FvwmTabs(1)                      Fvwm Modules                      FvwmTabs(1)



NAME
       FvwmTabs - a generic tabbing module for the fvwm window manager.

SYNOPSIS
       FvwmTabs is spawned by fvwm, so no command line invocation is possible.

DESCRIPTION
       The FvwmTabs module is capable of swallowing any fvwm window & treating
       it as a tab in a tab-manager window. A tab-manager is sometimes called
       a tabber.

       Each tab-manager can store any number of windows, each in its own tab.
       The number of tab-managers is limited only by system resources. Tab-
       managers can even be nested/swallowed within other tab-managers. (ie. a
       tab-manager can be added as an individual tab to another tab-manager.)

INVOCATION
       FvwmTabs can be invoked by inserting the line "Module FvwmTabs" in your
       .fvwmrc file. This can be placed on a line by itself, if FvwmTabs is to
       be spawned during fvwm's initialization, or can be bound to a menu or
       mouse button or keystroke to invoke it later.

INSTALLING DEPENDENCIES
       FvwmTabs requires 2 CPAN modules (that are NOT distributed with fvwm)
       to be installed on your system. They are Tk and X11::Protocol.

       They are available at:
       <http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/N/NI/NI-S/Tk-804.027.tar.gz>
       and <http://search.cpan.org/~smccam/X11-Protocol-0.56/>.

       To install either package:

       tar zxvf $name.tar.gz ; cd $name ; perl Makefile.PL ; make install

       FvwmTabs will tell you if you do not have these packages installed when
       you (try to) start it.

CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
       FvwmTabs reads the same config file as fvwm when it starts up.

       The following options are recognised by FvwmTabs:

       *FvwmTabs: activeFG color
           The text color of the button for the visible tab. The default color
           is yellow.

       *FvwmTabs: activeBG color
           The backgound color of the button for the visible tab. The default
           color is MidnightBlue.

       *FvwmTabs: inactiveFG color
           The text color of the buttons for the invisible tabs. The default
           color is antiquewhite.

       *FvwmTabs: inactiveBG color>
           The backgound color of the buttons for the invisible tabs. The
           default color is royalblue.

       *FvwmTabs: titleFG color
           The text color used in the titlebar. The default color is black.

       *FvwmTabs: titleBG color
           The background color used in the titlebar. The default color is
           antiquewhite.

       *FvwmTabs: activeRelief style
           The relief style to use for active buttons. style can be either
           raised, flat or sunken. The default style is sunken.

       *FvwmTabs: inactiveRelief style
           The relief style to use for inactive buttons. style can be either
           raised, flat or sunken. The default style is flat.

       *FvwmTabs: buttonYPadding pixels
           How much padding to use around top and bottom of tab buttons. The
           default value is 3 pixels.

       *FvwmTabs: pollRate ms
           Specifies how often to check for X events. ms is time in
           milliseconds. The default value, 250, should be fine for most
           users. If you are on a very slow machine you may wish to increase
           this.

       *FvwmTabs: buttonFont font
           The font to use on the tab buttons. The default font is Helvetica
           -12 bold.

       *FvwmTabs: titleFont font
           The font to use on the titlebar. The default font is Helvetica -12.

       *FvwmTabs: menuFont font
           The font to use on the menus. The default font is Helvetica -12.

       *FvwmTabs: fontSelector fontProgram
           The external font chooser program to launch when dynamically
           changing fonts. The default fontProgram is gfontsel --print -f
           "%f". Anti-gnome users might try xfontsel -print -pattern "%f". If
           set to none, no font menu options will appear.

