sselp
Simple X selection printer. Prints the X selection to stdout. If there is no X client owning the selection it just exits. Useful for scripts where you can query the X selection without pressing mouse Button2 in cumbersome ways.
One Thing Well
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Posts tagged with x11.
xhotkeys
Xhotkeys provides a simple and easily configurable hotkey launcher for the X-Window System, binding keys and mouse buttons to configurable commands. It should work on all desktops (Gnome, KDE, Xfce, …) available for the GNU/Linux operating system. Configuration files can be modified manually or using a graphical GTK+ configurator.
easystroke
Easystroke is a gesture-recognition application for X11. Gestures or strokes are movements that you make with you mouse (or your pen, finger etc.) while holding down a specific mouse button. Easystroke will execute certain actions if it recognizes the stroke; currently easystroke can emulate key presses, execute shell commands, hold down modifiers and emulate a scroll wheel.
autokey
AutoKey is a desktop automation utility for Linux and X11. It allows you to manage collection of scripts and phrases, and assign abbreviations and hotkeys to these. This allows you to execute a script or insert text on demand in whatever program you are using.
Installing and configuring dwm on OS X
The setup looks a wee bit fiddly, but if you spend a lot of time wrangling X 11 applications on OSX, a decent window manager like dwm will make life easier.
An alternative: rival tiler scrotwm also works nicely on OS X.
Thanks, Bruno!
Sandy
Sandy is an ncurses text editor with an easy-to-read, hackable C source. Sandy tries to maximize screen estate, minimize the SLOC used and not get in your way too much.
An earlier incarnation for X11 is avaialble here.
scrotwm on OS X
I’ve posted briefly about the tiling window manager scrotwm before, but forgot to mention that it works very well on OS X.
Here’s how to install and set it up.
First, download:
cvs -d anoncvs@opensource.conformal.com:/anoncvs/scrotwm co scrotwm
Then change into the osx directory and do the usual:
cd ./scrotwm/osx
make
sudo make install
Next, stick the following in ~/.xinitrc
xmodmap ~/.xmodmap
exec /usr/local/bin/scrotwm
And create that ~/.xmodmap file so you can use the left Alt key to control scrotwm:
clear Mod1
keycode 66 = Meta_L
add Mod1 = Meta_L
That’s it, really: fire up X11 and it’ll start scrotwm and an xterm. Check the man page for a list of keybindings; when you want to get out of X11, whack Alt + Command + A.
Optional Extras:
You’ll probably want to tinker with your ~/.scrotwm.conf, though the defaults are pretty sensible. Mine is just two lines:
color_focus = black
bar_enabled = 0
To make xterm look pretty, you can use an ~/.Xdefaults file (mine is here). feh will set a desktop picture. And if you want a status bar—to keep track of which workspace you’re in, &c.—scrotwm is designed to work with dmenu.
no-wm
Use X11 without a window manager. Window managers bind orthogonals (keyboard shortcuts, window manipulation, window decoration) which should remain separate.
Can’t really argue with that.
no-wm gives you a bare bones window management framework, and lets you use other utilities to fill in the gaps or do the heavy lifting—xbindkeys for keybindings, xdotool for moving windows, &.
Console Display Manager
CDM is a minimalistic, yet full-featured replacement for login-managers like slim, kdm, gdm and qingy that provides a fast, dialog-based login system without the overhead of the X Window System or the instability of qingy. Written in pure bash, CDM has no other dependencies, yet supports multiple users/sessions and can start virtually any DE/WM.
I don’t use a display manager but for those who need one, CDM looks like a great lightweight alternative.
slock
slock is a very simple screen-locker for X11. How simple? Run slock and your computer is locked up, with a black screen. Type your password and it unlocks. That’s it; no fancy screensaver, no GUI.
