A TWM that can use Trayer/Tint2? Plus some other things I "need" in it

SomeGuyDude · 2009-03-30 14:13:58

I know the beauty of TWM and all, but here's the real problem I'm having: I want to use my tray/bar setup. I've got it exactly how I want it and I don't want to mess with it right now. Specifically, I have conky, tint, and trayer all on the same line so I have maximal real estate going.

But every time I try a TWM I totally lose my ability to use those things. Now I can deal with not having my beloved right-click menu I guess, but I definitely need the following:

1) Alt-F2 run dialog
2) My tray and taskbar area untouched
3) ONLY three windows tiled (browser, chat room, IM window), all else should float
4) Not native taskbar thing

That' it, but for the life of me I can't configure any to do it. Maybe Awesome does but I'm not spending the six hours necessary to learn the language.

Ashren · 2009-03-30 14:43:17

XMonad can do everything listed above.

1. Bind gmrun in to alt+f2 in xmonad.hs.
2. Use defaultGaps in xmonad.hs to make room for your tray/taskbar/panel.
3. Set it up so that your default layout is floating. Then set up your manageHooks so that your IM, browser and IRC behaves the way you want them too.

Setting up XMonad is not exactly easy though.

If you're only going to tile three applications perhaps it would be easier for you to use PekWM or Openbox. In both you can define how specific applications should behave when they are opened i.e. you could set to tile in a specific pattern of your choosing. And everything else will float.

Perhaps using a startup script + stiler would fit your needs.

Gigamo · 2009-03-30 14:46:25

awesome easily does all of it. System tray and run dialog are included by default (mod + F1 to run something), and disabling the statusbar and setting application rules is very simple as well.

Ofcourse when you disable the built-in statusbar you're not going to have its systray, but then again you can just create a simple wibox only containing a systray instead.

SomeGuyDude · 2009-03-30 14:53:37

Ashren wrote:

If you're only going to tile three applications perhaps it would be easier for you to use PekWM or Openbox. In both you can define how specific applications should behave when they are opened i.e. you could set to tile in a specific pattern of your choosing. And everything else will float.
Perhaps using a startup script + stiler would fit your needs.

Hm. Any indication on how to get that done in OB? I got on this kick because I wanted to tile in OB but the tile-window package proved pretty un-helpful.

Ashren · 2009-03-30 15:01:47

Try out stiler then. Bind its different tiling methods to keys in OB. Excerpt from stilers readme:

simple - The basic tiling layout . 1 Main + all other at the side.
left,right - Does the new windows7 ish style of sticking to the sides.
swap - Will swap the active window to master column
cycle - Cycle all the windows in the master pane
vertical - Simple vertical tiling
horizontal - Simple horizontal tiling
maximize - Maximize the active window/ for openbox which doesn't permit resizing $
max_all - Maximize all windows

It has been a while since I used OB and I can't quite remember how set window size and position per application on startup, but AFAIK it is possible.

Inxsible · 2009-03-30 20:21:27

I desisted from posting in this thread, because I thought you only wanted infor pertaining to TWM -- which I have never used. But since others have suggested you different WMs, I will go ahead and add my own 2 cents.

musca supports all that you want. I use it almost exclusively now. it uses dmenu which acts as a run dialog as well. You can however still choose to install gmrun or any other run dialog program that you want.

But I agree with Ashren, that if you want only a few types of windows tiled, then openbox or pekwm or even fluxbox would be a better way to go about it. In OB, you can set up per app rules in the rc.xml file under the

<applications></applications>

Note that you will have to get the WM_CLASS values for the apps that you want to tile. Use the geometry attributes to position them with/without decor and any other options that you might want.

Using scripts like wumwum or the above mentioned stiler is also another option.

Last edited by Inxsible (2009-03-30 20:23:14)

SomeGuyDude · 2009-03-31 02:42:26

Hah! Awesome. I'll start tinkering.

...granted I'm starting to get bored with everything working and am on the verge of trying a bunch of new crap, but hey.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-30 14:13:58

A TWM that can use Trayer/Tint2? Plus some other things I "need" in it

#2 2009-03-30 14:43:17

Re: A TWM that can use Trayer/Tint2? Plus some other things I "need" in it

#3 2009-03-30 14:46:25

Re: A TWM that can use Trayer/Tint2? Plus some other things I "need" in it

#4 2009-03-30 14:53:37

Re: A TWM that can use Trayer/Tint2? Plus some other things I "need" in it

#5 2009-03-30 15:01:47

Re: A TWM that can use Trayer/Tint2? Plus some other things I "need" in it

#6 2009-03-30 20:21:27

Re: A TWM that can use Trayer/Tint2? Plus some other things I "need" in it

#7 2009-03-31 02:42:26

Re: A TWM that can use Trayer/Tint2? Plus some other things I "need" in it

Board footer