WMX won't "make"...

[starhawk]

Hey, trying to compile WMX in Wary 511-Uniproc. I have attached what I have after running "compile" and "make" (in that order) and screenshots of the output from the console after running "make".

Seems to find a goof somewhere, but I don't know cr*p about C, so I don't know what to do to fix it... if someone could tell me what to do, that would be very helpful here.

[starhawk]

Update... did some goooooooooooogling around... looks like it's really a gcc error (you can tell how much I know about this stuff, right?)...

The specific errors relate to two lines, each in a different file. The files are Menu.C and Menu.h, and it's line 624 in Menu.C and line 92 in Menu.h...

Here's the specific bits of code; the numbers at the front of each line are (duh) line numbers...

Menu.C:

Code: Select all

623  CommandMenu::CommandMenu(WindowManager *manager, XEvent *e,
624 char* otherdir = NULL)

Menu.h

Code: Select all

89 class CommandMenu : public Menu
90 {
91 public:
92 CommandMenu(WindowManager *, XEvent *e, char *otherdir = NULL);
93 virtual ~CommandMenu();

Best I can figure, gcc doesn't like the taste of the word "NULL", so what do I put instead of it? ...or am I confused?

EDIT: gotta be me being confused; there's six and a half bazajillion other "NULL"s in there, so that's not it at all...

EDIT2: not the misplaced asterisk (in Menu.C) either... moved it over and it didn't fix anything. So I'll move it back.

[jemimah]

Go to line 624 of Menu.C and make this change.

Code: Select all

			 char* otherdir = NULL)

Code: Select all

			 char* otherdir)

[starhawk]

Thank you, Jemimah! That worked quite well...

Always an honor to receive help from someone as accomplished as you!

[starhawk]

Everything works... except for the keybindings. I think I know where I messed up, though.

xmodmap reveals the key code for the left alt key (for a menu popup) to be:

Code: Select all

Alt_L Meta_L

But I don't know how to enter the "spacebar" character in there... leaving it in there breaks Make.

Whadda I do?

[starhawk]

Betcha ya'll are all chucklin' at me fer that one. I didn't know, but "Alt_L" and "Meta_L" are two different keys that are mapped, on my keyboard, to the same key!

In related news, I still can't figure this one out. I've sent off an email to the developer (a Chris Cannam); I'll post here when I hear back.

If anyone else has some other suggestions, though, that would be right nifty.

[musher0]

Hello, starhawk.

Nope, not chuckling at all. I'm actually glad someone else is interested in this nice window manager.

I did 3-4 compiles of the previous version (7), with various colours, and came upon the same problems as you did with the wmx bindkeys. Spent hours and hours trying to figure them out...

See this thread: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 1&start=15

I succeeded partially because jemimah -- angel that she is -- gave me a few hints, as she did to you. And also because I didn't fixate on that "keys" problem.

Compile with a regular Alt+key combination. The Puppy keyboard doesn't come with the default wmx bindkeys configured anyway. So you'd have to rebuild Puppy just to have access to those keys. Not worth the trouble since there are work-arounds.

For example, use the xbindkeys program and bind say, < Shift-right-click > to aragon's spm (aka aemenu) to have a more standard and manageable menu? Just my 2 cents.

Another thing if I may, which I discovered recently. To solve the problem of thin menus in wmx, put a dummy file/directory with a long(er) line in it. This will spread the menu and make it easier to navigate it when it pops up.

Bye for now.

[musher0]

BTW, starhawk, I rock !!!

[starhawk]

I see you speak French... Bonjour! (I speak it, horribly... my tongue refuses to contort itself sufficiently for proper pronunciation...)

I like your reply to my signature

What I'm really after is a menu of any sort, so that one does not have to rely on icons alone (or worse, console!) to access programs. If bindkeys is too much trouble, then I'm forced to choose one of two paths:

(1) Use a different WM, or
(2) Ask someone here to write me a menu/tray/applauncher type widget.

I'm a little hesitant with either approach... I really like the look of WMX, but my only coding experience (at least, the only successful coding experience I've had) was with a little interpreted sequential language called QBASIC. Time has long since left that junky stuff behind... and I'm stuck with it!

All I would really need would be an "applauncher" type tray... I think they call it a "dock" on Mac-type systems... nothing flashy, just sits centered in the bottom of the screen with a few useful app icons and a Menu button... maybe even a clock if someone's feeling really extravagant (I don't know about the rest of ya'll, but I use a watch for that). Doesn't even need to be skinnable/themeable.

The only thing is that I can't code a line of C... I could barely figure out what I needed to do in the config.h file! So I would need someone else to do all the work for me, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

[starhawk]

Been thinking about this. Guess how I feel is: if someone is willing to do up that menu for me, that would be great, but if no-one will, I can (try to) use fluxbox instead of WMX... guess it doesn't matter that much.

Would also be good if the box on the side of a WMX window closed the window rather than just hiding it...

[jemimah]

That's the problem with WMX - it doesn't actually have any features.

I think you'll find openbox better than fluxbox.

[musher0]

That's the problem with WMX - it doesn't actually have any features.

Oh, how I disagree, Madame, how I disagree!

On the contrary, wmx is quite original, with the program name on the side of the windows, and the use of corners as "mini command posts", to change desktops (top right), and to close the wm (bottom left). Also it's the ONLY wm intelligent enough to create a new desktop automatically as needed. Now that's what I call A REAL FEATURE! Very useful if you are a power user.

It's just that the wmx menu is awfully awkward. You need a very good three button mouse, for starters. And then you need to add a line in each directory to make menu wider.

jwm is the one that lacks features:

* no flexibility for the general user, unless (s)he gets help from a XML programmer
* you can't use bindkeys with it, since jwm monopolizes the mouse/root contact
* is you use only two mouse clicks, it doesn't work, you have to comfigure the three mouse buttons
* no way to see what's running on your desktops by middle clicking (pekwm and icewm and almost every popular wm have that).

Shall I continue on jwm black holes?

Sure, wmx is still imperfect, but certainly it gives it its best shot at each of the above problems and comes up with an original solution. For example, I think that using the right click to focus on the next window is a great idea. It's quick, clean. Performance, it's called.

In any case, Happy New Year, even if late.

BFN.

[musher0]

Starhawk said:
> All I would really need would be an "applauncher" type tray...

Well, there are lots of those here:

spm (simple puppy menu), for example , can be integrated a number of ways, in gkrellm, stalonetray or icedock, even tint, just to name a few.
Packages for those have been either uploaded to the forum or at ibiblio/puppy.

BTW, I downloaded and perused your package, and a question popped up: why were you trying to compile wmx 6pl rather than the latest wmx 7.4 ?

BFN.