Tabby Alpha

Author: West
Uploaded: May. 13 2006
Views: 3506
Downloads: 967
Reported problems: 0

THIS THEME SUCKS, DON'T DOWNLOAD IT!

Good, now that I have your attention, please read the following carefully:

This is not a finished, fully functional theme! This is proof of concept and it should be installed for testing purposes only. In a nutshell, Tabby is a theme with a new (?) approach to the old virtual desktops concept: it uses tabs to organize the interface into multiple desktops. All desktops have individual icon groups, wallpapers and names. In the future I might also add desktop-specific color schemes. Anyway, this is experimental stuff and I'd like some feedback -- is this somethign worth developing further or am I wasting my time? All thoughts and suggestions are welcome. :)

Usage tips:

* Left-click the tabs to switch desktops.

* Right-click a tab to open the tab menu, which contains a list of the shortcuts on that particular desktop plus some config options.

* Tab names, icons and wallpapers can all be changed on the fly.

* You can drag files or programs to a tab and shortcuts will be created on that desktop.

* Drag a shortcut to the Trash button to put it in the Recycle Bin.

* Right-click Trash to view the contents of the recycle bin.

* Right-click the clock to switch to system meter mode.

Known issues:

* Tabby has certain stability issues on my system. For a while when I was working on it I had to kill and restart LS instead of recycling since the theme kept crashing all the time as soon as I tried to recycled. Let me know how it works for you.

* LSWChanger (the wallpaper switching module used) only accepts bmp and jpg images. Also, it doesn't like paths with spaces in them. I may have to replace this module.

* Dropping files on the desktops does not work.

* The xTaskbarVWMCurrentDesktopOnly setting seems highly unreliable; some tasks are hidden when you switch desktops while some are not.

* Many features are missing. For example there's no simple way of moving windows between desktops yet.

Sorry for this verbose intro, but I know most people just won't read readmes so there's no point in saying "see the readme for usage tips and known issues" :P

5 Comments

fractal.design wrote on May 13, 2006 at 14:44:

This sounds effing excellent, downloading...

update:

Wow, ok. Wow... ok.. uhm... holy shiz... cool.
far out this is a masterpiece, through and through...

from the graphics, to the usability... now this is a shell. THIS is a shell mate.
effing heck...

This is an alpha?

OK, Ill post bugs/suggestions here:

Trash: Left click does nothing yet. its cool to have a trash shortcut there, but it needs attention (like its own menu, with the deleted items as a sub entry or something)

Wallpaper: definetly need to change the module (no space support is just crippling)

Editing the title does not stick (I can type a new name, but it doesnt get set or saved)
Also making the tabs autowidth'erised would be nicer than have a character limit, then users can add there own usabillity into it by setting massive title names ;)

Maybe an autohide option would be cool, maybe, though I dont actually care. I am rather getting used to the coolness of the tabs. But you see how an autohiding tabs bar would work great, you could stay in one "desktop" for ages (and utilise more desk space) and then switch only when you need to switch.

I almost want to drag my windows onto another tab and have the window "move" to that "desktop"... dont know how you can move the windows around.... RabidVWM cant do anything like that really....
maybe you could have RabidVWM displayed below the tabs? (the tabs would need to be identical in size though...)

A way to add/delete tabs would be great.

A way to show my hidden xTray icons would be super.

Gosh, this is about the coolest theme I have ever used... well done West, this is teh uber theme.
I think its as much the details as the huge ideas that make it nice (like how the stat info is in a different color to the stat names)

Super styling, uber usable,
Excellent Alpha

:)

West wrote on May 15, 2006 at 12:38:

Hehe, I'm glad you like it fractal... but 'masterpiece'? Aren't we exaggerating a bit? :D

As for the bugs and suggestions...

Trash: the trash button is broken, yes. I think I added it before I had any clear idea of what to use it for. Possibly I'll make it open a Recycle Bin window, and have a rmb menu with some options ("Empty Trash" and... I dunno?). I also tried using xinterface to make the label show the number of items in the Trash but I couldn't get the becomesfilled/becomesempty events to work.

