- This topic has 15 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated Nov 2-12:49 am by BobC.
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BobC
With edge switching, I can move my mouse to the edge of the screen right or left and big arrows appear so I know that I am asking it to switch workspaces, and then it switches and displays the new workspace name at the bottom for a couple seconds.
I can also drag a window from one workspace to the next easily instead of needing to remember what keys to press 🙂 There is also the same delay before it crosses over to the next workspace, so I’m not doing it accidentally.
I have got it built into my new theme that I’m working on.
I just built the cursors and tested the new code for the IceWM Devs tonight. Its very slick. I had to use scrot to get the cursor in the pic on a full screen pic.
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ModdIt
Nice, thanks BobC,
If only ICEWM on antiX would come so attractively themed. On a fresh download its appearance
decries the capability both of antiX and ICE.Maybe we should also remind users that workspace switching with a mouse wheel is yet another nice option.
I never even thought of that!
No mouse, no wheel, no 3rd button here on my main laptop machine. I do now have an external mouse I can use for testing when needed, but normally its not connected.
oops
…
Maybe we should also remind users that workspace switching with a mouse wheel is yet another nice option.Yes nice, and maybe the both (big arrows + mouse wheel) are possible in the same time.
PPC
Nice, Bobc!
Basically IceWM + a nice default theme + window switcher with real time previews of windows + composition = about the same as Windowz or any distro with KDE/GNOME/XFCE/etc- in what concerns default looks and functionality of the window manager itself (stuff like diferent toolbar and/or menu can be added at will- lately I’m using icewm + tint2 toolbar + jgmenu)… without using any extra system resources!A bit off-topic:
Since many desktop users don’t use workspaces, but are used to “tiling the window to take half of the screen”, maybe icewm menu can have an entry to allow users:
– to disable that extra function
– to enable jumping to another workspace/drag a window to another workspace
– to enable snapping the dragged window to an half of the screen- I believe that most users miss this feature (remember how Wallon enjoyed that in Gnome’s thread?)Off topic:
I see you changed your theme’s “start menu icon”- I realize that the picture (representing several lines of icons and the correspondent line with the description) is as descritive as a picture can be, but… It looks strange to me! I would go with the classic “hamburger”- 3 horizontal lines- you can even make each line slightly one tone different (you you get the same effect, that I love, on the focused window title on the toolbar- that, to me looks better than the “selected menu entry/focused window title bar”).
Is there a way you can share the theme on another thread, so I can try to tweak it 🙂 ?
Note: the only one of your themes that seemed to have the minimize, maximize. close toolbar window icons perfectly vertically center wasthe “Mac” one, with the icons on the left side- I don’t have that theme on my work antiX 19 icewm, so it probably only came out with antiX 21)…antiX-Magic-Medium (the … small one has the icons cut on the bottom and the Large one is not vertically centered)- I know I’m nitpicking, but hey, you are aiming at the “best” theme possible, right? 🙂- This reply was modified 6 months ago by PPC.
So, if someone was using a mouse wheel to switch to the next workspace, would they roll up? and down for the previous one?
Also, if someone had 3 screens attached, would they go left or right to the previous or next screen?If the answers are yes, then I should change my logic and icons to switch workspaces the same direction as the mouse wheel.
PPC, I cannot fix the buttons. If you can fix them, go ahead, and post them here in a zip file.
I didn’t understand Wallon’s problem. Maybe its because he has more than one screen.
We have menus with icons, which are called cheeseburger menus. But you might be right that people won’t recognize the cheeseburger (ie with icon) menu icon even though it is the correct icon for the type of menu we have. I could change it to the simple hamburger menu if that will work better. The hours to create the cheeseburger style graphic one are a sunk cost.
The hours to create the cheeseburger style graphic one are a sunk cost.
Nope- like Edison said, when creating the lightbulb- (not ipsis verbis) “I did not fail hundreds of times, I just found out hundreds of ways that did not work”
I’ll be creating a thread on IceWM themes, not to highjack this thread!
if someone was using a mouse wheel to switch to the next workspace, would they roll up? and down for the previous one?
I’m not using the IceWM toolbar, but if I recall correctly, rolling up the mouse’s scroll button, while in the taskbar switches to the next workspace and rolling down switches to the previous workspace (or the other way around)
P.
While in the taskbar? That seems odd.
While in the taskbar? That seems odd.
Don’t quote me on that- I’ve been on tint2 toolbar for so long that I hardly remember how the default icewm toolbar looks like… 🙁
Found it: https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/icewm-workspace-switching-with-mousewheel/#post-87077 (and you where on that thread too!)
PPC, I cannot fix the buttons. If you can fix them, go ahead, and post them here in a zip file.
