- This topic has 23 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated Apr 11-4:52 pm by rokytnji.
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bci
For IceWM in particular, cd .icewm, then examine keys, preferences and prefoverride. Any key bindings can be either changed or removed.
After removal, if there is still a conflict, then assigning the particular keystroke with conflicting values can be set with an empty value and that should take care of it once IceWM is restarted.If that doesn’t work, let us know, and share the contents of these files with us. Thanks.
Thank you for the advice and the offer to help!
To be honest, of all the AntiX-full WMs, the one that I actually like the most on an aesthetic level is IceWM. It truly is the flagship WM of AntiX. It handles pretty much the same way Fluxbox does, but feels more like a “real” desktop. I think the frustration I ran into was having to hunt down bindings in weird locations (basically the files you mention). At one point (IIRC) I tried finding where a particular binding was being set such that I could undo it, but couldn’t find it and just gave up; I assumed that it was something internal to the IceWM source.
- This reply was modified 1 month ago by bci.
Stéphane Ascoët
Fluxbox is very similar to Blackbox that I still uses a huge lot on all my currents laptops. I don’t understand well how different WMs are mixed in AntiX, for example the applications menu, the logout box are always the sames… I’ve installed Gnustep but it hangs, so I play with this still-very-experimental WM under Devuan and I’ve spent a long time setting up a beautiful IceWM for replicating AntiX on laptops for people in the need, I should put screen captures(I began writing a section dedicated to AntiX on the wiki of my Lug [in french])
- This reply was modified 4 weeks, 1 day ago by Stéphane Ascoët.
- This reply was modified 4 weeks, 1 day ago by Stéphane Ascoët. Reason: Screenshots links
- This reply was modified 4 weeks, 1 day ago by Stéphane Ascoët. Reason: Devuan link and writing
Brian Masinick
For IceWM in particular, cd .icewm, then examine keys, preferences and prefoverride. Any key bindings can be either changed or removed.
After removal, if there is still a conflict, then assigning the particular keystroke with conflicting values can be set with an empty value and that should take care of it once IceWM is restarted.If that doesn’t work, let us know, and share the contents of these files with us. Thanks.
Thank you for the advice and the offer to help!
To be honest, of all the AntiX-full WMs, the one that I actually like the most on an aesthetic level is IceWM. It truly is the flagship WM of AntiX. It handles pretty much the same way Fluxbox does, but feels more like a “real” desktop. I think the frustration I ran into was having to hunt down bindings in weird locations (basically the files you mention). At one point (IIRC) I tried finding where a particular binding was being set such that I could undo it, but couldn’t find it and just gave up; I assumed that it was something internal to the IceWM source.
Was the information provided sufficient to find (and alter) the particular binding(s) that you wish to change?
Also, some people leave the comments and other stuff in the preferences, keys, and other files in the .icewm directory and some people “clean it up”, leaving ONLY the values they explicitly want to either alter or set (default or not). The choice is yours.
Other things to consider: if you don’t set anything, the files that CAN be placed into your ~/.icewm directory are contained in the directory /usr/share/icewm. I also ran the typical command – man icewm and was pleased to find a rather comprehensive page that explains a great deal of the values, options, and locations of things you can modify with IceWM, so it’s a mature application with many, many options, great documentation and it’s still being maintained and updated.
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Brian MasinickBrian Masinick
The other point is that all window managers that have a “classic design” have a place to alter many settings. IceWM is actually one of the best in this regard, though Fluxbox, Blackbox, and quite a few other window managers (including some that may no longer be actively maintained) have configuration files.
For me, one of the biggest reasons why I never grew attached to the GNOME desktop (or any of the variations) is that there were only a few things that could be modified to alter the behavior; most of the changes were just things regarding changing wallpaper images; that’s the LEAST significant thing I generally change; though I do sometimes change the wallpaper, the MOST IMPORTANT thing I want to modify is the keystrokes I press to achieve each function; that is something I OFTEN change in order to meet the consistency and familiarity of whatever I’m working on at the time.
