I've got pereference about using Gnome with Xmonad, and there's alse blogs about using Xmonad in Unity-2d.
Persionaly, I really like the way Xmonad manages windows. Also, the way Compiz places workspaces is great, I was travalling among a 4x4 wall of workspaces when I was using Unity. So I really want there was a way to combine them togather. But it's hard to make my own idea as I'm still a green hand.
Is there any implements about all those so far?
Short answer no.
Unity just a compiz plugin. Compiz is a compositing manager and Window Manager. What you want is for Xmond to support neat effects like Compiz does. To do so someone would have to write haskell bindings so that xmonad too handle compositing effects. Needless to say this is not trivial.
It would be far simpler to write a Compiz plugin to handle window tiling effects..
Related
I am creating a GTK+ text editor called Quick-Ed Pro. It was originally designed to be a cross-platform version of Quick-Ed , a text editor I wrote in raw Win Api. But after finding the awesome capabilities of GTK+ , Quick-Ed Pro emerged as an entirely different program with advanced GUI capabilities way better than Quick-Ed. But now Im stuck with a few problems.
Problems:
1- I want to make my editor multi-tabular like notepad++ or gedit. I dont know how to do this. What widget should I use?
2- GtkTextView does not seem to have any undo / redo functions. How can I make my own? (examples appreciated)
3- Gtk+ has a long startup time, usually 2-4 seconds unlike win api which started up in less than a second, so how can I create a small popup loading bar like the one in GIMP or Code::Blocks?
4-URL of my project: http://code.google.com/p/quick-ed/
URL of the WinApi Quick-Ed : http://code.google.com/p/burningprodigy ... e&can=2&q=
Any help will be appreciated. I need contributors. Please lend me a hand.
1) Tabs: You will need to write your own widget for this. No toolkit i know has one that is flexible enough to handle what is required in a good editor. But you can start with GtkNotebook for a quick prototype.
2) Yes this is a FAQ and imho bad that it is not solved directly in GTK. If you use gtkmm you can use http://view.sourceforge.net/classes.php otherwise look into the library to see how it is implemented and port it into C. There are other implementations for example for python available on the net.
3) You have to write a small dialog using the WinAPI and show this before you call the first GTK function. Usually i wouldn't recommend to do it - after the windows file cache has the files (or you have a SSD) loading speed is okay.
You should look into http://projects.gnome.org/gtksourceview/ to get a good editor. The GtkTextView is definitely not able to work as a source code editor. I'm maintaining a commerical IDE and Editor and by the way the most code is outside the editor widget anyway.
I'd like to post-process log files and extract node data and transitions, and then graph them in a gui of some kind. So, I'd like to programmaticly draw bubble diagrams, maybe with animations showing packets going from node to node.
Ideally, perl or java would be the language of choice, but anything that runs on a linux platform would be fine.
What is the best library for this kind of thing?
Java Solutions
Two possibilities in Java include Prefuse and Visual Library. They both have the ability to display graphs with some animation ability. Prefuse has better graph layouts. Visual Library is more Swing-like if you are used to Swing development.
Adobe Flash
If you are willing to work with Adobe Flash, Flare is probably a little more suited to your task as it has better animation capabilities and has good graph layouts.
Animation Libraries
If your diagrams are fairly simple, you could create your own diagrams and use the Timing Framework or Trident for animation.
Other
Some other possibilities include Processing and JavaFX. Javascript libraries include ProcessingJS and Protovis.
Graphviz will draw you static diagrams. It can't do animations as far as I know.
If you can convert the output into graphviz dot format (graphviz) than you can use idot incremental viewer (iDot_incremental_viewer) which uses prefuse behind the scenes and it's completely free. The only thing you need to do here is to convert the output in simple dot file. Rest will be taken care of incremental viewer.
I have recently been asked to make an Eclipse Rcp view that would be "pretty".
In that purpose I had fist looked at Java2D (after my boss advised me so) before the client's query turned to be more like
"It would be smooth if you could do some flash or something ..."
From there JavaFx seemed appealing to me however I never had a chance to use it before. I then were wondering if before to dive "head first" anyone (who would have preferably used it seriously) had any advice, warning or any constructive comment to do about using this product in an RCP view (so based on SWT).