I’ve dabbled in themes, but only performing small tweaks or mixing up stuff from existing themes- please check out this theme- it has vertically centered window decorations, maybe you can use the same part of the config file: https://www.box-look.org/p/1496579/ – please checkout that theme’s preview picture, so you see what I’m talking about… You can send me your theme, and I may try my hand at it, tomorrow it’s a holiday, I may have time to relearn how to mess with themes…
P.
- This reply was modified 6 months ago by PPC.
I’m fine with changing IceWM themes, but I am just terrible at changing the actual graphics. I used to use Corel Draw I think maybe 25 years ago, and that program was simple enough for me to work. I spent a tremendous number of hours on that new theme, all but an hour or two of it being beaten by my lack of ability with the graphics. GIMP is crazy complex, mtPaint has no eraser that I can find, Krita, Inkscape, and ImageMagic failed too. The only program I’ve found capable of editing the graphics that is usable by a normal person is Pinta, and it is a nightmare to install with all its MS baggage, and unable to read files in hidden subdirectories, and unable to work with .xpm files.
I will try substituting the buttons you suggested, but if I recall, they will be too big for the small and small-thin versions of the theme. Maybe those need a separate set of buttons.
One of my objectives with this is to reduce the disk space required for the theme by using links instead of copies of the files themselves.
Keep i mind that right now I’m only messing with one flavor of the theme, and won’t create any of the other flavors until the first one is all working.
In the workspace part of taskbar rolling mouse wheel forwards i.e. towards front of
mouse scrolls toward workspace 1 scrolling back, in my case toward workspace 6.With my mouse that behaviour can also easily be reversed by on device buttons.
Have no multiple screens so unable to test the behaviour.
GIMP is crazy complex
Yep- I created lots of icons for FT10 with GIMP (basically all toolbar icons except the Power button and the quick launchers, that are extracted from the corresponding .desktop files, I also created the menu icons, all of them are visible in both dark and white themes- it was a pain, doing that) – I can give you some pointers on how to use it- it’s not so complex, once you know exactly what you want to do… Maybe another thread or via pm?
P.
edit: here is my first try at creating an hamburger icon for your theme…
- This reply was modified 6 months ago by PPC.
- This reply was modified 6 months ago by PPC.
- This reply was modified 6 months ago by PPC.
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I changed the edge switching to be vertical instead of horizontal to make sense with the mouse wheel functionality. This also makes sense for people with multiple screens because usually they will be organized next to each other, otherwise your neck will hurt (ask me how I know).
PPC, I will change it to use your 3 bar hamburger menu. It looks like it matches the color scheme. I had to make it larger, but it was otherwise fine. I also switched the buttons to the ones from IceBreeze.
The edge switch drag is working nicely.
I’m not happy with the edge switching big double arrows. I wanted them to be like a black/white outline, transparent in the middle. Its not that important, but frustrating.
I’ve included the current theme code and gave it a different name than the current one for testing purposes in case anyone wants to try it. The dragging windows feature won’t work till that code gets through the system to the repos. You will also need to turn on EdgeSwitching, and horizontal or vertical.
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@BobC – The theme looks great! I like how the chosen menu entry is highlighted, just like the focused window title in the taskbar! I do like the hambuger menu better (I kept the rectangular size from a default “menu” icon I found on a theme, but probably a more squared icon would look better?)
The buttons in the window decorations look perfect (yes, in an ideal world, they would have a bit of a margin- I’ll try to see if I can easily change that in Gimp).
I’m not so sure of what I think about the colors of the title of the windows in the title bar (it would make sense to show colour only in the window that’s in focus, but I don’t think Icewm can really do that, I’m not sure, I’ll have to check).
I’ll try to checkout the “changing workspace arrow” icons and try to change them just like you want them to be…
You know my thoughts about the “borders” of the Menu – I didn’t get back to you on that one- yes I think borders on a slightly different shade of the menu background would look better -I’ll try, when I have time, to checkout how I can apply a “degradee” of colours to the menu (some default IceWM themes do have that, but they make the menu too hard to read)-PS- since you are experimenting with compositors, have you actived window shadows? My menu looks great with that feature on (no need for high contrast menu borders)…
P.
PPC,
The squared hamburger looked wrong because it was too small. I scaled it larger and it does look better. Maybe it could have a Green arrow pointing to it to make it more attention getting. I attached a pic of an arrow, but it would need to be combined with the hamburger icon, which I wasn’t able to do.
Yes, I could decolorize the title bar when inactive. I agree that the inactive one needs to look more inactive 🙂 I will fix that.
The buttons look fine, I guess. I wouldn’t bother changing them more.
The menusep file is the menu separator. Change it to what you think.
PS: I fixed what I could. Here are the results… PPC, Need better arrows and better start menu icon.
- This reply was modified 6 months ago by BobC.
- This reply was modified 6 months ago by BobC.
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