I don’t mess with them nearly as much as I once did, but I grew up prior to the introduction of desktop environments, so my early exposure to window managers was even before KDE and GNOME, and for that matter, preceded the introduction of Linux by over a decade. This is why I’m still familiar with several window managers; it’s how I used UNIX workstations in the eighties! 🙂
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Brian MasinickWas the information provided sufficient to find (and alter) the particular binding(s) that you wish to change?
TBH can’t say yet, though it looks pretty good. Driven by curiosity over the current discussion, I installed IceWM with AntiX themes into my core-based installation yesterday (which is what I’m actually using now.) However, I haven’t been using Emacs heavily yet enough to “battle off” offending key bindings, though the exercise should be interesting. What’s also interesting is comparing a from-scratch install of an “AntiX style” IceWM with how it comes in the base/full installs.
I managed to throw together a modestly styled IceWM with some icons, as demonstrated in the attached screenshot.
I hope this doesn’t deviate too much from the topic of the current thread. 🙂 I figured I’d give a good follow-up on @masinick’s comments.
I don’t understand well how different WMs are mixed in AntiX, for example the applications menu, the logout box are always the sames…
I figure the keybindings and overall handling of windows, menus and such are what separate the various AntiX WMs. Underneath (for base/full installs) it’s the same application “infrastructure”, which is probably a good thing, since it gives a consistent handling across these WMs (though if I recall it takes a bit of work to get herbsluftwm to behave more like the others, e.g. you have to set up a binding for desktop-session-exit)
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Brian Masinick
Here’s another thought and “challenge” for you: find a combination of bindings that works for both applications. GNU Emacs is just as flexible as IceWM is and both provide the variables and configuration tools for fairly easy modifications.
In the nineties my UNIX workstation had a whopping 12 function keys available and between the desktop and the editing environment I was able to use both extensively. I still remember that I had F9 set up to Quit, as in exit. I think it’s the same as C-x C-c but it’s been a long time and I do remember the regular bindings better because I use them occasionally now.
The point is that both IceWM and Emacs readily have customizable interfaces so I encourage you to rebind a few keys in each. Maybe you’ll come up with the perfect complement of key bindings. Remember that you can do similar things with several apps and window manager programs too.
A little bit of code goes a long way! 👍😁
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Brian MasinickHere’s another thought and “challenge” for you: find a combination of bindings that works for both applications. GNU Emacs is just as flexible as IceWM is and both provide the variables and configuration tools for fairly easy modifications.
That’s not a bad idea. Generally, I’ve been of the philosophy that, between the window manager and Emacs, Emacs bindings have higher priority, since
- The equivalent window manager binding is likely used less frequently.
- You can usually perform that binding with the mouse, and this is less of an ergonomic hit because of point #1.
- When in doubt, bind the Windows key, since Emacs hardly uses these (there are notable instances where people bind the Windows key for Emacs stuff, but I personally avoid this, preferring to reserve it for the window manager. For example, a common binding I use (inspired by the Antix hlwm binding) is Super+d to spawn something like grun, fbrun and such.
Also, I’m not crazy about function keys for Emacs; for example, recent Emacs now binds F3 to start a keyboard macro, but I still prefer the older ‘C-x (‘. F1 is the help prefix, but I prefer ‘C-h’.
However, there are some function-key bindings for WMs I’ve gotten used to, like Alt+F4 to close a window.
- This reply was modified 4 weeks ago by bci. Reason: Fix text formatting
BobC
BCI, If you have question, its much better to create your own thread rather than risk confusing the op of another thread who is getting all kinds of irrelevant replies to his post.
Emacs is a terminal based app, and therefore how it acts will be affected by what terminal you are using and how its configured, as well as the window manager, and anything else running (like clip for example).
You can use grep on the keys file, and separately on the preferences overlaid by prefoverride, then combined to make a complete list of IceWM keys.
If you add the ones from the terminal you are using, you could then match them up with a similar list from emacs to find the conficts.
Its your system, so you can change what you don’t like to something you do like.
rokytnji
I usually tell debian snobs have they looked at debian automotive lately
https://wiki.debian.org/Automotive
Automotive (last modified 2012-10-12 09:08:14)
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How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems
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