Sorry it took so long to respond to this, but that happens
occasionally...
>>>>> "AR" == Andrew Renalds <renalds_at_abn_dev.abn.com> writes:
AR> I am the author of MFM - Motif File Manager. It is a NeXTSTEP
AR> look-and-feel filemanager for Unix. I would like to collaborate
AR> with the current maintainers of fvwm to integrate MFM with FVWM to
AR> create an easy to use public domain desktop. If you would be
AR> interested in such a proposition, please contact me.
Well, honestly I don't think I'd make any changes to fvwm to work with
any specific file manager (several reasons: don't want to bloat the
code, don't see where it buys a lot since most individual programs
won't respond to the drag and drop protocols, don't want to have to
support several different file managers with several different drag
and drop schemes, etc), but I'd like to make some suggestions here
that might make it possible from your end only.
Please bear in mind that I don't use any file managers myself, and
have never seen MFM in action.
AR> Some of the things others have suggested to me is:
AR> - drag-n-drop to/from GoodStuff Applications Launcher
Going with my above statement, I don't think I would ever make
GoodStuff (or rather FvwmButtons, the equivalent in 2.xx) have any
specific drag and drop capabilites.
But I think what might be better is to give MFM it's own toolbar (like
GoodStuff/FvwmButtons), which could perhaps be torn off (or made a
separate program entirely), and add code to MFM to allow it to be
compiled as an fvwm module.
Also, in the not too distant future there will be some modules that
will allow for shell script communication with a running fvwm, and an
idea similiar to that could be used as well (so MFM wouldn't have to
be invoked as a module).
And by building the toolbar into MFM, it would have drag and drop
functionality under any window manager, not just fvwm. And under
fvwm, it could also possibly perform fvwm specific window manager
functions (much like tkgoodstuff).
AR> - dynamic main window menu's
There are pseudo facilities to do this now in the 2.xx betas, and will
probably be slightly easier in the next beta (2.0.43) and the first
official release (2.1.0) which should be out shortly after that.
AR> - GUI interface to build .fvwmrc files
Actually, two of these exist right now that I know of:
- FvwmConfig, module included in 2.xx, but isn't very good as far
as I know (that's stated right in the man page - honestly I've
never even compiled it. Rob made it before he retired from
working on fvwm).
- The Dotfile Generator, which also can create .emacs and .tcshrc
files. Never seen it, but I've heard good things about it.
Check out the official fvwm web page (
http://www.hpc.uh.edu/fvwm/)
for a pointer to it.
Not trying to discourage you from adding one to MFM, just letting you
know that some exist.
Also, if certain little, prefferably generally applicable code changes
or additions to fvwm could make things easier, I may add them. I did
one such thing for the freeware OFFIX drag and drop protocol (see
http://gutenberg.lcmi.ufsc.br/OffiX for info on that, which I should
probably have a pointer to on the fvwm home page) that allowed client
message events to be passed on from an icon to the program instead of
being ignored, which I thought should probably be done anyways (even
though every window manager that I looked at seemed to just throw that
event out in this case).
Now, I should respond to a related note:
>>>>> "Bryan" == Bryan W Headley <bheadley_at_bheadley_at_interaccess.com> writes:
Bryan, check your sendmail.cf file ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ or tell your
provider that they may be munging the mail addresses...
Bryan> Guys,
Bryan> Have been trying to install 2.0.42 on HPUX 9.05. Either the X
Bryan> config files used by imake are totally fried or we're in big
Bryan> trouble. The files get through including sys/types.h and have
Bryan> the nerve NOT to know what a caddr_t is! (Or couse, HP has
Bryan> these things in there, about three levels deep into #if
Bryan> defined(_HPUX_SOURCE) et al.
I know several people on the mailing list have compiled under HPUX.
Bryan> Next issue: I'm closely associated with the mfm people. (mfm is
Bryan> a very nice desktop manager) What kind of work do you think the
Bryan> two groups should do make these two programs work more
Bryan> hand-in-hand?
See above.
Bryan> One area which seems a "must" is the ability to make a element
Bryan> on the buttonBar be a drag-and-drop receiver.
As you see in my above comments, I don't think it's a must (but that's
just me).
Bryan> In other words, if I drag a file off of mfm and onto a
Bryan> WordPerfect icon on the buttonbar, it'd be nice if WordPerfect
Bryan> could be 'taught' in invoke itself with the name of the file.
This would require coding changes on WordPerfect's part, for it to do
it itself, which is actually different from what you requested. The
button bar would have to be recoded to recognize the drop, and invoke
WordPerfect with that file passed as a command line parm to it. The
former would actually have much more functionality, as you could then
probably also drag onto a running WordPerfect...
Bryan> Another feature, which would be neat, but somewhat NeXT-ish,
Bryan> would be the ability for me to grab a binary, say, "NeXs", and
Bryan> move it into the buttonBar, thereby CREATING a new buttonBar
Bryan> icon for NeXs".
Good for a simple linear button bar, but the latest version of
FvwmButtons is more powerful layout wise. Besides, how would you tell
whether or not what you were dragging was meant to be a new button or
a parameter to another exec? And where to get the icon? This would
be much simpler in an MFM specific toolbar (like I discussed above), I
think.
Bryan> What do you folks think? We have a fine window manager and a
Bryan> fine desktop manager. What makes windowing environments
Bryan> successful is that the two work together in synergy. To be
Bryan> able to do this at the free(d)ware level on X would be a
Bryan> tremendous benefit to everyone.
As I said, I actually don't see where it buys a lot, since not many
programs would recognize the drag and drop protocol themselves. That
would be the real win (for those that like and use drag&drop). But
until one becomes a real standard...
Chuck
*******************************************************************************
Charles K. Hines <chuck_hines_at_vnet.ibm.com>
IBM Logic Synthesis developer [BooleDozer (TM)]
Martial Arts Instructor [Modern Arnis, Presas Style Filipino Martial Arts]
IBM Internal email: "Go back to sleep, Chuck. You're
hines_at_cold.fishkill.ibm.com, just havin' a nightmare--of course,
HINESC at FISHKILL, HINESC at FSHVMFK1 we are still in Hell." Gary Larson
*******************************************************************************
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Received on Wed May 15 1996 - 10:32:35 BST