mbroemme / fbctrl Goto Github PK

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OBSOLETE: THIS UTILITY IS NOT NEEDED ANYMORE FOR FLUXBOX WHICH WAS MY PRIMARY
INTENTION TO CREATE IT.
=======================

Now, you can get the same behavior with builtin functionality in Fluxbox. I
don't remember when it has been added because I was using fbctrl till 2020. So
if you want to switch and have Alt+Tab and Alt+Shift+Tab configured to switch
to next and previous window, replace the following in ~/.fluxbox/keys file.

Mod1 Tab :ExecCommand ~/.fluxbox/applications/fbctrl -q --next-window --resolution 1920
Mod1 Shift Tab :ExecCommand ~/.fluxbox/applications/fbctrl -q --prev-window --resolution 1920

With:

Mod1 Tab :MacroCmd {Raise} {Focus} {NextWindow {static} (Workspace=[current]) (Head=[mouse])}
Mod1 Shift Tab :MacroCmd {Raise} {Focus} {PrevWindow {static} (Workspace=[current]) (Head=[mouse])}

Introduction
============

'fbctrl' is an application to switch inside a compatible window
manager the active window to the next or previous one. It is a
lightweight application which recovers the old fluxbox 0.1.14 window
switch behaviour.

'fbctrl' is based on some parts of 'wmctrl' which is a good tool, but
did not implement the requirements of switching to next or previous
window on the active desktop.

Why a "new" keygrabber application for fluxbox?
===============================================

First of all 'fbctrl' is no keygrabber, it is a utility which executes
commands from at least any compatible window manager on top of the X
layer.

Well i was using fluxbox 0.1.14 for more than five years and in august
2007 i replaced my ThinkPad X40 with a ThinkPad X61 Tablet. Due to the
fact that i can rotate the display on a tablet pc i need to migrate to
a newer fluxbox version which was 1.0rc3 to use the xrandr extension.

Now the pain begins. :) All things were working fine except one holy
requirement - the new focus model of fluxbox. Who the hell implemented
such thing? I am a people who is not using the tabs from fluxbox (i
like the old layermodel of windows and terminals) and thats why i was
not able to understand that focus model. It has some new cool features
like skipping stuck and shaded windows but i don't need that.

Why not using bbkeys?
=====================

Well bbkeys has four drawbacks: First it only compile if blackbox is
installed. I use fluxbox now since a long time and don't want to
install blackbox too.

The second drawback is, if you bind 'Alt+Tab' and 'Alt+Shift+Tab' to
bbkeys and the workspace switcher to fluxbox keys your are in trouble.
If you press Alt and hold it down everything is fine until you start to
press Tab or F1. The application which is configured to control this key
combination will control Alt until you release the key. So binding
'Alt+F1' to fluxbox and 'Alt+Tab' to bbkeys result in stuck behaviour if
you want switch focus and workspace with one keypress sequence.

The third drawback is that you need to start bbkeys after fluxbox which
is very crazy if you are not using a session manager. The only way is to
build a shellscript which starts fluxbox as background process sleep
some time (depending on your system load this can be enough or not :))
and then start bbkeys.

The fourth drawback is that if you need to restart your fluxbox, bbkeys
sometimes crashes and need to be restartet in a new terminal.

Why not using wmctrl?
=====================

Okay wmctrl is a very nice application. (most of the 'fbctrl' code is
based on it) The problem with wmctrl is that you need to build a complex
wrapper script around it. Make some high load on your system and try to
switch the windows... :)

Manual
======

It is a good idea to read the `FAQ' file.

Reporting Bugs
==============

Bug reports for 'fbctrl' can be send to me directly.

    * Maik Broemme <[email protected]>

Enjoy!

Maik Broemme <[email protected]>
http://www.babelize.org/