[RELEASE] Openbox 3.4.3 and ObConf 2.0.2

Dana Jansens danakj at orodu.net
Sun Jul 22 11:37:51 EDT 2007


Introducing the one and only fantabulous Openbox 3.4.3!

It's been just over a month since 3.4.2 was released, and we have a
whole lot of new things for you all.

The full changelog is available on the website, here:
http://openbox.org/index.php/Openbox:Changelog#3.4.3

It's a little bit long so we'll highlight some of the important stuff.
This might get long too.

First off, Openbox has now been translated to Ukrainian. We now have
Openbox available in 24 different languages/localizations!

New actions for what we're calling "dynamic desktops". These actions
let you add and remove desktops with actions. What's especially new
and interesting is the ability to insert and remove desktops in the
middle instead of only at the end. So if you want a new Desktop 2, you
can just insert one, and all your other desktops will shuffle down
one. These actions are AddDesktopLast, RemoveDesktopLast,
AddDesktopCurrent, RemoveDesktopCurrent. They are all listed on the
website: http://openbox.org/index.php/Help:Actions

The client list menus (Middle click on the desktop background) have
new entries for adding and removing desktops.

Smart window placement now comes with a "center" option, to have it
center windows when it is placing them, rather than putting them in
the top left corner. ObConf 2.0.2 will let you change this option.

The new MoveResizeTo action. This action lets you move or resize a
window, and is very Xinerama-aware. You can use it to move a window to
any specific monitor. As well, you can use it to move a window to any
edge of any monitor! See the documentation for details on how to use
it: http://openbox.org/index.php/Help:Actions#MoveResizeTo

Windows will no longer be focused when they raise themselves. This was
a nice idea but it caused a lot of headaches for people, so it will no
longer be there.

The MoveFromEdge actions have been rolled into the MoveToEdge actions,
so you don't need two sets of bindings to move a window to any edge.

Themes can now specify all 4 colors used for SplitVertical gradients
if they wish to. See the theme specification for details:
http://openbox.org/index.php/Help:Themes#SplitVertical_gradients

Openbox is now extremely clever with regard to partial struts. This
means, for instance, if you have a panal that doesn't cover the whole
bottom of you screen, you will be able to fully use the areas to the
sides of the panel. This is especially important for Xinerama setups,
where you have a panel that is on only one monitor. Maximizing a
window on a monitor without a panel will now work as expected - it can
ignore the panel on the other monitor.

The MoveToCenter action has been improved for Xinerama support, but
has been obsoleted by the MoveResizeTo action which can do this and
more. It will likely be removed in a future release.

A few deprecated actions have been removed:
    * ShowDesktop and UnshowDesktop (Use ToggleShowDesktop instead)
    * ResizeRelativeVert and ResizeRelativeHorz (Use ResizeRelative instead)

You can now drag a window between desktops. When you are moving a
window and drag it to the edge of the screen, Openbox will flip to the
next desktop for you.

The desktop switching dialog has been removed in this release. Many
people were confused that Openbox didn't switch desktops instantly.
We'd like to find a way to bring the dialog back, maybe in a new form,
in the future.

The DirectionalFocus actions have been changed. You can now make
intereactive actions that don't use a modifier key. So if you used
these actions in a non-interactive way, they will no longer behave as
they used to. The DirectionalTarget actions have been added which let
you move focus in the same fashion, but non-interactively (i.e. it
moves as soon as you run the action).

The NextWindow, PreviousWindow, DirectionalFocus and DirectionalTarget
actions can now be customized if you don't like their default
behavior. By default, these actions will Focus, Raise, and Unshade the
window you select with them. Now, you can use the <finalactions>
option to specify which actions you'd like to perform. You can add
more actions that the default 3 if you'd like to, or maybe just not
have the window raise anymore. See the documentation for mroe details
on how to do this:
http://openbox.org/index.php/Help:Actions#NextWindow

Keyboard moving has been greatly improved. Now when moving a window
with the keyboard, you can use Shift and Control to change how the
window is moved:
    * Control-arrow will move the window by only 1 pixel at a time
    * Shift-arrow will jump the window to the next edge (just as the
MoveToEdge actions work).

Keyboard resizing has also been greatly improved. You can now resize
any edge of a window instead of only the bottom/right edges:
    * The first arrow will choose an edge to resize (then you can grow
or shrink the window on that edge)
    * Hitting an arrow perpendicular to your selected edge will choose
a different edge to resize
    * Shift-arrow will grow/shrink the window to the next edge (just
as GrowToEdge actions work)
    * Control arrow will grow/shrink the window by only 1 pixel

You can now specify the shortcut keys in your menus, instead of just
using the first letter in the string. Use an underscore to specify the
shortcut in the label. For example, label="XTe_rm" would make 'r' the
shortcut key to run XTerm in your menu.

You can now specify margins in the Openbox config file. These margins
are areas of the screen which maximized windows will not cover, and
where new windows will not be placed. Use these if you want to keep a
portion of your desktop background visible all the time - for
instance, if you run Conky and want to always be able to see it.
ObConf 2.0.2 will let you configure these.

The Execute action has changed a little. You can now specify the
command to be run with the <command> option. The default bindings and
menu have been changed to use this. However, the old <execute> option
will still work too.

The Decorate and Undecorate actions have been added to compliment the
ToggleDecorations action.

You can now use per-app settings to place a window on any edge of the
screen. The position options take values similar to -geometry for X
applications. "-n" uses the far edge, "+n" uses the near edge, so for
example <position><x>-0</x><y>-0</y></position> would place the window
in the bottom right corner. You can use "--n" and "+-n" to specify
negative numbers.

------------------------------

Along with this release comes ObConf 2.0.2, which includes bug fixes
and support for the latest features added in Openbox 3.4.3. This
release also upgrades ObConf to the Openbox 3.4.3 libraries, and you
will need to upgrade in order to use ObConf with Openbox 3.4.3.

The full changelog for ObConf 2.0.2 is available here:
http://openbox.org/index.php/ObConf:Changelog#2.0.2

------------------------------

You can download the new Openbox and ObConf releases from the Openbox
website: http://openbox.org/index.php/Openbox:Download

Cheers!



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