Clever repositioning of mouse

Configuration Complex functions
1

If you appreciate SloppyFocus or MouseFocus but can’t get used to the mouse pointer jumping to the upper left corner of the window as you switch windows with Alt+Tab or similar, you could try something like this:

AddToFunc reposition_pointer
+ I PipeRead 'echo $[pointer.x] $[pointer.y] $[w.width] $[w.height] $[w.x] \
	$[w.y] | $[fvwm_scrpt]/reposition_pointer'

DestroyFunc WindowListFunc
AddToFunc WindowListFunc
+ I Iconify off
+ I FlipFocus
+ I Raise
+ I reposition_pointer

This requires that you put a little program named “reposition_pointer” in your Fvwm script catalogue. The source looks like this:

#include <stdio.h>

int main ()
{
	int pointer_x, pointer_y, width, height, left, top, right, bottom;

	scanf("%i %i %i %i %i %i", &pointer_x, &pointer_y, &width, &height, &left, &top);
	right	= left + width;
	bottom	= top + height;

	if (pointer_x > right)
		pointer_x = right - 5;
	else if (pointer_x < left)
		pointer_x = left + 5;
	if (pointer_y > bottom)
		pointer_y = bottom - 5;
	else if (pointer_y < top)
		pointer_y = top + 5;
	
	printf("WindowId root WarpToWindow %ip %ip\n", pointer_x, pointer_y);
	return 0;
}

(Compile it with gcc reposition_pointer.c -o reposition_pointer)

So what does it do? Well, while switching between windows Alt-Tab style it never moves the mouse pointer more than necessary; if the pointer is already inside the newly raised window, it doesn’t move at all, and if it’s outside it moves to the nearest border.

2

So much effort when the Direction command in FVWM already does this.

– Thomas Adam