       *FvwmTabs: autoSwallowClass className [tabManagerId], ...
       *FvwmTabs: autoSwallowResource resourceName [tabManagerId], ...
       *FvwmTabs: autoSwallowName name [tabManagerId], ...
           Specify windows to swallow automatically. These are comma-separated
           lists that specify the class/resource/name of a window & an
           optional tab-manager id into which the window should be swallowed.
           By default, the tab-manager id increments from zero - ie. 0 is the
           first tab-manager created, 1 the second, etc, but it may be
           overriden by specifying an argument to the NewTabber function. (No
           whitespace is allowed in tabber ids.) You can alternatively specify
           'any' or 'lastFocus' which will put the window in the tab-manager
           with the least number of tabs or the last focused tab-manager,
           respectively. If no tab-manager number is specified, an implicit
           default value of 'any' is used. Note that
           className/resourceName/name can be a (Perl) regular expression.

       *FvwmTabs: balloonBG color
           The backgound color of the balloon popups that appear over the tab
           buttons. The default color is #C0C080.

       *FvwmTabs: balloonFont font
           The font to use on the balloon popups. The default font is
           Helvetica -12.

       *FvwmTabs: balloonWait ms
           How long the mouse cursor must pause (in milliseconds) over a tab
           button before the balloon pops up. The default value is 250.

       *FvwmTabs: balloonMsg msg
           Message to display in balloon popups. The default value is
           %tabNo:\n%iconText\n%title.

       *FvwmTabs: autoResize bool
           bool can be either true or false. If true, windows in the tab-
           manager automatically resize to the dimensions of the largest
           window in the tab-manager. The default value is false. If the user
           performs an explicit resize of a tab-manager window, all windows in
           the tab-manager are resized to the new window size.

       *FvwmTabs: stateFile file
           FvwmTabs has the ability to preserve its state (ie. remember the
           windows it has swallowed as tabs) b/w fvwm restarts. file specifies
           the name of a temporary file to record the state in, so it can be
           reconstructed when FvwmTabs restarts. The default file is
           "$FVWM_USERDIR/.fvwmtabs.state".

       *FvwmTabs: fixedSizeTabs bool
           bool can be either true or false. If true, the tab-manager will
           ensure each tab-button has the same dimensions. If false, the
           selected tab is expanded so that it is fully visible. The default
           value is false.

       *FvwmTabs: showTitlebar bool
           Show internal titlebar. If set to true a titlebar appears below the
           row of tab-buttons & displays the title associated with the current
           window. This titlebar is capable of displaying long or multi-line
           titles. The default value is true.

       *FvwmTabs: useTMTitlebar bool
           Add the title associated with the selected tab to the tab-manager
           titlebar. (ie. the titlebar at the top of the window, distinct from
           the titlebar below the tab-buttons.) Default value is true.

       *FvwmTabs: dragDropIcon imageFile
           Specify the icon to display when performing a drag-&-drop operation
           to reorder the tab-buttons. FvwmTabs will search the ImagePath for
           this image unless an absolute filename (ie. filename begins with
           '/') is specified. The default value is none. If none (or an
           invalid file) is specified a * is used.

       *FvwmTabs: bBuggyFocus bool
           FvwmTabs tries to work around a limitation in Perl/Tk (there is no
           way to access the timestamp associated with WM_TAKE_FOCUS events).
           On some systems this doesn't work and sometimes tab-managers have
           trouble acquiring the focus. If this happens to you, try setting
           this option to true. This can lead to focussing race-conditions
           (tab-managers temporarily "steal" focus in some situations) but
           this is less annoying than not being able to focus at all.

       *FvwmTabs: enableSwallowDND bool
           Swallow windows that (are moved to) overlap a tabber. Note:
           drag-&-drop can be enabled for individual tabbers via the menu. The
           default value is true.

       *FvwmTabs: swallowDNDTolerance tol
           Determines how much a window must overlap a tabber for it to be
           swallowed when drag-&-drop is enabled. If the value has a %-sign
           appended to it, windows must overlap by the specified percentage of
           the current size of the tabber. If no %-sign is present, the value
           is treated in units of pixels. The default value is 10 (pixels).

       *FvwmTabs: useIconsOnTabs bool
           Show the mini icon associated with each window on its tab button.
           Note: mini icons for apps that use EWMH icons look a bit distorted.
           This is because of the poor image resizing algorithm used in Tk.
           This should be rectified in the near future. The default value is
           true.

