tkgoodstuff/doc/tkgoodstuff.html

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<H1>tkgoodstuff</H1>
Screenshots:
<blockquote>
<A HREF="screenshots.html">A few sample configurations</A><BR>
<A HREF="http://mars.superlink.net/ekahler/fvwm2.desktop.html">
Eric Kahler's desktop</A><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.coffeenet.net/help/index.html">
CoffeeNet Help Page</A>
</blockquote>
<P>Tkgoodstuff for the X Window System is a utility panel---normally,
a button bar. It is easily configured and modified using a GUI
preferences manager. Some &quot;clients&quot; are included:
analog/digital alarm clock, new-mail indicator, log file watcher, WWW
browser launcher, dialup network dialer and status indicator, note
taker/manager, calendar program alarm daemon, POP/IMAP mail fetching
scheduler, system load display, system menu, and fvwm (window manager)
support, including a window list (buttons for all running
applications) and virtual desktop pager. See below for details about
the clients. In addition to the clients, you can configure buttons to
run commands, and you can embed any X program window in your bar (such
as xosview, FvwmPager, etc.).</P>
<P>Tkgoodstuff, especially when used with the fvwm window manager, can
be set up to behave in many ways like the Win95 taskbar (spanning any edge
of the screen, containing buttons for every running application, with the
ability to &quot;hide&quot; along the side of the screen and to be &quot;dragged&quot;
to another side, with a GUI-configurable menu, etc.). But it is not a taskbar
&quot;clone&quot; and is considerably more customizable. </P>
<H2>Included Clients </H2>
<UL>
<LI><B><A HREF="clock.html">Clock: </A></B>analog and/or digital time and/or
date alarm clock. </LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="biff.html">Biff: </A></B>a feature-rich mail checker.</LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="net.html">Net: </A></B>indicates the status of a PPP or
SLIP connection and allows you to bring the connection up or down with
a click. Also can display net uptime, and can periodically &quot;ping&quot;
so that the remote host won't close an inactive connection. Included is
a GUI <A HREF="dialer.html">Dialer</A> program, which you can call from
Net to dial your modem (with nice repeat-dial features), log you in, and
start your network software while you watch. </LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="jots.html">Jots: </A></B>A tool for writing, editing, and
searching for notes: diary entries, addresses, ftp sources, ideas, etc.
Support for easy shuffling between multiple &quot;folders&quot; of entries.
</LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="www.html">WWW: </A></B>Launch your web browser or instruct
the browser to visit the URL in the current X selection. </LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="watch.html">Watch: </A></B>This client watches one or more
files (e.g., log files) for changes with configurable alerts (and can display
the files). </LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="load.html">Load: </A></B>An xload-like system load-average
display (auto-scaling graphical, digital, or both). Button 1 launches an
xterm running (for example) &quot;top&quot;. </LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="menu.html">Menu: </A></B>A button that produces a menu,
which is easily configured in the GUI preferences manager. </LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="webster.html">Webster: </A></B>Retrieve (over the net)
the dictionary definition of a word (the current X selection). </LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="ical.html">Ical: </A></B>The program <A HREF="http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/personal/Sanjay_Ghemawat/ical/home.html">ical</A>
(as opposed to this client) is a nice calendar program. The client reads
your ical calendar and serves as an alarm daemon, posting alarm notices
to your screen when ical would if you had it running.</LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="popimap.html">PopImap: </A></B>periodically run pop or
imap client to get any new mail on remote mail server. Don't get too excited:
the fetching is done by a program or script that you provide (e.g., <A HREF="http://locke.ccil.org:80/~esr/esr-freeware.html">fetchmail</A>).
No button is produced by this client (though it produces some stuff in
the tkgoodstuff popup menu). </LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="windowlist.html">WindowList: </A></B>For use with Fvwm,
produces buttons for open/iconified windows (like the Win95 taskbar).</LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="pager.html">Pager:</A></B> For negotiating desktops with
Fvwm. </LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="chooser.html">Chooser:</A></B> (by Eric Kahler) This client,
at tkgoodstuff start-up, posts a list of tkgoodstuff configuration files
to choose from. </LI>
<LI><B><A HREF="tkman.html">TkMan:</A></B> (by Gary Dezern) The program
<A HREF="http://http.cs.berkeley.edu/~phelps/tcltk/tkman-help.html">tkman</A>
is a very nice man-page browser. Start tkman, or tell tkman to look up
the man page for the word in the current X selection. </LI>
</UL>
<H2>Customizing Features</H2>
<H3>User-defined buttons </H3>
<P>The &quot;standard&quot; user-defined buttons can be configured to show
either icons or (multi-line) text labels or both at once (with the icon
on any side or in the background), and global options can request no labels
or no icons. Among the unlimited possibilities here are use of the current
X selection in your command, execution of unix and/or Tcl commands, and
more. See the documentation on configuration for more. </P>
<H3>&quot;Swallow&quot; Windows </H3>
<P>If you really like xosview or xdaliclock or whatever, you can embed
it within your panel as a Swallow item (tkgoodstuff &quot;swallows&quot;
the application window). </P>
<H3>Label boxes </H3>
<P>A label box contains text, e.g., to label a group of related buttons.
</P>
<H3>Stacks </H3>
<P>You can form vertical or horizontal stacks of elements (e.g., buttons
and labels or other stacks), that can be nested indefinitely. If you're
not careful, you might get something like the large example above (or worse).
</P>
<H3>Panels </H3>
<P>You can create multiple panels (of buttons, labels, etc.) to place at
different parts of the screen or to call up (like a menu) from a &quot;PanelButton&quot;.
<H2>Documentation </H2>
<P>The only documentation for tkgoodstuff is in these html pages, which
are included in the distribution's &quot;doc&quot; subdirectory. From the
&quot;About tkgoodstuff (help)&quot; window accessed from the popup menu,
you can launch a built-in help browser or your web browser (by default,
netscape) to read these pages (either your local copy, installed automatically
during tkgoodstuff installation, or the latest copy on the net). </P>
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