What should a taskbar "Menu" include?

What features/apps/bugfixes needed in a future Puppy
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
torm
Posts: 186
Joined: Sat 07 Mar 2015, 19:56

What should a taskbar "Menu" include?

#1 Post by torm »

What should a taskbar "Menu" include?
Thinking about old-timer "Start" menu on a panel.. as modern WM-s provide drop-down menus
for applications anyway. So it would predict some features "ordinary" user would find
useful? One-click YT and FB connections? History of opened files, websites history?
Just to pop up some ideas here.. ?

musher0
Posts: 14629
Joined: Mon 05 Jan 2009, 00:54
Location: Gatineau (Qc), Canada

#2 Post by musher0 »

Hi torm.

IMO, a taskbar menu should be able to open whatever the user needs to be
opened, from, say, a diagnostics directory in /var/Xorg, to a FaceBook page
(as you mentioned).

The jwm menu is rather limited in this respect: for anything to appear in it,
jwm must first find a *.desktop file in /usr/share/applications. You can
fiddle with it to some extent, as Argolance did for his ToOpPy derivative,
but you need to know the xml language.

On the other hand, the icewm window manager allows a customized
taskbar menu, separate from the main menu. The icewm menu is actually
a text file with a simple syntax, so it's easy to create a customized one.

~~~~~~~~~~

IMO, specialized menu utilities such as gtk-menu and aemenu are the best
for this type of customization: they allow the most flexibility to the user,
because they are simple text files, and easy to understand and set-up by
even a newbie.

With these, you can build your customized menu to suit your needs and
then include it in the taskbar as a regular app. When you click that icon on
the bar, pop!, your customized menu appears.

At the same time, because of a couple of recent hacks by fellow forum
member vovchik, at
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 534#914001
the user can now make aemenu and gtk-menu visually interesting, with
colors and font sizes and mark-ups. His work allows you to create aemenus
and gtk-menus that are as simple or as sophisticated as you wish.

~~~~~~~~~~

As I write this, I know I'm just scratching the surface, because, out there,
there are maybe 10 to 15 good, not too big, Linux window managers with
some type of menu capacity, plus probably half that number of stand-alone
taskbars... Happy exploring?! ;)

IHTH. (Have fun!) :)
musher0
~~~~~~~~~~
"You want it darker? We kill the flame." (L. Cohen)

User avatar
torm
Posts: 186
Joined: Sat 07 Mar 2015, 19:56

#3 Post by torm »

Was trying to think "out of the box" for a while... :)
If there is WM built-in (some xdg-based..) menu that looks like any other? Good..
So what good is the "Menu" button on the taskbar then?

Navig8or has the "looks" and some d'n'd capabilities, so why not add some fuel into it?
Then again, what could that be?
Without direct or indirect dependencies.
I like some features of menu in FbBox (OpenBox based).
No idea what someone else would find useful..
For comparision, "some" commercial menus don't make any sense to me :)

musher0
Posts: 14629
Joined: Mon 05 Jan 2009, 00:54
Location: Gatineau (Qc), Canada

#4 Post by musher0 »

Hi, torm.

I'm not completely sure what you mean by
WM built-in (some xdg-based..) menu that looks like any other
but to remove the menu button on the jwm taskbar, open file
/root/.jwmrc-tray in your editor, then locate this line (should be
about line 6):
<TrayButton label="Menu" icon="puppy.svg" border="true">root:3</TrayButton>
and edit it to look like this:
<-- <TrayButton label="Menu" icon="puppy.svg" border="true">root:3</TrayButton> -->
That will make the menu button in the jwm taskbar disappear. After that
you'll have to access the jwm menu only by right-click on some empty space
on your screen.

IHTH.

~~~~~~~~~~~
PS. You have to recycle the jwm before the change takes effect.
musher0
~~~~~~~~~~
"You want it darker? We kill the flame." (L. Cohen)

Post Reply