       *FvwmTabs: killIcon image
           Image to use on kill toolbar button. Default is none.

       *FvwmTabs: addIcon image
           Image to use on add toolbar button. Default is none.

       *FvwmTabs: swallowIcon image
           Image to use on add toolbar button when tabber will swallow next
           window to popup. Default is none. By using a separate icon to
           addIcon, this option provides visual feedback on when a tabber will
           unconditionally swallow the next window to popup.

       *FvwmTabs: releaseIcon image
           Image to use on release toolbar button. Default is none.

       *FvwmTabs: menuIcon image
           Image to use on menu toolbar button. Default is none.

FVWM FUNCTIONS FOR KEY BINDINGS
       A number of fvwm functions are available once the FvwmTabs module is
       started.

       NewTabber
           Create a new tabber. Optional argument is tabber name. No
           whitespace is allowed in the tabber name. Can also prefix
           --geometry argument.

           Example: NewTabber --geometry=+200+400 scottie

       Tabize
           Add a window (as a tab) to a tabber.

       NextTab
           Show/select the next tab.

       PrevTab
           Show/select the previous tab.

       LastTab
           Show/select the last selected tab (if there was one).

       ReleaseTab
           Release a tabbed window back to fvwm.

       ReleaseIconifyTab
           Release a tabbed window back to fvwm & iconify it.

       ReleaseAllTabs
           Release all windows in a tab-manager back to fvwm.

       ReleaseIconifyAllTabs
           Release all windows in a tab-manager back to fvwm & iconify them.

       CloseTabber
           Destroy a tab-manager. All windows in the tab-manager are released
           back to fvwm.

       AddTab
           Pick a new window to add to a tab-manager. Selecting this option &
           clicking on a window will add the selected window to the tab-
           manager.

       MultiAddTab
           Pick & add new windows to a tab-manager until ESC is pressed.

       ShowTab tabNo
           Show/select tab tabNo in the tab-manager. tabNo is zero-based. ie.
           0 is the first tab, 1 is the second, etc.

       AddToTabber
           Add a window (as a tab) to a tab-manager.

       SwapLeft
           Swap the selected window with the window on its immediate left.

       SwapRight
           Swap the selected window with the window on its immediate right.

       SelectTabber
           Select a tab-manager for a new window to be added to.

       EnableDND
           Swallow windows that (are moved to) overlap a tabber.

KEY BINDINGS
       By default, FvwmTabs reads a default user configuration file FvwmTabs-
       DefaultSetup which defines several useful key-bindings for FvwmTabs.
       You can tell FvwmTabs NOT to read this file with "SetEnv
       FvwmTabs_NoDefaultSetup" - this environment variable must be set before
       starting the module.

       All of the key bindings can be changed using the standard fvwm Key
       command & making use of the aforementioned fvwm functions. ie.

       Key (FvwmTabs*) A A CM Function AddTab

       Then, pressing Ctrl-Alt-a (when the focus is in a tab-manager) will
       allow you to click on a window to add to the tab-manager.

       The default key bindings (set in the FvwmTabs-DefaultSetup file) are:

       Ctrl-Alt-a
           AddTab

       Ctrl-Alt-c
           CloseTabber

       Ctrl-Alt-i
           ReleaseIconifyTab

       Ctrl-Alt-Shift-I
           ReleaseIconifyAllTabs

       Ctrl-Alt-l
           LastTab

       Ctrl-Alt-m
           MultiAddTab

       Ctrl-Alt-n & Ctrl-Alt-Tab
           NextTab

       Ctrl-Alt-p
           PrevTab

       Ctrl-Alt-r
           ReleaseTab

       Ctrl-Alt-Shift-R
           ReleaseAllTabs

       Ctrl-Alt-t
           NewTabber

       Ctrl-Alt-num
           ShowTab num.

       Ctrl-Alt-Left
           SwapLeft

       Ctrl-Alt-Right
           SwapRight

MOUSE BINDINGS
       Mouse bindings on Tab Buttons

       Mouse-1 on a tab-button displays the window associated with the tab.