I really long to know if JavaFx meets it's promises.
Thanks in advance and have a good day !
[EDIT]I dont want an Eclipse Fancy skinning or to make views appear with light effects or in a CompizFusion way,
What I want is to display fancy animations and pretty visual effects within a specific view that will be called sometimes. (Sorry I wasn't clear in the first place :s)[/EDIT]
*I'll pass on the "What's pretty and what's not ?" and other "Tastes are a personnal thing" debates, here "pretty" simply means to qualify a view containing convoluted transparancies and subtle animations ...
Eclipse RCP can also be customized in the way it looks, e.g. when you dont want to have the Eclipsi-L&F. Its called Presentation API, I saw a quite amazing UI once in a presentation but I cannot find it right now. Anyway, I just want to point you the direction, since I personally havent used this API (yet).
There are also some "skins" available for download.
Nebula
MP3 Manager
EDIT: Just found the slides. It goes quite into detail, but when you have a look at the last slide...it doesnt look like the Eclipse you know :-)
JavaFX uses Swing as default layout engine, so you'll gain nothing using it rather than Java2D.
On the other hand, using either your home-grown toolkit or Swing is generally a bad idea when working with Eclipse, as it already embeds the SWT toolkit. The main advantage of SWT over Swing is that it use the OS native widgets. Using another toolkit will lead to the following issues:
Poor integration with Eclipse look&feel.
Poor integration with Eclipse views and editors management.
The answer is simple. No, you can't use JavaFX yet. The problem is that JFX script can't be embedded into Swing nor Eclipse SWT. We already know about such an issues. (The is some kind of hack how to embed JFX into Swing APP only.)
I have an application that is built to work on Windows, Linux, and Solaris that uses the Perl/TK GUI. Due to constraints, we are limited to Perl/TK only. Moreover, we are limited to an old Perl/Tk version, 5.00404.
I'd like to work within these limitations to make the GUI look as nice and modern as possible.
Are there any web-resources that have TK design schemes (for buttons, frames, colors, etc) that could assist me in this endeavor?
I am also looking for modernization advices like the one that I found here:
If you're finding that your Tk apps look a little ugly on X-based systems, try adding the following lines to the top of your script:
$mw->optionAdd("*font", "-*-arial-normal-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*");
$mw->optionAdd("*borderWidth", 1);
Try using images instead of button elements, then you can have whatever style you like and the fonts can be baked in. This will work for pretty much any element where the contents are not dynamic - including backgrounds on panes and such. Granted it's more work but it does solve your problem, especially if you have a competent artist in your project group.
You could use the Tk theme engine to give your app better looks.
Using optionAdd to tweak defaults through the option database
is a reasonable start. A thread about this can be found at:
http://tcl.projectforum.com/tk/221
Download griffin.kit from there, use the sdx tool to unwrap it and locate
griffin.tcl to get a good set of option settings.
http://wiki.tcl.tk/3411 for the sdx tool.
Since in Linux the background of Tk::Entry and Tk::Text is grey i would also use the following two lines.
$mw->optionAdd( '*Entry.background', 'snow1' );
$mw->optionAdd( '*Text.background', 'snow1' );
Replace 'snow1' with a color of your choice. You can also use the hex representation(RGB) of the colors like '#ff9696'.
The Tile themeable engine for Tk makes it look much prettier. However, Perl/Tk has lagged far behind Tk's development, and can't take advantage of Tile and other advancements.
You should investigate whether Tkx is an option for you. It's not completely compatible with Perl/Tk, but the API is pretty close. It's a bridge between Perl and Tcl/Tk, so it can use all of the modern Tcl/Tk features (like Tile) while still having application logic coded in Perl. Quite a few of ActiveState's own graphical utilities use Tkx, with fairly good-looking results.
(source: activestate.com)
Perl 5.00404 is incredibly ancient, though. The Tkx dist claims to depend on Perl≥5.008... I don't have an old enough Perl to see how accurate that is.
Having programmed through emacs and vi for years and years at this point, I have heard that using an IDE is a very good way of becoming more efficient.
To that end, I have decided to try using Eclipse for a lot of coding and seeing how I get on.
