary. The green on black text is easy to read and reminds one of a true terminal, quickly distinguishes it from the other Terminal.
Created June 23, 2001