No panel, just current deskname

the.armageddon · 2009-03-19 08:44:28

Hello Boys and Girls..

I'm still in progress theming my system. At the time, I'm using a pypanel, cause of its simplicity.
But it is far too much information for me. I only want a little text at the bottom-rigth of the desktop (the windows in fullscreen gaps this area, so it is definitly seen) which displays the current desktopname.

This is the only information I wan't and need to have on the screen.

I searched for aDesklets wich shows this information, but didnt find any. I also searched for a way to get the current desk via some bash-hacks. I'm using openboxWM.

The fastest thing would be a little C-App which pastes the name to stdout. This can then be used by conky or a similiar application.

Is it heavy to get this information via C or bash? Or is there even a proper solution made allready?

Hope someone knows.

Sincerely, arma

bavardage · 2009-03-19 08:57:36

You'd need xlib and read the value of
_NET_WM_CURRENT_DESKTOP and _NET_WM_DESKTOP_NAMES from the root window
http://standards.freedesktop.org/wm-spe … #id2506278

the.armageddon · 2009-03-19 09:01:23

Hmm, thank you.

Is the usage of the given lib simple, did you ever use it?

I've currently no time to test the code, perhaps in the evening (I'm @ work).

Thank you for reply, arma..

Joe_Arch · 2009-03-19 13:01:58

2 thoughts.

1) Conky may be able to do that. Might want to look it up in Conky's list of variables.

2) I may be getting my config files confused, but doesn't pypanel let you order the appearance of the clock, taskbar, etc, by having a section where you put a 1 by what you want at the leftmost, and a 5 at the rightmost? If so, have you tried putting a 0 for every element you don't want, leaving just the desktop name?

That's all I got.

bavardage · 2009-03-19 19:47:53

I have used the python bindings for xlib - it's not too tricky but just may take a little getting used to.. I'll see if I can bodge up a script now quickly.

Tenken · 2009-03-19 19:48:08

Visibility is an app that you might want to take a look at.

bavardage · 2009-03-19 20:03:55

Script made - just prints current desktop name to stdout.

#!/usr/bin/env python
from Xlib import display, Xatom
dsp = display.Display()
rootwin = dsp.screen().root

DESKTOP_NAMES = dsp.intern_atom("_NET_DESKTOP_NAMES")
CURRENT_DESKTOP = dsp.intern_atom("_NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP")

def get_names():
    names = rootwin.get_full_property(DESKTOP_NAMES, 0)
    names = names.value.split("\x00")
    return names

def current_desktop():
    return rootwin.get_full_property(CURRENT_DESKTOP, 
                                     Xatom.CARDINAL
                                     ).value[0]

try:
    print get_names()[current_desktop()]
except:
    print "error getting name"

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-19 08:44:28

No panel, just current deskname

#2 2009-03-19 08:57:36

Re: No panel, just current deskname

#3 2009-03-19 09:01:23

Re: No panel, just current deskname

#4 2009-03-19 13:01:58

Re: No panel, just current deskname

#5 2009-03-19 19:47:53

Re: No panel, just current deskname

#6 2009-03-19 19:48:08

Re: No panel, just current deskname

#7 2009-03-19 20:03:55

Re: No panel, just current deskname

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