- This topic has 199 replies, 27 voices, and was last updated May 5-3:20 pm by Robin.
-
Posts
-
blur13
Try running “sudo visudo” and you’ll be using nano whether you like it or not. Editing the sudoers file is difficult enough for a novice without the added trial of doing it in the archaic nano.
My point is that usually you edit text files, conf files, dot files, etc with whatever editor you want. But on occasion, there are no obvious ways to choose text editor, and sudo will default to its default editor, which is usually nano. Sudo visudo is one such example. I think viewing updated conf files presented while upgrading with apt is another. Having the default editor be micro, where intuitive commands such as ctrl+q work, would be beneficial for the majority of users.
https://www.howtogeek.com/devops/how-to-use-micro-the-better-alternative-to-nano/
(the article is three years old, so the part about not being on apt isnt true anymore. Micro is in the debian repos)
- This reply was modified 6 days, 12 hours ago by blur13.
- This reply was modified 6 days, 12 hours ago by blur13.
Brian Masinick
Regardless of what the setting happens to be, you can easily change it.
For me, this worked:
sudo update-alternatives –config editor
Once I ran it, a list of the editors I have installed was listed (I have MANY of them); it was set to nano as the default, so I changed it to jmacs, which is the Joe/Jupp editor set to emacs emulation. Then I ran sudo visudo and it came up in Jmacs as expected.
--
Brian MasinickBrian Masinick
Also, once you use sudo update-alternatives –config editor
you can set (and optionally change) the EDITOR environment variable.
I had it set to geany and I changed it to emacs by explicitly typing export EDITOR=emacsThen I ran sudo visudo and it came up in emacs as expected.
So to summarize, it’s easy to put environment variables in .profile, .bashrc, or whatever configuration file you use at startup time.
If it’s a shell variety such as sh, ksh, zsh, or bash, the syntax is as above export EDITOR={your-desired-editor}.
As mentioned above, you can change it interactively as well, but that will only remain during the current shell session unless you
add or update EDITOR in your personal configuration.--
Brian MasinickRobin
antiX workspace manager script has been updated to store new workspace names permanently in icewm preferences file.
Download for testing: script file from gitlab.
Once the additions are proven to work reliable I’ll send a merge request to anticapitalista. So please let me know whether you encounter any issues with the updated version.
Let me know when the change is in place and I will explicitly test it to make sure we have it corrected.
@masinick : Please could you check whether the workspace names are now consistent after reboot? And what’s about the workspace count? I’m not sure whether the latter will be kept by now, since I can’t easily test this on a live system without persistence. Do you happen to know the proper variable for setting the default absolute workspace count in the preferences file? I couldn’t locate it, neither in the icewm manuals nor within the preferences file itself.
What needs additionally to be tested:
– what happens, when the preferences file isn’t present in ~/icewm folder
– what happens, when the ~/icewm folder is completely missing
– what happens, when the desktop-defaults-icewm-antix package isn’t installed ?I offer assistence …
@PPC : Would be great if you could find out how to make all this work for jwm the same way I did it for icewm, and add the jwm code section to the script, so the changes are consistent to all antiX WMs in the end.
Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.
PPC
@Robin – I have, for now, no idea how JWM processes Workspaces, but I’ll try to take a look at it next week, and report back to you…
For now, I tested the updated script:
– The good news- changing Workspaces names sticks even if Icewm is restarted! Very nice!
– The bad news- at least on my antiX 22, full, 32bits, any change in Workspace number (either removing or adding workspaces) still does not persist when IceWM is restarted…P.
Many thanks for checking, @PPC !
changing Workspaces names sticks even if Icewm is restarted
This was what the update deals with, so it’s great you find it working.
any change in Workspace number … still does not persist
This was expected. As said above, I don’t have a clue which variable in icewm preferences file handles this. If you happen to know the variable name, please let me know, then I can add the respective code to make the count permanent. I guess @masinick knows it, since he stated somewhere above he’d manage this file manually for some years on his devices. So let’s wait for his answer.
but I’ll try to take a look at it next week
That’s really great! Many thanks! Hopefully it is possible to make it work for jwm also.
Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.
I don’t have a clue which variable in icewm preferences file handles this.
As far as I know, both the workspace names and number of workspaces are managed by the same variable:
WorkSpaceNamesThat variable list, inside quotation marks, separated by commas, the existing workspaces.
IF there only a name, without a comma, there’s only one Workspace, with the provided name. If there a name and a comma, there are 2 work spaces, and the second one is automatically named “2”, and so on… If any workspace, after a comma, has a name, that name will be used, instead of the default designation (a numeral that matches the position od that workspace on the list)
So, so record the number of existing workspaces, you only have to edit “preferences” so that variable’s value matches the names of the currently existing workspaces (the same procedure that you do, when you save the names of the workpaces).I hope that helps, that’s all I can do, for now, I’m a bit busy…
P.
- This reply was modified 5 days, 16 hours ago by PPC.
IF there only a name, withou a comma, there’s only one Workspace, with the provided name. If there a name and a comma, there are 2 work spaces, and the second one is autoamtically named “2”, and so one
This would mean you can’t permanently set the workspace number to a lower count than you want to keep names preset for some more workspaces in icewm? That’s a pity. You’d need to remove the workspace names set already from the preferences file to make a lower number permanent, which is not desirable. This means, as a workaround we’d need to call wmctrl -n <number> at each icewm restart to set the desired count, again and again for each new session… Who has designed this nonsense?
