[9fans] rio with virtuals

[9fans] rio with virtuals

[john]

I spent a couple hours this afternoon reading rio source and hacking
it to do virtual desktops.  /n/sources/contrib/john/rio-virtual.tgz
contains the files from /sys/src/cmd/rio with my changes made.  At
this time, there is no support for specifying the number of virtuals,
because I'm lazy--you get six and you will ENJOY IT.

Let me know if you try it and find bugs.  I don't really give a damn
if you think this is Against The Plan 9 Way.  Personally, the exercise
gave me a better appreciation for the simplicity of Plan 9 software--I
was able to take a piece of software I'd never looked at before, read
the code a bit, and put in some new functionality within an hour or
two.


John

Re: [9fans] rio with virtuals

[J.R. Mauro]

p9p rio has virtuals, too. I would tell you to look at the source for
more inspiration, but I don't really want to be a comedian.

How does one switch desktops? Can/did you implement scrolling on a
gray bit to switch? Extending the fs?

On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 6:54 PM, <john@csplan9.rit.edu> wrote:
> I spent a couple hours this afternoon reading rio source and hacking
> it to do virtual desktops.  /n/sources/contrib/john/rio-virtual.tgz
> contains the files from /sys/src/cmd/rio with my changes made.  At
> this time, there is no support for specifying the number of virtuals,
> because I'm lazy--you get six and you will ENJOY IT.
>
> Let me know if you try it and find bugs.  I don't really give a damn
> if you think this is Against The Plan 9 Way.  Personally, the exercise
> gave me a better appreciation for the simplicity of Plan 9 software--I
> was able to take a piece of software I'd never looked at before, read
> the code a bit, and put in some new functionality within an hour or
> two.
>
>
> John
>
>
>

Re: [9fans] rio with virtuals

[john]

> p9p rio has virtuals, too. I would tell you to look at the source for
> more inspiration, but I don't really want to be a comedian.
>
> How does one switch desktops? Can/did you implement scrolling on a
> gray bit to switch? Extending the fs?
>

You switch desktops by clicking the middle mouse button away from any
windows, like in p9p rio.  It should say this in the README.

John

Re: [9fans] rio with virtuals

[John Floren]

On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 3:54 PM, <john@csplan9.rit.edu> wrote:
> I spent a couple hours this afternoon reading rio source and hacking
> it to do virtual desktops.  /n/sources/contrib/john/rio-virtual.tgz
> contains the files from /sys/src/cmd/rio with my changes made.  At
> this time, there is no support for specifying the number of virtuals,
> because I'm lazy--you get six and you will ENJOY IT.
>

A followup for anyone using rio-virtual: I did a bit of hacking today
and have some updates.
* Virtual desktop switching should be a bit faster thanks to a
slightly smarter algorithm governing who gets drawn and who doesn't.
Oh, and hiding a window, switching desktops, then switching back now
leaves the window hidden, instead of drawing it again like in the old
version.
* The "-b 0xrrggbbFF" switch allows you to set the background color;
the default is 0x777777FF, but I also like 0xBBBBBBFF, and some shades
of dark red or blue can also be nice.
* To get a little silly, the "-n" switch makes window borders look as
close to the old 8 1/2 windows as I could easily come. The current
window has 4 pixel black borders, while the other windows have one
pixel black borders.

The new source is still in /n/sources/contrib/john/rio-virtual.tgz.
I've also put it on Bitbucket, so you can fetch it via Mercurial:
http://bitbucket.org/floren/rio-virtual/


John
-- 
"Object-oriented design is the roman numerals of computing" -- Rob Pike