[SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

Whef · 2012-11-15 06:42:07

After recently learning Vim, then installing Vimperator on Firefox, I've found that using the keyboard for navigating links and the like to be the shit.

Naturally, I want to extend this to my window manager. So, is there any way to really use awesome without a mouse? For instance, accessing the tray icons...

I'd be very appreciative of any keyboard shortcuts relevant to this, or if awesome doesn't support this all that well, a list of some other window managers that do would be much appreciated.

Last edited by Whef (2012-11-16 10:37:56)

jasonwryan · 2012-11-15 07:02:16

When I started my new job in May, it took three days before I bothered to hunt up a mouse - and that was only for Libreoffice. That is using dwm.

The obvious contender, though, would surely be ratpoison.

Antoine · 2012-11-15 13:41:59

Whef wrote:

Naturally, I want to extend this to my window manager. So, is there any way to really use awesome without a keyboard? For instance, accessing the tray icons...
I'd be very appreciative of any keyboard shortcuts relevant to this, or if awesome doesn't support this all that well, a list of some other window managers that do would be much appreciated.

I think you mean "use awesome without a mouse," right? The keybindings are all in rc.lua, and you can define your own. Awesome is designed to be used without a mouse (although, I'm a right-click kind of guy myself). Or:

http://awesome.naquadah.org/wiki/Awesome_3.x

Whef · 2012-11-15 22:30:31

Antoine wrote:

Whef wrote:
Naturally, I want to extend this to my window manager. So, is there any way to really use awesome without a keyboard? For instance, accessing the tray icons...
I'd be very appreciative of any keyboard shortcuts relevant to this, or if awesome doesn't support this all that well, a list of some other window managers that do would be much appreciated.
I think you mean "use awesome without a mouse," right? The keybindings are all in rc.lua, and you can define your own. Awesome is designed to be used without a mouse (although, I'm a right-click kind of guy myself). Or:
http://awesome.naquadah.org/wiki/Awesome_3.x

Yeah, I meant without a mouse. Fixed it.

ngoonee · 2012-11-15 23:29:58

You need to specify what 'use' means in your case. Most of us (a generalized 'us' referring to tiling wm users) hardly see the need for accessing tray icons, for example (I only need to do so for dropbox if I have to set its proxy settings, for example, and even that is probably scriptable), but you seem to. I don't think any of the tiling wms has built-in support for that specifically. Check out iocane (or whatever its name is) in community contributions.

Whef · 2012-11-15 23:51:46

ngoonee wrote:

You need to specify what 'use' means in your case. Most of us (a generalized 'us' referring to tiling wm users) hardly see the need for accessing tray icons, for example (I only need to do so for dropbox if I have to set its proxy settings, for example, and even that is probably scriptable), but you seem to. I don't think any of the tiling wms has built-in support for that specifically. Check out iocane (or whatever its name is) in community contributions.

Pidgin, Spotify, Transmission (admittently all programs that I'll try to get rid of sooner or later) minimize to tray icon. So if I want to see my Pidgin buddy list I have to click on the tray icon.

jasonwryan · 2012-11-15 23:56:10

Don't minimise them: that's what a tiling window manager is for... Tag them and push the tag our of view and then pull it in as you need it.

WonderWoofy · 2012-11-16 02:04:29

I rather enjoy i3. The i3bar actually has a tray (that I don't use). I have ratpoison set up as well, and I use it from time to time. Also, I have dwm, but I am no dwm abuser like jasonwryan.

Learn how to use a tiling window manager correctly and you will see your mouse use decrease dramatically. I think you are probably too tempted by the floating capabilities of awesome. Use ratpoison for a week or two and you'll understand what a tiling window manager is all about.

Last edited by jasonwryan (2012-11-16 03:22:02)

Trilby · 2012-11-16 03:09:17

ngoonee wrote:

Check out iocane (or whatever its name is) in community contributions.

Wow, thanks for the bump. I don't know if iocane would really suit the OP's goals in it's current form. But this does inspire a new idea. I wonder how hard it would be to get all the information about the system tray items and make iocane actions for them. There are EWMH hints for this ... I'll look into these and post any progress on the iocane thread.

doug piston · 2012-11-16 03:42:47

WonderWoofy wrote:

I rather enjoy i3. The i3bar actually has a tray (that I don't use). I have ratpoison set up as well, and I use it from time to time. Also, I have dwm, but I am no dwm abuser like jasonwryan.
Learn how to use a tiling window manager correctly and you will see your mouse use decrease dramatically. I think you are probably too tempted by the floating capabilities of awesome. Use ratpoison for a week or two and you'll understand what a tiling window manager is all about.

