What's new in this version?

20040929:

This is a pretty quick release - only one week of life time for the last one
- that's because tommorow I'm starting my English studies, so I will have much
less time to work on Crystal than before. And there is so much to make, so
many new ideas... ;) Anyway, what's new?

- Rafal Bisingier brings to you his own version of 'apps', an
  'fvwm-crystal.apps' script. It's coded in Python, supports generation of
  many different panels, menus, menus with submenus, etc. See
  'fvwm-crystal.apps --help' for details. You can safely uninstall old 'apps'
  now. Thanks, Rafal, and Specefrogg ('apps' author), for inspiration :)

- Tomasz Melcer made enchanced version of 'fvwm-crystal.mail' script, which
  will let you check multiple mboxes and maildirs. Thanks! :)

- I've rebuild Crystal configs (again). Now they can be splitted into two
  parts. One part (the "system" part) can be installed system-wide, thus
  allowing to create packages for Linux distributions; the other part ("user")
  sit's in '~/.fvwm/' directory and allows user to save his/hers preferences
  (selected wallpaper, colorset, settings, etc.) for future updates. More
  information about making a packaged version of FVWM-Crystal can be found in
  'doc/Packaging.txt' file. Of course you can still use Crystal as before,
  it's completely transparent.

- A mixer system is changed a little, thanks to Robert Litwiniec. Now it
  should work everywhere, no matter if you have ALSA or not. it's also less
  cpu-consuming. Robert also gave me some scripts for showing ACPI battery
  status in FVWM panel.

- Developer menu is back. Similar to those in 1.0.1 version, it has some
  additional functions like launching 'tail -f ~/.xsession-errors' and top.

- FVWM-Crystal can be now localized. It's done very poorly for my tastes (FVWM
  supports gettext but I don't know how to use it, at least for now) but
  works. I know that some people wanted to have translated desktop, so here
  you are. Currently there are 5 languages supported (English, Polish, German,
  Spanish and two versions of Russian, with or without UTF-8), (thanks for the
  translators!). If there is no file with your language (Crystal uses $LANG
  variable to determine that), English will be used by default. If you want to
  translate Crystal, look in 'fvwm/locales/C' for details.

Well, that's all folks! For now ;)

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20040919:

I guess that you didn't like previous release, huh? :) From the feedback I've
got I concluded that old Crystal users like the old-fashioned desktop style
end doesn't like too much changes... So I'm bringing you back your old
desktop, but also making some improvements, and I hope that you will like them
this time.

So, what's new?

You can now choose between 4 (four) desktop layouts. There is one from the
first branch of Crystal, from 2003. It's called '0.9', because the last
version from there was '0.8', and after this one I've changed the
configuration system and also the apperance. It's not '0.8', because there are
some improvements, like less buttons in XMMS panel and added docklet.

Next desktop is from the old and very popular '1.0' branch, still available on
fvwm-crystal.linuxpl.org (I will deal with it in the near future). It didn't
changed too much, and I hope that the users of old version will switch to the
new one. This version of the layout is set by default, you can change it in
'~/.fvwm/config', at the end.

Two previous themes doesn't have Thumbnails enabled and don't reque
ImageMagick, next two versions have them. Version '1.1' is the last one before
this major change. And the last one is called 'devel'. It didn't changed at
all from the previous release, but I'm planning to work on it in the next
two-three months, so there maybe changes. I'm including it here for those of
you, who liked it and want to use it.

I've added two new window decorations: 'Clear', gave to me by Rafal Bisingier
(thanks!) and 'Crystal-Aqua', made by me and Social (images). Also from Rafal
is new functionality of the titlebar buttons - when you click and hold a mouse
button on one of the titlebar buttons, you will get a small menu with
available commands for this button. But that's not all! When you release the
mouse button while the menu is active, nothing will happen. No more questions
like 'did I press the right button?'. :)

Old colorsets are back :)

I've added antialiased mail counter. It uses a small script called
'fvwm-crystal.mail' to check the meail. By default only local $MAIL is
checked, every minute. If you want, you can add your own commands
(fvwm-crystal.mail is a shell script). No more xLassie :)

There is also new volume indicator (based on taviso's one, thanks!). It
changes the image displayed on the panel, when you change the volume.