       Mouse-2 on a tab-button releases the window associated with the tab
       back to the window manager as a standalone window.

       Mouse-3 on a tab-button releases the window associated with the tab
       back to the window manager & iconifies it.

       The tab-buttons can be reordered with a drag-&-drop operation initiated
       with Ctrl-Mouse-2. A dragged tab is inserted before the tab-button onto
       which it is dropped.

       Mouse bindings on Toolbar Icons

       Mouse-1 on the "menu" button will bring up a menu of options. See MENU
       BINDINGS.

       Mouse-1 on the "release" button will release the selected window from
       the tabber.

       Mouse-2 on the "release" button will release all windows from the
       tabber, and iconify them.

       Mouse-3 on the "release" button will release all windows from the
       tabber.

       Mouse-1 on the "add" button will add the next window you click on to
       the tabber.

       Mouse-2 on the "add" button will add the next window to popup to the
       tabber.

       Mouse-3 on the "add" button will add every window you click on (until
       you press Esc) to the tabber.

       Mouse-1 on the "kill" button will Close the selected window.

       Mouse-2 on the "kill" button causes FvwmTabs to try to kill the
       selected window itself.

       Mouse-3 on the "kill" button will Kill the selected window.

MENU BINDINGS
       Mouse-1 on the "menu" button will bring up a menu of options:

       Release All will release all tabbed programs back to the window manager
       as standalone windows.

       Release All (Iconify) will release all tabbed programs back to the
       window manager as iconised standalone windows.

       Add will add the next mouse-clicked window to the tab-manager.

       Add Next will add the next window that is created to the tab-manager.

       Multi Add keeps adding mouse-clicked windows to a tab-manager until the
       escape key is pressed. Useful for adding multiple windows to a tab-
       manager at once.

       Font shows a sub-menu enabling you to dynamically configure the
       button/title/menu fonts, using the external program identified by the
       fontSelector option.

       Show Titlebar toggles the display of the titlebar below the tab-
       buttons.

       Window Tabizer Dialog will popup a dialog box for specifying windows to
       swallow. Windows can be specified explicitly (by name) or by using a
       (Perl) regular expression matcher. (Note: / character is automatically
       escaped.)

       The menu options between the separators will display the window/tab
       associated with the text. (The menu text is actually the title
       associated with the window. The text on each tab-button is the icon
       name.)

       About pops up a dialog with version/developer information.

       Close will close the FvwmTabs window, invoking Release All in the
       process.

BUGS
       o   Tab-managers don't take focus when iconified.

       o   FvwmTabs doesn't obey "ClickToFocus" mode.

       o   FvwmTabs has a problem swallowing shaded windows.

       o   Using "Maximise" to resize tab-manager windows prevents dynamic
           resizing from working.

       Please send bug reports, feature requests & queries about FvwmTabs to
       the fvwm mailing list: fvwm@fvwm.org. Be sure to include the word
       "FvwmTabs" somewhere in the subject line.

TODO
       Features to be added to FvwmTabs in the future (in no particular
       order):

       o   Colorset support. (use Colorset tracker from fvwm-perllib)

       o   Use Ctrl-Mouse-1 instead of Ctrl-Mouse-2 to reorder (drag-&-drop)
           windows.

       o   option: menu item to sort tabs by name, file extension, etc.

       o   For autoSwallow options that specify a tab-manager, create the tab-
           manager if it doesn't already exist. (default behaviour is not to
           swallow it)

FVWMTABS HOMEPAGE
       There is some useful information about FvwmTabs, including a short
       tutorial, on the authors website:

       <http://members.optusnet.com.au/~scottsmedley/fvwmtabs/>.

LICENSING
       FvwmTabs is GPL software.

       See <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

AUTHOR
       Scott Smedley <ss@aao.gov.au>



2.5.28 (from cvs)                 2007-08-07                       FvwmTabs(1)