I hope that helps, that’s all I can do, for now
Your comment was highly appreciated, many thanks PPC!
Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.
Brian Masinick
WorkSpaceNames is the correct resource variable to use and preferences is the correct file. The ‘names’ can actually be any valid string ” 1 “, ” 2″ are valid, so are ” workspace 1 ” , ” Browser ” or any valid strings.
You probably don’t want to make the names too long, only because they consume visible toolbar space; other than that you can add many work spaces and name them whatever is helpful for you.
Does that help?
--
Brian MasinickBrian Masinick
It’s actually simple; frankly whatever tool you create should simply edit the WorkSpaceNames resource in the preferences file.
Sed, Ed, Perl, practically any editing tool, maybe even bash, can do that rather easily.
I just edit it directly in an editor but scripting a solution is fine too.
--
Brian MasinickMany thanks Brian!
It’s actually simple
But actually it is not that simple, since this way you’ll lose all names when reducing the number of workspaces temporarily… IceWM obviously expects the names to be removed to be able to reduce the workspace number, instead of just setting the new desired count without touching preset names for currently not needed desktops in its config file, at least if you want to have the count permanently across reboot, and increase the count later to get back your preset names. These will be gone. Or am I mistaken?
Will have to invent a workaround. Meanwhile I start thinking of linux as something constantly in need of some kind of sophisticated workaround for each single task 🙂
Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.
Brian Masinick
You’re right Robin.
Since it’s important to you I definitely respect your viewpoint. The way it works has some definite drawbacks in the scenarios you have raised.
Though it’s not an issue for me, it’s still a legitimate matter and I understand why that’s the case; thanks again for clearly explaining the issues.
--
Brian Masinickblur13
“Meanwhile I start thinking of linux as something constantly in need of some kind of sophisticated workaround for each single task”
Arguably, editing a textfile directly is the least sophisticated, most straightforward way to complete the task. In that sense Linux is very low level and simple. 🙂
Brian Masinick
“Meanwhile I start thinking of linux as something constantly in need of some kind of sophisticated workaround for each single task”
Arguably, editing a textfile directly is the least sophisticated, most straightforward way to complete the task. In that sense Linux is very low level and simple. 🙂
From my perspective, I agree; I’m very used to using text configuration files; to me they are the simplest, most flexible way to manage systems and applications. Back in my early UNIX system days, it was a major reason why I gained interest in them. When I finally got my first Linux system, I was delighted to have an even lighter, more efficient configuration.
But as far as opinions, everyone is entitled to have their own preferences and opinions, and I genuinely respect everyone’s right to an opinion, and a right to use whatever works best for them. I personally don’t use proprietary software any more than I have to in whatever situation I’m in, but some people are more comfortable using commercial systems. I know that most people here are not in that category; still, the right to choose is important on all ends of the spectrum, whether we personally prefer something else or not; same with our views about constant workarounds; each of us is free to decide what we are willing to use and we’re also (within forum guidelines) free to express our opinions.
--
Brian MasinickArguably, editing a textfile directly is the least sophisticated, most straightforward way to complete the task. In that sense Linux is very low level and simple. 🙂
From my perspective, I agree
This statement would be at least questionable in the given case. Sure, the mere manual process of editing the text file ‘~/.icewm/preferences’ is pretty easy, no doubt. But this config file consists of 1378 (!) lines, all of them untranslated in English language only. For a native English speaker this might be fine, but the rest of the world, in particular if we are talking about people not speaking English at all, will probably not agree that this is convenient or even straightforward in any way. You need to translate every single comment line; the Entry names, which are „speaking” already to native English speakers, do not the same to people not familiar with expressions like „FocusOnMap”, „PointerColormap” and so on. Even many of the the explanations given in the comment lines are cryptic to me, and I do understand English language on a relatively high level generally. As a non native speaker it will take you hours or days to figure and spot the proper entry in this file for a specific task. As said I wasn’t able at all to find out how to set the absolute number of workspaces, only PPC and Brian have figured you have to delete all your preset workspaces names for this.
This is why we try to create translatable GUIs for the most common tasks. Compare it with your car. What would you talk to the engineer who designed it, if he expected you instead of turning the ignition key or pressing some few well labeled buttons in the dash board, or using the brake or clutch pedal lever, just to open a tiny box in front of you, containing 1700 identically looking switches in a matrix, all of them numbered properly only (or printed in Chinese), and you need to figure on your own (or look up in a huge foreign language manual) which one starts the fuel pump, which one starts the engine, which one turns on the right front beam, the left front beam, which one activates the brake for the left rear wheel, for the right front wheel, for the rear… 🙂 Dunno what you’d do to this engineer… Well, he has done a great job, every single sub sub sub function your car needs to drive is present in this box, just learn to translate them, then just use the proper switch in the right moment, and you’ll be perfectly fine with his car. You’ll notice soon, the translations you look up don’t make any sense to you in many cases, due to ambiguity of the original untranslated phrases.
And this is how you feel when English speaking people ask you to just edit a config file on your PC as an (allegedly simple) solution for everyday tasks like changing the number of workspaces temporarily.
Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