There is a new 'Wallpaper' menu, from where you can load wallpapers randomly
or select one using a menu system (with thumbnails of the wallpapers). All of
this thanks to the taviso 'WallpaperBrowser' function :) Because that old
'wal.py' script is removed - it was slowing the startup and wallpaper chaning
anyway.

I use new version of habak, 0.2.4.1, with added some patch to print the names
of the succesfully loaded habaks (used to remember the last changed
wallpaper). Be sure to update - there is also included English version of
README file, thanks to Bartosz Feski. Package is available on FVWM-Crystal's
website.

Hmm, so small changes? I thought there will be more of them... Anyway, enjoy!

harnir.


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20040903:

Just some small gliches that I forgot to comment in Variables. And I've added
to each of the colorsets and decorations an info showing in InformationBox.

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20040902:

Pretty big major rewrite of all config files. I know that most of you will not
like this version :) Well, I've did this, because I've knew that Crystal is
becoming slower and slower every day - so I wanted to speed it up. You will
judge if I was a success...

So, let's start from the "visible part"...

I've removed ApplicationPanel and all icons. Sorry Spacefrogg... But I'm
planning to make a script/program for generation a menu system with
applications, so don't worry about this feature. It's not there yet, because
I'm practically cut off of the Net... Because of all this I also remove
ApplicationDatabase file from this release - it didn't change a bit, and
I don't want to confuse you more than I'm doing right now...

Because ApplicationPanel is no longer there, I moved all panels to the
top-right corner of the screen. Docklet is changed a bit - I removed almost
all dockable icons information, leaving just Psi (if you want, you can add it
by yourself from older version). I'm thinking how to set up this docklet
- clock is a little too big for one column, and if there are two columns, it's
hard to add support for dockable icons (there may be empty space). I would
like to know your opinion - send it to me (harnir@linux.net.pl) or to the
mailing list (fvwm-crystal@chlor.kofeina.net).

Clock is now antialiased - I'm using a FvwmScript script instead of
xdaliclock. I'm thinking about doing the same with xlassie - be patient.

Xlassie opens mutt in a terminal by default.

I've added some new icons in Docklet:
- a monitor - for changing wallpapers, it has a menu under the LMB
- a two windows - for window lists: LMB - visible windows, RMB - icons, MMB
  arranges windows on the desktop
- two arrows - for switching between desktop pages

On the lower edge of the screen there is an InformationBox, which can be used
to display XMMS titles - see ~/.fvwm/functions/InformationBox for more info.

Because there is no ApplicationPanel, I've added a menu on the desktop,
accessible using LMB. It's "static" right now, so if you want to have some
programs in there (besides those available), you will have to add them by
yourself - see ~/.fvwm/Menu.

Colorsets are again changed - now they set just the menus, the panels, pager,
iconmans and forms. You can choose them from the main menu.

I've added support for changing window frames on the fly. You can change the
look and feel of a window frame (buttons, etc). Decorations can be found in
~/.fvwm/decorations/; currently there are three decorations with various
variants available. You can change decorations using 'Decoraions' menu in the
main menu. Change is automatically remembered.

In overall, Crystal is more like Fluxbox, I guess.

Now some news about the configuration and such stuff...

All function files like QuakeConsole, Window functions, and similar ones, are
moved to the 'functions' directory, from where they are loaded at the
beginning, using just one command. If you want, you can take this 'functions'
directory and make your own, complete new configuration :).

'Config' file is renamed to 'config', because in fvwm 2.5.11 this fill will be
automatically loaded (at last!). Also the contents of this file are moved to
the other files, leaving just some basic configuration options and loading of
other files. Oh God, my English sucks! :) That's why I'm going to the English
stidues, btw.

All modules configuration (panels, pager, and this stuff) is put in separate
files in '~/.fvwm/modules' directory.