I use awesome and never use a mouse/floating option. Between pentadactyl, ncmpcpp, dropbox cli, and irssi with bitlebee I have no need. I know the 'overall' feeling towards Awesome but its a good as you make it just like most tilers(though I've only used the one)

Edit: I am not trying to argue, just saying I think Awesome is a good as place as any to start.

Last edited by doug piston (2012-11-16 03:45:15)

ngoonee · 2012-11-16 03:43:17

Trilby wrote:

ngoonee wrote:
Check out iocane (or whatever its name is) in community contributions.
Wow, thanks for the bump. I don't know if iocane would really suit the OP's goals in it's current form. But this does inspire a new idea. I wonder how hard it would be to get all the information about the system tray items and make iocane actions for them. There are EWMH hints for this ... I'll look into these and post any progress on the iocane thread.

You're welcome, the project looks awesome (have not tried it due to time constraints though) and well thought out.

WonderWoofy · 2012-11-16 03:49:08

doug piston wrote:

WonderWoofy wrote:
I rather enjoy i3. The i3bar actually has a tray (that I don't use). I have ratpoison set up as well, and I use it from time to time. Also, I have dwm, but I am no dwm abuser like jasonwryan.
Learn how to use a tiling window manager correctly and you will see your mouse use decrease dramatically. I think you are probably too tempted by the floating capabilities of awesome. Use ratpoison for a week or two and you'll understand what a tiling window manager is all about.

I use awesome and never use a mouse/floating option. Between pentadactyl, ncmpcpp, dropbox cli, and irssi with bitlebee I have no need. I know the 'overall' feeling towards Awesome but its a good as you make it just like most tilers(though I've only used the one)
Edit: I am not trying to argue, just saying I think Awesome is a good as place as any to start.

I am not saying that awesome isn't... well... awesome. I am just implying that the OP is probably sontinuing to use the mouse because of the availability of the floating capabilities. This the suggestion to try ratpoison for a minute, and be forced into using tiling. You probably noticed that I mentioned I am an i3 and dwm user as well. Both of these have floating window funtionality too, so I certainly don't think it is a bad thing.

Whef · 2012-11-16 04:19:26

Thanks for all the suggestions!

You're probably right in that I'm abusing the mouse (thought it doesn't seem like it to me, since I'm used it from extensive Windows use - my brain is damaged). I'll definitely give these other window managers a chance when I have more time. dwm seems particularly inticing to me - I'm really amazed by the "configuration by changing source" idea.

doug piston · 2012-11-16 04:25:26

WonderWoofy wrote:

doug piston wrote:
WonderWoofy wrote:
I rather enjoy i3. The i3bar actually has a tray (that I don't use). I have ratpoison set up as well, and I use it from time to time. Also, I have dwm, but I am no dwm abuser like jasonwryan.
Learn how to use a tiling window manager correctly and you will see your mouse use decrease dramatically. I think you are probably too tempted by the floating capabilities of awesome. Use ratpoison for a week or two and you'll understand what a tiling window manager is all about.

I use awesome and never use a mouse/floating option. Between pentadactyl, ncmpcpp, dropbox cli, and irssi with bitlebee I have no need. I know the 'overall' feeling towards Awesome but its a good as you make it just like most tilers(though I've only used the one)
Edit: I am not trying to argue, just saying I think Awesome is a good as place as any to start.
I am not saying that awesome isn't... well... awesome. I am just implying that the OP is probably sontinuing to use the mouse because of the availability of the floating capabilities. This the suggestion to try ratpoison for a minute, and be forced into using tiling. You probably noticed that I mentioned I am an i3 and dwm user as well. Both of these have floating window funtionality too, so I certainly don't think it is a bad thing.

Fair enough and well put.

ngoonee · 2012-11-16 10:10:59

If your question is pretty much solved please do a favour to the forum's cleanliness and mark it solved.

Whef wrote:

Thanks for all the suggestions!
You're probably right in that I'm abusing the mouse (thought it doesn't seem like it to me, since I'm used it from extensive Windows use - my brain is damaged). I'll definitely give these other window managers a chance when I have more time. dwm seems particularly inticing to me - I'm really amazed by the "configuration by changing source" idea.

