copying windows xp (start menu)

Configuration General Questions
1

i am working towards having three fvwm configs: one thats my own, one that looks (and acts) like macosx, and one for windows xp…

its working out pretty well (will eventually post when they are finished) but im having a lot of trouble on the start menu for windows xp…

it should be dual paned, and with custom triangles, etc… which i dont know how to do… mainly if someone can point me towards a way to make it be dual paned, that would be great…

heres what it looks like already:
fvwm

and what the start menu should look like:
windows

thanks in advance…

killfire

2

You could use FvwmButtons to get that effect, I already use FvwmButtons to create ‘drawers’ in my menubar so it surely can be done :slight_smile:

EDIT: typo

3

I’ve racked my brains (yes, it hurt, and there was too much of an echo for my liking…), but I can’t see how you can get dual-paned menus in FVWM, like you would in XP. So currently, it’s not possible to get that aspect of things.

– Thomas Adam

4

First thing that came into my head, too, was FvwmButtons. Or am I missing something?

5

Like everyone is saying, use an FvwmButton. Put it inside a panel and you should be able to get it to slide out like the windows start menu.

6

thanks people, its working pretty well… heres a screenshot:
fvwmxp

i still have three small problems… two i think will be simpler than the third:

how do i change the background of the button when the mouse is over it? i noticed in the man page how to change the icon, but i didnt see anything about background color (maybe i just missed it)… otherwise i dont think it will be as much of a menu…

second simple one (i think): how can i get the menu to pop up (the “all programs” menu) on mouse over, instead of clicking?

third (harder, i think): how do i get the panel to retract when the mouse clicks out of its area, or clicks on anything in the menu/submenu…

thanks…

killfire

7

ActiveColorset

I wouldn’t know, I somehow doubt this is possible… :frowning:

These might help:
[list][]http://fvwm.lair.be/viewtopic.php?t=254[/:m]
[]http://fvwm.lair.be/viewtopic.php?t=418[/:m][/list:u]

8

thats exactly what i was looking for… i guess the man page isnt completely alphabetized…

damn…

hmm… read through it, the question i have is, if i tell the panel to close, will it be permanently closed? or only closed long enough until the start button is clicked on again… otherwise, is there a command to retract the panel…

will look into this when i have more time… have to go… thanks a bunch,
killfire

9

If you tell it to “Close”, it will do just that. If you want to retract a panel, then you will need to panelise the button (see ‘man FvwmButtons’)

– Thomas Adam

10

ive already made the button a panel… my question is, can i send it a message telling it to retract the panel? because right now you have to click the start button again in order to have it retract… not exactly the effect im looking for…

11

hmm… ActiveColorset is not in the man page, and when i try to use it in a button, the entire panel will not show up…

[edit]
damn, its a *FvwmButtons: wide setting… not a specific button setting…
[/edit]

[edit2]
no point in making another post:

is it possible to make a button ignore “ActiveColorset”… i thought of trying to override it by Iding the non-active buttons, and then giving them their own ActiveColorset, but some of the buttons are on a gradient background, so there wouldnt be a correct background color… so is there a way to either never allow a button to become active; to turn off the activecolorset, or some other solution…
[edit3] another thought, why wouldnt having an activecolorset thats transparent work… though i just tried that, and i didnt… now trying only setting the ones i want to have the activecolorset via Id… i should really just keep my mouth shut and Think/RTFM…
[/edit]

thanks in advance
[/edit]

12

At present, panelising the button will only work if you click it with the mouse. I don’t even think fakeclick will work, in this instance.

– Thomas Adam

13

can you think of any workaround for this?

like moving the mousepointer there, clicking, and moving it back… or moving the panel into some -bignumber-bignumber position… or destroying and recreating it…

anything? that seems remotely possible…

14

Assuming the panel button is in the same place, you could use “MoveCursor”, and “FakeClick”. But I doubt it’d work. :slight_smile:

– Thomas Adam.

15

Not sure about the syntax, but how about scheduling a close on the exit event via fvwmevent and then cancel the scheduled event if the mouse moves back over the panel?

16

But this presupposes there’s already a means of closing the panel without clicking on it; there isn’t. So you have to emulate the moving of the cursor, and the click, if you want that to happen.

– Thomas Adam