about SawFish

[Lynn David Newton]

  David> E has eye candy...but not the one feature I
  David> wanted (binding mouse keys randomly).

Randomly?? That should make your workday interesting.

  David> GNU doesn't have jack to do with
  David> programability.

Quite correct. Mea culpa.

My roots in open source go back to 1987 when I first
started using GNU Emacs 18.somethingsmall, at which
time I was endlessly amazed and entertained to have a
colossally powerful text-whacking system at my disposal
that I could program to do whatever I want. Today the
world of things labeled GNU covers a vast universe of
software, but sometimes my roots show through in what I
say.

  David>		 The rep language (lisp like)
  David> does.

Right. Would have been nice if it had been Guile. Yes,
I am already familiar with the excuses given why it is
not. (It's in the FAQ.)

  David> \_ On the other hand, Sawfish is presently at version 0.36

  David> zzzt. 1.0.1. sawfish.sourceforge.net

Good! Is it safe to install the RPM on RH 7.1, or
should I get the .tgz and build it from source?

  David> \_ ... seems to be lacking
  David> \_ entirely some features I want and need, or at least
  David> \_ that I haven't been able to locate readily.

  David> What are you looking for? Depending, you can
  David> write it yourself.

Ha! Maybe in a few months when I get the time to learn
rep. For now I just want to be able to use the
configuration tools that are provided so I can get up
to speed and not feel crippled.

My problem is undoubtedly simply one of terminology, of
not knowing what's what and what's where.

FWIW, one of the primary features I depend on in a
window manager (or desktop manager, whatever component
supplies it), is a virtual desktop with a pager, as
it's called in FVWM. BTW, I used FVWM for years,
without a desktop manager.

I don't need multiple *desktops*, just a grid of pages
within a single desktop that I can put windows in. (3x2
or 3x3 usually suffices.) (I never saw the point of
having that extra layer of multiple desktops on top of
multiple pages.)

What I *do* have presently operating is a teeeeny-tiny
virtual window map called a "Desk Guide" in my panel,
with each page taking up about 1/16-inch of real
estate. I need a virtual desktop navigation system on
my desktop. (In Enlightenment I use keyboard commands
to shuffle them 90% of the time rather than clicking on
the pager map, but I haven't had Sawfish running long
enough to start binding keys. It's only been up an
hour.)

I'm sure someone will tell me there's a way to put a
pager (or whatever the magic word for that *thing* is)
right on my desktop from Gnome, and that Sawfish has
nothing to do with it. However, Enlightenment has a
rather nice (glitzy) pager.

I've also subscribed to mail lists long enough to
anticipate that someone will assure me I'm a bozo for
not already knowing the answer.

  David> My first amusement was writing code to allow
  David> windows to be moved/resized using elliptical
  David> outlines.

That I'd love to see.

-- 
Lynn David Newton
Phoenix, AZ