[openbox] New user - openbox 3.4 - two questions

[Anthony Thyssen]

On Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:20:06 -0600
"David Feldman" <wb0gaz at hotmail.com> wrote:

| I'm using Openbox 3.4 with xorg and have a couple of basic questions.
| My project involves manually controlling the layout of the display
| screen so that every program runs with -geometry specification.
|
| 1. Openbox is re-positioning a window of one application (xv) where I
| specified in the -geometry parameter (of xv) that the window would be
| along the top of the X display area (that is, -geometry +400+0, for
| example, where +0 means "top"). The window ends up maybe 20 pixels
| down from the top of the screen - it initially starts at the top of
| the screen, then seems to be immediate relocated vertically down this
| way. I can start xterm displays successfully this way (aligned to the
| top of the screen) but with xv I get this unexpected repositioning. I
| tried editing ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml, to change the section
| <resize><popupShow> from Nonpixel to Never, but that was basically a
| guess and it didn't help.
|
As a Openbox user (and formally a CTwm user) and a long time XV user I
can pretty well say that XV is its own worse enemy with regards to image
placement.

Every time the XV program resizes its displace window, it attempts to
'correct' its window placement on screen.   The result is a slight shift
of the window by a couple of pixels generally downward and either left
or right each an every time the size of the image being displayed
changes.

Of course once it hits the left or bottom edges (ignoring any panels or
other 'fluff') it also automatically adjusts the position to keep the
image on screen, by resizing to absolute maximum and forcing the window
manager decorations OFF SCREEN.  It is the XV programs handling of the
window manager decorations that it stuffs up, and causes the position
shift.

I myself find this VERY annoying, but I know it is not the fault of
Openbox.  On the other hand the openbox decoration from the 'theme' does
effect the amount of this slow window shift.  You can minimize the
movement by

  1/ Adjust the theme to minimise "border.Width" though removing the
     border width entirely is not a good idea.

  2/ Remove decorations from the 'XVroot' window in your openbox
     "rc.xml" file.

        =======8<--------
        <!-- Remove decorations from XV root window -->
        <application class="XVroot">
          <decor>no</decor>
        </application>
        =======8<--------

     To move the window afterward use the 'Alt-mouse' window grab to
     re-position window.

I have been wanting to dig into the XV source code to fix this, but have
yet to do so.   But somehow fixing the XV code is the best way of fixing
the problem.  Either by getting it to never re-position, or only it if
it really has to, to fit the image on screen.

You or someone else is welcome to have a go.  See if you can find a XV
forum or something to forward the problem on to.

I am not a stranger to XV source code having previously supplied a patch
to make the code easier to modify to adjust the XV thumbnail size,
initial tiling array size, and maximum number of browser windows.  This
was incorperated into the 2007 jumbo patch.

I have also worked out a patch to fix the 'slideshow' time handling
and add a 'Wait/Resume' key for the slideshow (though it probably should
change the mouse pointer or something to indicate it is paused).

See my XV mod notes
   http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~anthony/info/graphics/xv_mods.hints

| 2. I am interested in finding a task bar or similar utility to use with
| openbox. I'd like to find something that lets me navigate among open windows
| by a mouse click, rather than alt-TAB which I'm now using. The catch is I'm
| looking for something that avoids library dependencies to the extent
| possible - several such utilities I tried had unresolved (.so) dependencies
| and in my application, I'm trying to minimize these dependencies because
| they can lead to "dependency hell" where I am chasing for too long various
| libraries-needed-by-other-libraries and such. Any suggestion?
|
Sorry, I use Gnome with Openbox at this time, for its panels and file
browser.  though I do plan to explor other posibilities.

  Anthony Thyssen ( System Programmer )    <A.Thyssen at griffith.edu.au>
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    It's always the details that get you in trouble.
                                   -- Rick Cook, "Wizardry Cursed"
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     Anthony's Home is his Castle     http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~anthony/