Decorations are built using a few separate files:
- 'colorsets' - this file sets some variables, which containt the numbers of
  used colorsets. Thanks to that you can change these numbers if they collide
  with other colorsets used in your config.
- '*.theme' - these are files shown in the menu. If there is only one *.theme
  file found, there will be no submenus, and if there are more files, they
  will produce additional submenu allowing you to select which decoration
  variation you want to load. In *.theme files you can put a parts of the
  decoration that you want to change, for example colorsets.
- 'decoration' - this file is a "skeleton" of the decoration, it has all
  decoration commands of fvwm and also mouse bindings for titlebar buttons. If
  you want, you can make several "skeleton" files, for example for different
  alignment of titlebar buttons.
For examples of decorations look in ~/.fvwm/decorations/, if you want to see
how decoration mechanism works, look in
~/.fvwm/functions/Decoration-Functions.

Some final words... I know that there may be some problems with QuakeConsole
in FVWM 2.5.11, but I don't have a spare sources to compile and install for
now. I'll get some and try them.

Well, I hope that you will not hate me for making those changes... I felt
irritaed by Crystal look and slowness, so I had to change it. And I would like
to thank all of Crystal users for their words about this project, it really
helps sometimes to know, that your work is not wasted... Well, see you next
time :)

harnir

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20040723:

Lucass asked me if I can join 'fvwm-crystal' and 'fvwm-crystal-icons' packages
for easier installation process. So here it is.

Some code from the 'Config' file is moved to the additional files: 'Bindings'
(mouse and keyboard bindings) and 'Variables' (environment variables). Now you
can save your settings for the further updates.

Function 'LoadLastColorset' is moved to the end of the 'Config' file, so
startup should now be a little faster (colorsets are regenerated only once).

There are some settings commented by default, like desktop switching using
mouse wheel on the desktop, or moving between desktops using screen edge.
Check in 'Config' and 'Bindings' files for details.

Right margin on the desktop is only active when gkrellm is running (it's
started from the Startup file).

There is a new code to remember which window was active on the desktop and
activate the last used window when the desktop is changed. Because of that
I remove FvwmTrackFocus.pl script from addons/ directory.

There is a new button in the window title (this with two arrows). It let's you
move selected window to the previous (LMB) or next (RMB) page of the desktop.
If you click with MMB, window will be moved to the last used desktop page.
Holding down Alt (Meta) will, after moving a window to selected page, change
to this page.

There are new versions of the titlebar icons.

In "Crystal" menu there is a new position called "Shutdown". It will let you
reboot or turn off computer, using sudo. You will be prompted for the password
if you need to give it. Remember to configure /etc/sudoers so you can use
/sbin/shutdown command. If you don't have sudo installed, "Shutdown" menu will
not appear in "Crystal" menu. Also 'xkill' is now available from the main
'Crystal' menu.

I fixed starting XScreenSaver, now it should start without splash dialog.

XMMS starts playing music automatically, you can turn it off in 'Startup'
file. Also all sticky notes from 'xpad' are shown automatically at startup.

There is a new plugin 'Desktop-Functions' with functions designed to control
page switching and moving between pages. By default these functions are bound
to the new titlebar button. Also there are new bindings on the keyboard:
Alt+[ - go to page on the left from the current page
Alt+] - go to page on the right from the current page
You can go around the desktop, ie. from the 1 to the 8 page and from 8 to 1.
When you will hold Shift using above combinations, currently focused window
will move to the choocen page.

'Exec-Accelerator' plugin was improved. There are new functions: "E" to launch
preffered text editor, "S" to launch a command using 'sudo' and "SE" to launch
text editor using 'sudo'. Also there are commented out defaults, such as
different text editors or terminals.

"Fullscreen" is a plugin to make windows frame-less, titlebar-less and put
them on the full screen (wow).  It's bound to Alt+* on the numeric keypad,
pressing this combination on fullscreened window will switch it back to the
previous position and size.'

New plugin 'InformationBox' will show given text in a small window near the
lower-left corner of the screen (by default). It can be used for example to
show current song title played in the XMMS. See the file
'plugins/InformationBox' to see how to get this effect.

Thumbnail icons are stored by default in '/tmp'.

I've rewritten 'INSTALL' file. Now it describes an installation process of
FVWM, some needed programs and FVWM-Crystal. You can also find there a list of
programs which can be used to enhance the abilites of Crystal.

