Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!voder!wlbr!roger.imsd.contel.com!mh From: mh@roger.imsd.contel.com (Mike Hoegeman) Newsgroups: comp.windows.open-look Subject: Re: olvwm thoughts... Message-ID: <1991May17.205219.18482@wlbr.imsd.contel.com> Date: 17 May 91 20:52:19 GMT References: Sender: news@wlbr.imsd.contel.com (news) Organization: Contel FSD, Westlake Village, CA Lines: 35 Nntp-Posting-Host: roger.imsd.contel.com In article openlook-request@openlook writes: > >How about allowing programmatic access to modify the current screen? >It would be very useful if an application pgm could switch the >screen from, say a documentation screen to your software development >screen (or for you financial types out there, from a swaps-trading >screen to a portfolio management screen). Perhaps some sort of >protocol between this app and olvwm would also allow screen-naming >(and screen-name aliasing) to simply this too. This may mean >splitting off the desktop as a separate process... >Frank G. >(caffeine-fueled synapse firings) This is something that I would (as a programmer) dearly love. It would allow me to easily flip screens in things like vi. TO further demonstrate the coolness of this idea you could also do something like this in make. Say you have a makefile that takes a long time, Once your make is finished you could have a popup that allows you to switch screens once the make has completed. something like this bigprogram: $(MANY_OBJS) SCREENCOORDS=`olvwm_coords -current`;\ $(CC) -o bigprogram $(MANY_OBJS);\ olvwm_coords -interactive -moveto $SCREENCOORDS; olvwm_coords would be a little front end program that lets you get the current screens x y via the -current flag and lets you move the screen x y via the -moveto option. A "do you really want to move" popup could be placed on the screen if you added the -interactive flag. -mike