[openbox] Placeing windows...

[Anthony Thyssen]

On Fri, 2 Mar 2012 05:05:47 +0100
meino.cramer at gmx.de wrote:
| Hi,
| 
| from a shell script I want to place the windows of certain
| applications in a specific size and position to a certain desktop,
| which is not necessarily the aktive one.
| 
| How can I acchieve this?
| 
There are quite a number of commands to 'control X windows'

   xdotool     -- it is in active devlopment - lots of options
                  also can generate xevents (mouse moves and key strokes
                  or wait for certain events than do something
                  (make a 'pull out window' from the edge for example)
   wmctrl      -- reasonable
   xwit        -- Quite good
   wmiface     -- A old KDE3-based window controller


Warning many windows can take a bit of time to appear.

I use a script called   xwin_find to watch for a window to appear
then report its X Window ID, so it can be re-positions, or iconified.

For example...
  ( firefox -P default -geometry 820x1000+530+70 & ) &
  if id=`xwin_find 60 ".* Mozilla Firefox"`; then
    echo "Main firefox window found (id=$id)"
    xwit -resize 1000 1000 -move 330 70 -iconify -id $id
  else
    echo "ERROR: Firefox Default window NOT FOUND!"
  fi

The script uses "xwininfo" (standard X utility) and can be downloaded from
  http://www.ict.griffith.edu.au/anthony/software/#xwin_find


There is also an application calls 'devilspie' which does similar but
works continuously waiting for new windows to action on, not just the
initial window.


As another example I used "xwit" to create a script that can 'jiggle' a
window to bring it to the users attention..
   http://www.ict.griffith.edu.au/anthony/software/#jiggle_window


For more info on getting Window IDs  (very useful things) see
  http://www.ict.griffith.edu.au/anthony/info/X/WindowID.hints



  Anthony Thyssen ( System Programmer )    <A.Thyssen at griffith.edu.au>
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
  "Now I've got the bead on you with MY disintegrating gun.
   And when it disintegrates, it disintegrates. (pulls trigger)
   Well, what you do know, it (the gun) disintegrated."
                 -- Daffy Duck -- Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a half century
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   Anthony's Castle     http://www.ict.griffith.edu.au/anthony/