Open Source Software

Open source has many advantages. One of which is you get to play with the code. The guys on the Enlightenment development team have been nice enough to let me play too. They've accepted a handful of my patches and even been kind enough to add me to their list of authors. Additionally, they have recently granted me cvs access so that I might contribute more freely. Here you will find some of my efforts regarding E17.

Also, check out my FreeBSD + E17 "HowTo" page. It has info on how I got things working... plus links to other FreeBSD HowTo's.

Enlightenment Efforts

Presently it's just a list of what I (in my infinite wisdom) would like to accomplish, and a list of what I've done. Here lies the official E17 TODO list.

• Ta'Do...

  • The ibox could use some sort of ICCCM UrgencyHint support
  • Would be nice if, in the new modules config dialog, when a module is loaded that is configurable... that the focus follow it to the "Loaded Modules" frame. So that one might easily press the configure button.
  • There has been a request to add a button which will allow you to set the default theme from the advanced theme dialog.
  • rearranging the config panel for Mano... so we have one ilist.
  • ilist/scrollframe has an issue in which when you resize it very quickly from rather large to very small you get no scrollbar even if one is needed.
  • The borderless windows + restart of E somehow does not work with a "Pinned" window.
  • Pager changes needed:
    1. If you have more than one pager, you get more than one popup.
    2. would be nice to be able to utilize the popup, even if no pager is presently added to a shelf
  • Possibly incorporate the FDO AutoStart spec into E17?
  • Add a border menu to allow users to create a keybinding for the chosen app.
  • I'd like a unique set of icons in an IBar for each Virtual Desktop
  • The Dropshadow module could use some enhancements. Namely, the ability to configure the color of the shadow and the ability to automatically determine the 'height' of the windows using their border layer. Note that this has been implemented by morlenxus in his ambiance module. I don't think this will hit cvs though.
  • I've heard there is opportunity for a "Signal Bindings" configuration dialog. Sounds fun and useful.
  • Someone mentioned it might be useful to be able to utilize any desktop on any screen. Sounds interesting though it would be difficult for me to tackle this as I only have one screen. But might look into it.
  • Small issue with epsilon causing a segv in some instances. :)
  • FreeBSD Specific Issues:
    1. Entrance does not work on FreeBSD... I'd like to fix that. Did some investigating and think I've found the culprit. Just haven't gotten it fixed yet.
    2. Desklock doesn't seem to play too nice either. (_alexey_)
    3. Emotion seems to have a threading issue. A work around (courtesy of CodeWarrior) is to export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libc_r.so before running `emotion_test blah`.

• Pending Patches...

  • None at the moment.

• Ta'Done...

  • The forecasts module's popup window pops up on a mouse in. This means if you simply pass over it, it pops up. I desired a way to have it only popup when I click on it. This patch modifies the config panel such that a user may now choose if the popup is popped up on a mouse in, or a click. [03/19/07]
  • Added a textblock to the modules dialog so that we can add a description to the module. This description is available without having to load the module (unlike the about box), and it is contained within the module.desktop file.
  • Allow a user to override the E global preference for either the NetWM icon or the User Defined (.desktop) icon. Do this border by border, and allow it to be remembered. [07/15/07]
  • Add a configuration panel to allow a user to select which theme components to use, and from which theme to use them. [05/30/07]
  • The battery module now gives an alarm on a percentage as well as a time. (per someone in IRC)
  • Restarting E when you have windows maximized either vertically or horizontally causes them to be fully maximized. Fixed.
  • No Favorites.menu gives you a very tiny little empty menu. Fixed.
  • Tweaked the pager gui a bit. Also fixed an issue in which an attempt to pick "no button" for the select/drag buttons was not persisting across restarts of E. [04/19/07]
  • Squashed a small efreet cache_fill bug which was driving me crazy. Seems my efreet_cache would never fill upon a fresh start of enlightenment after a fresh boot. I suspect its simply due to my I/O challenged laptop. But would be nice to have it fixed as E is intended to work well on older/slower/and embedded platforms. [04/18/07]
  • Added a textbox to the .dektop editor to show which file is being operated on. [04/18/07]
  • Added a check box to the clientlist menu config panel to properly enable/disable the feature.
  • The desklock's idle timer does not work "as advertised". It does not capture keybaord input from windows other than E's internal windows. This patch will utilize XScreensaver's mechanism for checking for keyboard/mouse input. [03/19/07]
  • The clientlist menu is too wide for a users screen if the window titles are very long. Add ability for a user to specify the max chars allowed in the caption. [03/04/07]
  • The network monitor module does not work on FreeBSD. This patch fixes that. [03/22/07]
  • Here is a patchset that adds a mouse acceleration configuration panel. [03/09/07]
  • The IBox has a small bug in it, in which it shows all iconified apps in it when you restart E... regardless of the "Show windows from active desktop" setting. This patch will fix that. [03/16/07]
  • Patch to allow users with multiple screens to configure the clientlist to view all clients accross all screens. [02-20-07]
  • Ecore DPMS just got a facelift (courtesy of caro). As a result there's new functionality that should be taken advantage of. This patch will now check to see if the DPMS extension is available, and also make sure the X server is capable of DPMS functionality. [03/09/07]
  • Modifed the client list menu. It is now sortable and groupable. The groups can be menus, or simply separated with separator bars. Users can group by desktop or window class. Sorts may be done alphabetically, by stacking layer, or by most recently used.
  • Added a configuration panel to allow a user to configure the new features the client list supports.
  • Added DPMS features to ecore.
  • Added a configuration panel so that users can configure the DPMS setting of their monitor.
  • Tweaked ecore a tiny bit with respect to the screensaver functionality it had already.
  • Created a configuration panel so that users can configure the X screensaver.
  • Created an "override" for the desklock, so that you can use your own lock. (e.g xscreensaver, or xlock)
  • Modified the winlist configuration panel (and the winlist code) such that you can choose to show iconified apps from other desks, or other screens.
  • Added a border menu that allows a user to "Pin" a client window to the desktop. Pinned is simply a combination of borderless, below all stacking, and excluded from the winlist. Additionally added an action that can be used as a keybinding.
  • Caught a couple FreeBSD specific build issues.
  • Various small cleanups.