Are there any suggestions for easing the transition over to an IDE. Obviously, some will think none of this is worth the bother, but I think with Eclipse allowing emacs-style key bindings and having code completion and in-built debugging, I reckon it is well worth trying to move over to a more feature-rich environment for the bulk of my development worth.
So what suggestions do you have for easing the transition?
Eclipse is the best IDE I've used, even considering its quite large footprint and sluggishness on slow computers (like my work machine... Pentium III!).
Rather than trying to 'ease the transition', I think it's better to jump right in and let yourself be overwhelmed by the bells and whistles and truly useful refactorings etc.
Here are some of the most useful things I would consciously use as soon as possible:
ctrl-shift-t finds and opens a class via incremental search on the name
ctrl-shift-o automatically generates import statements (and deletes redundant ones)
F3 on an identifier to jump to its definition, and alt-left/right like in web browsers to go back/forward in navigation history
The "Quick fix" tool, which has a large amount of context-sensitive refactorings and such. Some examples:
String messageXml = in.read();
Message response = messageParser.parse(messageXml);
return response;
If you put the text cursor on the argument to parse(...) and press ctrl+1, Eclipse will suggest "Inline local variable". If you do that, then repeat with the cursor over the return variable 'response', the end result will be:
return messageParser.parse(in.read());
There are many, many little rules like this which the quick fix tool will suggest and apply to help refactor your code (including the exact opposite, "extract to local variable/field/constant", which can be invaluable).
You can write code that calls a method you haven't written yet - going to the line which now displays an error and using quick fix will offer to create a method matching the parameters inferred from your usage. Similarly so for variables.
All these small refactorings and shortcuts save a lot of time and are much more quickly picked up than you'd expect. Whenever you're about to rearrange code, experiment with quick fix to see if it suggests something useful.
There's also a nice bag of tricks directly available in the menus, like generating getters/setters, extracting interfaces and the like. Jump in and try everything out!
One thing that helped me transition from Emacs to other IDEs was the idea that IDEs are terrible editors. I scoffed at that person but I now see their point.
An editor, like Emacs or Vim, can really focus on being a good editor first and foremost.
An IDE, like Visual Studio or Eclipse, really focuses on being a good project management tool with a built in way to modify files.
I find that keeping the above in mind (and keeping Emacs handy) helps me to not get frustrated when the IDE du jour is not meeting my needs.
If you've been using emacs/vi for years (although you listed both, so it seems like you may not be adapted fully to one of them), using said editor will probably be faster for you than an IDE. The level of mind-meld a competant emacs/vi user can achieve with a customized setup and years of muscle memory is astounding.
Some free ones:
XCode on the Mac
Eclipse
Lazarus (Open Source clone of Delphi)
Visual Studio Express
Editions
Try making a couple of test applications just to get your feet wet. At first, it will probably feel more cumbersome. The benefits of IDEs don't come until you begin having a good understanding of them and their various capabilities. Once you know where everything is and start to understand the key commands, life gets easier, MUCH easier.
I think you'll find IDE's invaluable once you get into them. The code complete and navigation features, integrated running/debugging, and all the other little benefits really add up.
Some suggestions for starting out and easing transition:
- start by going through a tutorial or demonstration included with the IDE documentation to get familar with where things are in the GUI.
- look at different kinds of sample projects (usually included with the IDE or as a separate download) for different types of areas you may be coding (web applications, desktop applications, etc) to see how they are laid out and structured in the IDE.
- once comfortable, create your own project from existing code that you know well, ideally not something overly complex, and get it all compiling/working.
- explore the power! Debug your code, use refactorings, etc. The right click menu is your friend until you learn the keyboard shortcuts just to see all the things you can do. Right click different areas of your code to see what is possible and learn (or re-map) the keyboard shortcuts.
Read the doc...
And see what shortcuts/keybindings equivalents are with your familiar ones. Learn the new ones...
Old question, but let me suggest that in some circumstances, something like Notepad++ might be appropriate for the OP's situation which may be encountered by others. Especially if you are looking for something lightweight, Notepad++ can be part of a developer's arsenal of tools. Eclipse, Visual Studio and others are resource hogs with all their automagic going on and if you are looking to whip out something pretty quick with a whole bunch of keyboard shortcuts and the like or if you are interested in viewing someone else's source, this can be quite useful. Oh yeah, and it is free too.