In the doc/ directory you can find new file called 'Bindings.txt' with has
described all keyboard bindings. There will be also all mouse bindings,
written later. There is also a 'Crystal ROX!' howto, which shows you how to
add desktop icons support using ROX-Filer.

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20040530:

Very, very, very big update for 'ApplicationDatabase' - I've added my most
used applications and some others. Look at it and tell me if they are well
sorted. There are also more options for 'apps' application and it's database
system - thanks for your work Spacefrogg :)

Many wanted to have bottom window list back... So here it is. It's disabled by
default, you can uncomment a 'Read' command in Config file.

There are some new colorsets thanks to Fromooze; besides, last choosen
colorset is now remembered! Update your own to support this function (look to
the colorset files). At the first time the 'DarkDesktop' colorset is loaded.

There is new file called 'Startup', from where programs are started when the
session starts. By default these are: gkrellm, psi, xscreensaver and
gnome-settings-daemon (started from default Debian location).

Ive added bindings for multimedia keyboards (volume change and next/prev song
with Alt+Volume controls), thanks LiNiO :)

In Docklet, when you click on the xlassie number, it will get new mail using
fetchmail.

Added small Perl script (in addons/aterm) to launch aterm with a random tint color.
Put it in your $PATH, but make sure that selected directory is checked before
/usr/bin, ie. it's like: PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin". Otherwise it will not
work.

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20040511:

There is now a program for setting background wallpaper, called habak. You
have to compile it and put somewhere in $PATH. It has some nice features, like
render of interlaced images, draw an image over anothr image, draw TTF text on
the background, etc. Documentation files are in Polish, but you can look at
the help (habak -i).

Lucass provided me with the 'wal.py' Python script. Put it in your $PATH
somewhere. You will need pyxml library installed on your system. wal.py is
a wrapper for wallpaper setting utilities, such as habak, Esetroot or
Hsetroot. It has it's own internal database of known wallpapers, you can
select random wallpaper, change to the next, previous, etc. In Crystal there
is a dedicated menu for it.'

fvwm-crystal.apps-generator is back, in a new, shiny C version, called 'apps'.
You have to compile it and put somewhere in your $PATH. Send thanks to
Spacefrogg. It uses flexible text database to handle all application data. You
can make menus, panels, whatever you like. More info can be found in the
'database' file in 'apps' package, which is a sample application database.
More comlex database waits for you in Crystal directory. BTW, when you start
your new desktop for the first time, in upper-left corner of the screen there
will be a small icon with X Consortium sign. Click on it.

Audio mixer is now set for Main channel instead of PCM by default. I've
removed variables for mixer commands and put them directly in place. And now
you can change volume using your mouse wheel, when it's pointer is over mixer
button! :) Step is set by default to 2; of course LMB/RMB still works.

I'm starting gkrellm by default, if it's installed. Don't worry about
restarts, there is a test if gkrellm runs or not. Also wallpaper is set by
default from 'Config'. At the first start you have to add some wallpapers to
the database though. See below.

EdgeResistance is se to 0, now you can easly move your windows off-screen.
However they will be visible on other pages in horizontal direction.

ApplicationPanel and Docklet settings are in functions
'Reload-ApplicationPanel' and 'Reload-Docklet'. Now you can easily reload them
after making changes in ~/.fvwm/Docklet or ~/.fvwm/ApplicationDatabase (don't
change ~/.fvwm/ApplicationPanel directly, because it will be overwritten when
using reload function from the menu).

I've added possibility to kill a window if program doesn't respond: press
MMB+Alt+Close button (left or right) on the titlebar.

Menu feeling in the Docklet and ApplicationPanel has changed. Now, instead of
clicking and holding the mouse, you just need to click (and release). Menu
will stay on the screen. Send me an info if this change is good.

