Re: [rox-users] Window Opening Position

[Ken H. <ke...@ha...>]

On Tue, August 8, 2006 1:53 pm, Abrolag said:
> On Sun, 6 Aug 2006 23:39:39 +0100
> Abrolag <ab...@us...> wrote:
>
>> I know that OroboROX will position an app's opening window if it has no
>> saved preference itself, but is there a way that Rox Session can
>> intercept this so that at startup I can open various apps and have them
>> in exactly the position I want?
>
> Hmmm. Talking to myself now :(

Well, I _almost_ responded that devilspie could do the positioning bit for
you, but not the saving bit.  The problem is that devilspie a) doesn't see
window destroy events, b) has no way to write to files.

> OK I've done a bit of thinking, and a bit of looking around.
>
> It would seem that the way to do this would be to have a panel applet
> that started up other apps (This would in itself be a lot cleaner than
> putting commands in an 'autostart' directory). The applet would then
> move the (now open) windows to their required positions.

Well, you could still use the AutoStart directory, but just have a nice
utility that creates and maintains the contents.  Your applet would just
write small shell scripts to launch the app and somehow do the
positioning.

Or, maybe just automate the devilspie scripts for the windows you are
tracking?

> I would guess the most effective way for this to be initiated would be
> for the user to drag an open window onto the applet, which would then
> record the window's current position and the application it comes from
> to a preferences file. It would then use this information to do the
> startup and positioning.

I don't think you could drag the open application window onto an applet. 
Maybe have the applet list all current open windows and positions
(libwnck? or plain xlib stuff?)  Then in a gtk_listview have a checkbox
for which ones to save.  Also, what desktop, whether to only set the
position, or the size too, ...

> Maybe this could be incorporated into a pager-on-steroids type of
> thing.

Pager already uses libwnck, so the list of windows should be easily
available.

> I would like to be involved in such a project, but would not have the
> faintest idea how to set it up. Although I've helped a little bit with
> OroboROX, I'm very much a patcher and refiner not an original program
> writer.

I tend to start by finding an existing app that has a lot of what I want
already (whether it is behavior, or just look-and-feel) and start
modifying it.  You already mentioned Pager - why not start with that and
see how far you can get?


Ken