Otherwise known as 'recompiling all the time while tweaking'

Whef · 2012-11-16 10:39:52

ngoonee wrote:

If your question is pretty much solved please do a favour to the forum's cleanliness and mark it solved.
Whef wrote:
Thanks for all the suggestions!
You're probably right in that I'm abusing the mouse (thought it doesn't seem like it to me, since I'm used it from extensive Windows use - my brain is damaged). I'll definitely give these other window managers a chance when I have more time. dwm seems particularly inticing to me - I'm really amazed by the "configuration by changing source" idea.
Otherwise known as 'recompiling all the time while tweaking'

Right, forgot about that! Thanks for reminding me.

Also, the thing I'm amazed with is how much sense it makes (from a programmers perspective), and the fact that nobody else has done it before (edit: that I know of. ). It both forces upstream to keep their code clean, and the users of the software to really understand what's going on with the program. Definitely looking forward to trying that out.

Last edited by Whef (2012-11-16 10:40:34)

Trilby · 2012-11-16 12:06:25

Whef wrote:

... the fact that nobody else has done it before (edit: that I know of. ).

? You don't get out much (in the open source world) do you ?

I don't know if the suckless team was one of the first to take this approach - perhaps, they have certainly established a useful coding style / template for many others. But it has become very common in open source projects.

ZekeSulastin · 2012-11-16 15:28:55

Whef wrote:

It both forces upstream to keep their code clean, and the users of the software to really understand what's going on with the program. Definitely looking forward to trying that out.

It does? I don't need to know C to grab and apply patch off a website (like suckless' own) or to edit config.h to change my keybinds or client rules. Of course, writing my own patches would require such knowledge, but that's hardly unique to dwm (see: my minimal-knowledge remove-separator kludge for i3bar, people writing new awesomewm functions or layouts in Lua, etc).

Whef · 2012-11-16 22:37:08

Trilby wrote:

Whef wrote:
... the fact that nobody else has done it before (edit: that I know of. ).
? You don't get out much (in the open source world) do you ?
I don't know if the suckless team was one of the first to take this approach - perhaps, they have certainly established a useful coding style / template for many others. But it has become very common in open source projects.

Well, considering how I switched to Linux 3 months ago... yes. I'm still learning.

ZekeSulastin wrote:

Whef wrote:
It both forces upstream to keep their code clean, and the users of the software to really understand what's going on with the program. Definitely looking forward to trying that out.
It does? I don't need to know C to grab and apply patch off a website (like suckless' own) or to edit config.h to change my keybinds or client rules. Of course, writing my own patches would require such knowledge, but that's hardly unique to dwm (see: my minimal-knowledge remove-separator kludge for i3bar, people writing new awesomewm functions or layouts in Lua, etc).

Well, the way they phrased it on the website ...

dwm.suckless.org wrote:

You don’t have to learn Lua/sh/ruby or some weird configuration file format (like X resource files), beside C, to customize it for your needs: you only have to learn C (at least in order to edit the header file).

Makes it seem like you do have to know C to configure it.

Last edited by Whef (2012-11-16 22:37:30)

Trilby · 2012-11-16 22:43:47

Whef wrote:

Well, considering how I switched to Linux 3 months ago... yes. I'm still learning.

Then that makes sense. I think exploring dwm's code - or the code for any suckless project - is a great way to learn.

But I suspect as you explore other open source projects you will find the "suckless approach" to be fairly widely used.

Whef · 2012-11-16 23:36:25

Trilby wrote:

Whef wrote:
Well, considering how I switched to Linux 3 months ago... yes. I'm still learning.
Then that makes sense. I think exploring dwm's code - or the code for any suckless project - is a great way to learn.
But I suspect as you explore other open source projects you will find the "suckless approach" to be fairly widely used.

Good to hear! I look forward to getting into it.

Last edited by Whef (2012-11-18 01:34:23)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-11-15 06:42:07

[SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#2 2012-11-15 07:02:16

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#3 2012-11-15 13:41:59

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#4 2012-11-15 22:30:31

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#5 2012-11-15 23:29:58

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#6 2012-11-15 23:51:46

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#7 2012-11-15 23:56:10

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#8 2012-11-16 02:04:29

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#9 2012-11-16 03:09:17

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#10 2012-11-16 03:42:47

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#11 2012-11-16 03:43:17

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#12 2012-11-16 03:49:08

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#13 2012-11-16 04:19:26

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#14 2012-11-16 04:25:26

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#15 2012-11-16 10:10:59

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#16 2012-11-16 10:39:52

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#17 2012-11-16 12:06:25

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#18 2012-11-16 15:28:55

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#19 2012-11-16 22:37:08

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#20 2012-11-16 22:43:47

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

#21 2012-11-16 23:36:25

Re: [SOLVED] Using awesome wm without a mouse?

Board footer