Wallpaper: Hmm, xcal pointed something out which made me doubt that it's actually the module causing it... it might be my scripting. I'll look into it.

Editing the title: that's weird. Works just fine here. Making the tabs autosize is a good idea, might be a hassle to script though, since the following tabs must adjust their positions accordingly. Sometimes I miss that feature of shortcut2 where you could make a shortcut coordinate relative to the previously defined shortcut... a really nifty little feature.

Autohide option: not a bad idea... that would actually be kind of cool, having the tabs slide down when you move your pointer to the top edge. The only problem is visual feedback. The whole idea behind Tabby is making using a VWM easier, i.e. you should always know what desktop you're on. If the tabs are hidden and a maximized window is covering the wallpaper and icons... how can you tell what desk you're on?

Dragging windows to tabs: yes, that would be incredibly cool, very intuitive. But how?? As mentioned there's no easy way of moving windows between desktops ATM and I need to solve that somehow.

Adding/deleting tabs: yeah... I've been considering that. But again, sounds like it might require some nasty scripting.

Hidden xtray icons: hmmm... I never use that xtray feature so I don't know what you might need... you mean like a button that toggles hidden icons?

Once again, I'm glad you like this little theme, thanks. Don't hesitate to let me know if you think of any other things that should be fixed/changed/added :)

därknexus wrote on May 15, 2006 at 17:33:

THIS THEME SUCKS, DON'T DOWNLOAD IT! Should Read THIS THEME ROCKS, DO DOWNLOAD IT! Seriously though, I made this account just to comment on this theme, I like it that much. To me this themes usability is better than any theme I have tried before.

As for suggestions:

I think it would be nice if icons on the dekstops remained in thier position after a system restart, currently my game and media desktops get a little hard to search through : )

Also I like the idea of autohide. Currently when I open Civilization III the tabed bar stays on top of my game. In that game I actually like it there but in others it might interfere with gameplay. Also, do you know the reason it stays on top during that game and not others such as World of Warcraft, Half Life, etc..?

Maybe an option for a quick launch bar but thats just personal preference.

Thoose are really the only things I can think of. Great job and thanks for the theme.

fractal.design wrote on May 17, 2006 at 07:48:

definetly a masterpiece ;)

trash rmb menu: you could have all the deleted items in the menu, then you wouldnt need to open the recyclebin window to see whats in it, very cool ;)

wallpaper: ok, cool, but a module that supported png would be good too though.

editing the title: you could do it using lslua by making each tab have its own properties, then calculate all their positions collectively.
but i'd rather have a new version of tabby than wait while you learn how to do that :p :D

autohide option: why would you need to know what tab your using until you want to change it?
the reason youd want to change it is to get to the icons/windows on another tab.

I dont think it will limit usability really.

like, your using your computer, then you need to get into another "mode" or tab, so you move tghe mouse up top, down slides the tab list.

I dont understand why you need to be able to see the current tab always.
I think the added screen realestate/less cluttery shell (although its not cluttered right now) gives more benefit than being able to see what tab your using right now.

meh, my 2 cents anyway :)

dragging: isnt there a module that can control windows? doesnt rabidvwm have some window moving bangs?

Adding/deleting tabs: yeah the answer is lslua's table properties. yes it would still be difficult, but I dont know if there is a way with mz :/

hidden tray icons: I find the simplest method is:
xTrayOnLeftClickUp !xTrayToggleHiddenIcons

:D

once again: masterpiece. definetly keep working on this :)

PhotoFx wrote on July 04, 2006 at 04:42:

as far as making sure the user knows what desk they're on, my solution to that has recently been to have a floating ghost label displaying the braile codes for the desk number (which are in a 2x2 grid. they look cool, and obviously they could be any other image/text, that's just what i like) which gets updated on any vwmonswitchto. anyway, with something like that, you wouldn't need to worry about the auto-hiding feature.

the tabbed desktops idea is very good, and i'm considering trying to implement it in my current theme, or maybe file it away for future development. wonderful idea, though could perhaps be optimised to use less screen space, and a less cluttered interface.

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