Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com) [LWN.net]

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 3, 2006 10:20 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304)
In reply to: Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com) by zblaxell
Parent article: Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Personally I switched from xterm to konsole a while back, for one reason: the tabbing is hard to live without, and the user-interface for it (and ability to use all X keybindings as shortcuts to it) knocks that part of screen(1)'s functionality into a cocked hat. konsole (and probably gnome-terminal) are *much* less memory-hungry than xterm if you measure, say, a konsole with ten shells open versus ten xterms.

(Why yes, I do have a lot of tabs in most of my konsoles.)

(Log in to post comments)

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 3, 2006 12:02 UTC (Fri) by errare_est (guest, #14275) [Link]

I use xterm + fluxbox's tab grouping (you may choose any wm with that feature, AFAIK Openbox does it), and I defined the keys as konsole to switch between tab's...

BTW, My computer can't stand KDE as an enviroment, so konsole isn't an alternative. I know, I know, but starting konsole *without* KDE is a memory-hungry option.

--
Regards,
Germán (pronounce it as "Ghermawn" ;)

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 9, 2006 4:56 UTC (Thu) by hughmerz (guest, #34252) [Link]

I use fluxbox + tabbing as well, ever since the tabs have been merged into the title bar instead of hanging off the window. Personally I prefer aterm rather than xterm, mainly for the transparancy.

Don't see much of a point in xdm/gdm/etc.. on a single user machine. startx + ~/.xinitrc have always worked for me.

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 3, 2006 14:55 UTC (Fri) by zooko (subscriber, #2589) [Link]

If you like tabbed terms, you might love GNU screen

http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/

One of the many advantages is that it keeps your state even if you detach (such as logging out) and allows you to reattach over ssh from a different terminal. It also allows you to share your session with other users so they can see what you are doing and even type into your session.

Finally, it is fully keyboard driven, so your work isn't interrupted by groping for the mouse, wiggling it to find the pointer, then dragging the pointer over to the tab you want, then clicking, then moving your hand back to the keyboard where it can do useful work. Instead you just hit, for example, "control-a 0" to go to the first screen.

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 3, 2006 20:14 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

I am also a GNU screen fanatic, but it doesn't understand the full panoply of keys on the keyboard, so you have to use key sequences everywhere. I use left-windows-key and cursor keys to switch virtual desktops, and left-windows-key and , and . to switch konsoles, sort of thing.

I tend to use screen for things I want to outlast my X session (e.g. XEmacs).

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 3, 2006 20:17 UTC (Fri) by zooko (subscriber, #2589) [Link]

Does that mean you are running XEmacs in tty mode instead of in X mode?

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 3, 2006 21:51 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Nah: run it with -unmapped in a screen session and run gnuserv; then connect via gnuclients with DISPLAY set. Bingo, one XEmacs, multiple displays. :)

XEmacs does not have the strict `tty mode' / `X mode' distinction of Emacs of yore; you can have frames on multiple X servers and ttys at the same time.

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 6, 2006 17:47 UTC (Mon) by zooko (subscriber, #2589) [Link]

I tried this, but couldn't figure out how to run gnuserv without a UI. So then I tried -nw to get the text-mode UI and run gnuserv-start, and then run gnuclient to create a GUI window.

Alas when the X server goes away then the xemacs server dies with an ugly internal error stack trace, which means I don't get the advantages of a "stable, persistent, remotely reachable" xemacs that I was hoping for.

I guess I could script gnuserv-start to run automatically, for example by appending it to my .xemacs/custom.el file. I'll try that...

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 6, 2006 17:50 UTC (Mon) by zooko (subscriber, #2589) [Link]

Okay, so I tried starting xemacs like this, inside screen.

xemacs -unmapped -eval "(gnuserv-start)"

This correctly started it without creating a window, and I was able to run gnuclient to connect to it and create windows. However, still when the X server goes away, the xemacs process dies with a traceback (appended). Too bad.

Fatal error (13).

Your files have been auto-saved.
Use `M-x recover-session' to recover them.

Your version of XEmacs was distributed with a PROBLEMS file that may describe
your crash, and with luck a workaround. Please check it first, but do report
the crash anyway. Please report this bug by invoking M-x report-emacs-bug,
or by selecting `Send Bug Report' from the Help menu. If necessary, send
ordinary email to `xemacs-beta@xemacs.org'. *MAKE SURE* to include the XEmacs
configuration from M-x describe-installation, or equivalently the file
Installation in the top of the build tree.

*Please* try *hard* to obtain a C stack backtrace; without it, we are unlikely
to be able to analyze the problem. Locate the core file produced as a result
of this crash (often called `core' or `core.<process-id>', and located in
the directory in which you started XEmacs or your home directory), and type

gdb /usr/bin/xemacs core

then type `where' at the debugger prompt. No GDB on your system? You may
have DBX, or XDB, or SDB. (Ask your system administrator if you need help.)
If no core file was produced, enable them (often with `ulimit -c unlimited'
in case of future recurrance of the crash.

Lisp backtrace follows:

# (condition-case ... . error)
# (catch top-level ...)

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 7, 2006 8:19 UTC (Tue) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

What version of XEmacs was this? There were bugs causing this until fairly recently (and if you use Lesstif or Motif there are unavoidable bugs in those toolkits that will cause these symptoms).

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 7, 2006 15:30 UTC (Tue) by zooko (subscriber, #2589) [Link]

XEmacs 21.4 (patch 18) "Social Property" [Lucid] (amd64-debian-linux) of Wed Dec 21 2005 on yellow

If I could get your e-mail address from lwn.net, then we could move this conversation to another forum. You could write to me at <zooko@zooko.com> if you like. Thanks for your help!

I'm not sure what toolkit I'm using for my xemacs -- it is packaged by Ubuntu. I suppose if I install "xemacs21-gnome-nomule" instead of "xemacs21-nomule" then I'll get one that uses Gtk. I'll try that. Thanks!

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 3, 2006 18:52 UTC (Fri) by astrophoenix (subscriber, #13528) [Link]

you, sir, should check out 'screen'! then you can have as many shells as
you want running in 1 xterm, rather than merely 1 shell per xterm.
seriously, check it out, it totally rocks.

and if you want to display more than one shell simultaneously, you can
either split screen's display, or you can run 2 xterms and attach to the
same screen session in each xterm.