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JWM Agnostic X on Arch – Part 10
Published on November 26, 2022 at 7:23 pm by LEWIntroduction
In this post we will touch on some of the other styling options, as well as some of the more general configurations for JWM. The styling options for the remaining components are similar to previously covered options, so please check some of the other posts in this series.
For the styles covered in this post, I will mainly be looking at the differences from ones in previous posts.
This will, for the most part, wrap up our look at the configuration of Joe’s Window Manager. In the next and final installment of this series we will look at some helper application that can enhance or improve the user experience. You may or may not chose to use any of them, depending on your personal preferences.
Tray List Visual Styles
The TrayListStyles tag lists the various open windows within the Tray. It uses the same elements (Background, Foreground, Font, Outline, Active, Decoration) just like the other Elements like Windows, Menus or the Tray. It also supports gradients in the Background color.
However it does use a couple of different inline parameters (defaults are shown in example)
<TrayListStyle group=”true” list=”desktop” showkill=”true> ... </TrayListStyle>
The group option groups widows of the same class together. For example if you had three Xterms open, the button would be shown as XTERM (3), and you would single click to step through the various windows. If set to false, every window gets its own button on the Task List manager.
The list option determines if buttons are shown for only windows on the current desktop or for all windows.
The showkill option, as far as I can tell, only adds a Kill option to the menu that appears when you right click on a window title bar. I have not see the kill option show up on the task list buttons.
Tray Button Visual Styles
There is not much additional to say about tray buttons. They support the same basic styling parameters as other elements, including Background gradients.
Pager Styles
I don’t actually use the built in Pager, so cannot comment on the styles, other than to say that according to the JWM Configuration page, it includes the same basic styling elements as most other items.
Note that I use either the mouse scroll wheel (mouse binding covered earlier) or the Window title bar menu to move between multiple desktops.
Popup Styles
Popups do not support the Active tag. If they are not active, they are not visible. It does support Background, Foreground, Font, and Outline elements. Popups do not support gradients.
You can enable or disable popups for various elements, with the default being true for all elements. Or you can enable popups for only specific elements with a comma separated list.
<PopupStyle enable=”button,clock,menu,pager,task”></PopupStyle>
The above example is equivalent to true. To disable all popups you would use enable=”false”.
Additional Style Notes
The motif option, again as far as I can tell, seems to only have a visual impact on the Window Style.
Other Configuration Options
Focus Model: This determines how things become active. It defaults to sloppy which is basically a mouse over. You can set it to click, which means you have to click on a window to activate it. Other options are clicktitle and sloppytitle.
<FocusModel>click</FocusModel>
MoveMode: Thos one can make the window appear as only an outline (outline), or solid (opaque) when being moved. The default is opaque.
<MoveMode>outline</MoveMode>
There is also a mask option where you can move the window with a keyboard shortcut. I have never used this option. There is also a delay option for moving windows between desktops, which again I have never used.
ButtonClose, ButtonMax, ButtonMaxActive, ButtonMenu, ButtonMin, DefaultIcon: These options allow you to change the window title bar decorations to your own icons, or force use the JWM default icons for some application with none or explicitly configured icons. Note that icons must be within the icon paths.
<ButtonClose>mylittleredX.png</ButtonClose>
The above example will change the close icon image to one I created of a read X on a black background, which I placed in the HiColor icon folder.
RestartCommand, ShutdownCommand, StartupCommand: These commands can be used to run specific programs when JWM starts, restarts, or shuts down.
<StartupCommand>nm-applet</StartupCommand>
The above example starts a network manager applet in the Dock (system tray) upon startup of JWM.
Conclusion
I think we have walked through a goo0d majority of configuration options for JWM. You should at this point be well on your way to customization of your Graphical User Environment to meet your specific needs with JWM.
In the next and final installment in this series we will talk about various helper apps you can installl to improve on the desktop experince.
JWM Agnostic X on Arch – Part 1 – The Install
JWM Agnostic X on Arch – Part 2 – Adding Some Applications
JWM Agnostic X on Arch – Part 3 – Initial Setup for Config File
JWM Agnostic X on Arch – Part 4 – StartupCommand and Group
JWM Agnostic X on Arch – Part 5 – Building a Menu Structure
JWM Agnostic X on Arch – Part 6 – Tray Attributes
JWM Agnostic X on Arch – Part 7 – Tray Content
JWM Agnostic X on Arch – Part 8 – Desktops, Bindings, Colors, and Fonts
JWM Agnostic X on Arch – Part 9 – Styling of Major Elements
JWM Agnostic X on Arch – Part 10 – Some more Styling
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