In /Crystal menu there are new menu items:
- submenu for wallpaper control functions; from there you can add new
  wallpaper directories to the database. This menu is also available when you
  click with MMB on Crystal icon.
- submenu for colorset switching
- submenu for creating screenshots (I switched from scrot to import, BTW). You
  can make shot of entire screen or select a window or rectangle piece of
  screen.
- a menu which opens a window list (it's also available when you click with
  RMB on Crystal icon).
- 'Unclutter desktop' - the easiest way :)

New colorsets: 'Red - Cyan', 'IrishDesktop', 'WhiteDesktop'

In addons/gdm/ you can find two files to put in your /etc/gdm/Sessions/ and
/usr/share/xsessions/. After that you will be able to start FVWM from gdm
itself. Thanks, LiNiO :)

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20040428:

Configuration files
-------------------

I've changed configuration layout again. Everything is again in ~/.fvwm, and
it's clean and simple. Almost no commentary, maybe I will add it in the
future. Configuration files are as follows:

plugins/ - many functions divided into files. You can include them and use
theirs functions in main configuration file. They need to have some comments
thought about usage.

icons/ - small 22x22 icons used in window titles, pager and on
ApplicationPanel. There is also one big Style file for MiniIcon settings.

bigicons/ - bigger icons (32x32) used by thumbnailer. Currently very samll
amount, I will add more later.

icons/ and bigicons/ are in separate package for easier maintain.

colorsets/ - colorset files; currently one, DarkDesktop

images/ - some FVWM-Crystal default images for window titles, Docklet, etc.

ApplicationPanel - some default panel in the upper-left corner of the screen.
In the future it can be created by a program (thanks to Spacefrogg) - just
need to tweak something.

Config - main configuration file, everything is there. At the beginning there
are some variables for tweaking (Polish users, look there for default fonts).

Docklet - a panel in the upper-right corner of the screen, tweaked - see
below.

Styles - here you can configure particular windows and their behaviour.

In ~/.fvwm there can be more files and directories created while working
- DebianMenu (from Debian menu system), xmms-playlists/ for playlists,
  screenshots/ for screenshot files.


FvwmIconMans
------------

I've removed the IconMans (window lists at the bottom of the screen and icon
list in the upper-right corner). Window lists have no use for me currently
- if you want them back, tell me and I can give you a file to add to your
configuration which will bring it back. The icon panel is removed because
there are new...


Thumbnails
----------

Taviso's invention is coming to Crystal. I hope that you will like it. When
you iconify a window (either from the keyboard using Alt+Shift+KP_Subtract or
using RMB on Close button), it will be changed into small thumbnail with it's
contents. If you have an icon for the application in bigicons/ directory, this
icon will appear on the thumbnail. Thumbnails are stored starting from the
lower-left part of the screen. They are virtually a part of the desktop
background - they don't block other windows, are always underneath them, when
you click RMB on a thumbnail you will get new terminal, as usual. When you
want to bring back a window, you have to doubleclick with your LMB on the icon
- then it will be bringed back on the actual desktop. Or you can press
Alt+Shift+Tab - a list with thumbnails and their names will appear on the
screen.


Docklet
-------

The new Docklet has swallowed xdaliclock and old MainPanel with Crystal menu
and XMMS menus. It's much smarter now - it check what applications are
installed and adds control buttons for them automatically. Ex. if it finds
xdaliclock, it will appear on the button, the same for XMMS, aumix (as the
mixer), and so on. Currently there is support also for some IM programs like
Psi, Gabber, Kadu, Tleenx2. There is also support for xpad (LMB - show all
sticky notes, MMB - hide all sticky notes, RMB - add new sticky note).
Oh, and the "Docklet problem" has changed a bit. Previously when you launched
for example Psi for the first time, it's dock icon got swallowed into Docklet.
Now, if you closed Psi and opened it again, dock icon didn't get swallowed
again. In this version, if you do so, it will be swallowed again. But if you
will restart FVWM or reread Docklet configuration, it will be not swallowed
again.

Modifiers
---------

You can select what modifiers you want to use (Alt, Control, etc.). Variables
are at the beginning of the Config file. There are settings for use Super_L
(Windows left key) instead of Alt key, commented out. Change of modifier will
be used everywhere, after the next start of Crystal.


/RootMenu
---------

There is a RootMenu, which can be accessed from Alt+Windows Menu by default.
It contains Applications menu (all available from ApplicationPanel), XMMS menu
available from Docklet and Crystal menu, also from Docklet. Now it's easier to
use Crystal from the keyboard :).

