[openbox] OB3 questions and suggestions

[Scott Moynes]

Thanks for your input. Comments inline.
* Ilkka Pajari (ipajari at lut.fi) wrote:
> I didn't find any documents how to autostart programs. I tried to
> add my own made script (which launches gdeskgal, lineakd, gkrellm2 &
> Esetroot) to style-file (rootCommand: ..), but it didn't work. I
> have to run script manually every time I restart openbox.

This is a pretty frequently asked question. Openbox 2 had the
mis-feature of the rootCommand: in the style file. People could
distribute styles, which no one checked, with malicious code in the
rootCommand.
Openbox3 does not have anything similar. I imagine background image
setting will be done with a dedicated attribute in the new theme
format. However, people are redesigning the format so that is up in
the air. In the interim, there are several options. First, use
the scripts XFree86 executes on startup. (.xinitrc for startx,
xsession for xdm) You can also use your desktop environment's session
management features for this. (In my opinion, application starting is
part of the desktop environments' domain, so is best solved there.)
This has become asked for enough, I am considering writing a simple
third-party plugin to do this. I don't know if it will be accepted
into openbox3-proper as it is a pretty lame hack, but I will let the
list know when it exists so people can try it.

> Alt-tab is great thing, but it would be better if I can bypass gkrellm2
> & gdeskcal everytime when I press alt-tab (I can access them directly
> from desktop IF I need to configure them). Some kind of bypass-file
> might be good solution. If it's too hard to do or you think it's
> unneccessary, I can live without it. :)

Bypassing certain windows in the window lists is, I think, covered by
the freedesktop window manager specification. If your applications
don't set the correct hints, I don't believe it will be terribly
pretty to skip windows.

> Pager (or toolbar?) would also be useful. I don't know which workspace
> is currently in use, so "Send to workspace" is difficult to use.

There are several panels you can use. gnome-panel, kpanel, fspanel,
etc. etc. Any EWMHy panel will work.

Thanks again,
Scott
-- 
Scott Moynes http://www.icculus.org/openbox/
"Computer science is as much about computers
as astronomy is about telescopes." -- Dijkstra