Wharf(0.98a) MachTen Programmer’s Manual Wharf(0.98a)

NAME
Wharf - the AfterStep application "dock" module

SYNOPSIS
Wharf is spawned by afterstep, so no command line invoca-
tion will work.

DESCRIPTION
The Wharf module is a much worked over version of fvwm
GoodStuff which provides a button panel that is consis-
tenet with the look and feel of the NEXTSTEP "dock." It is
called Wharf however to avoid copywrite problems. The user
can press the buttons at any time, and trigger invocation
of a user-specified command by the window manager. Wharf
only works when afterstep is used as the window manager.

Wharf, however, does differ from the NEXTSTEP(tm) "dock"
in several ways:
1. Buttons are 3-D pushable.
2. A single click is all that is necessary to activate the
buttons(the "dock" uses a double click).
3. Buttons will not highlight when activated.
4. The three dots in the lower left corner of the button
were removed.

COPYRIGHTS
The Wharf module is copyright 1995 by Bo Yang. Other mod-
ifications are copyright 1995 & 1996 Frank Fejes and Dan
Weeks.

The GoodStuff program, and the concept for interfacing
this module to the Window Manager, are all original work
by Robert Nation

No guarantees or warranties or anything are provided or
implied in any way whatsoever. Use this program at your
own risk. Permission to use this program for any purpose
is given, as long as the copyright is kept intact.

INITIALIZATION
During initialization, Wharf will search for a configura-
tion file which describes the button panel geometry,
color, icons, and actions. The format of this file will be
described later. The configuration file will be the one
which afterstep used during its initialization.

If the Wharf executable is linked to another name, ie ln
-s Wharf Peir, then another module called Peir can be
started, with a completely different configuration than
Wharf, simply by changing the keywords Wharf??? to
Peir???. This way multiple button-bars can be used.

INVOCATION
Wharf can be invoked by inserting the line ’Module Wharf’
in the .steprc file. This can be placed on a line by
itself, if Wharf is to be spawned during afterstep’s ini-
tialization, or can be bound to a menu or mouse button or
keystroke to invoke it later. AfterStep will search direc-
tory specified in the ModulePath configuration option to
attempt to locate Wharf.

CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
The following options can be placed in the .steprc file

*WharfGeometry geometry
Specifies the Wharf window location and/or size. If
the size is not specified, Wharf will auto-size
itself in a reasonable manner. The geometry is a
standard X11 window geometry specification. This
option is pre-set in the NEXSTEP style section for
a consistent look and feel with NEXTSTEP. Sec-
ondary Wharf invocations from links may have their
own geometry.

*WharfColumns columns
Specifies the number of columns of buttons to be
created. If unspecified, the number of columns will
be set to 1. If the columns are set to a number
greater than 1 then there will be that number of
columns with enough rows to satisfy the requested
number of buttons.

*Wharf label icon command
Specifies a window manager built-in command, as
described in the afterstep man page, which should
be executed when a button is pressed. The label
field is an internal item that is still around from
the GoodStuff module. The icon field specifies an
X11 bitmap file or XPM color icon file, containing
the icon to display on the button. Wharf will
search through the path specified in the afterstep
IconPath or PixmapPath configuration items to find
the icon file.

NOTE! The XPM icons must be no larger than 48 pix-
els by 48 pixels in size. Also the icons must have
one transparent pixel or the definition of a trans-
parent color in order to be used.

If command is an afterstep Exec command, then the
button will appear pushed in until the mouse button
is released.

A single extension to the afterstep built-in com-
mand set is provided. A command of the form:
*Wharf junk clock.xpm Swallow "Clock" asclock -shape -12 &
will cause Wharf to spawn an rclock process, and capture
the first window whose name or resource is "Clock", and display it in
the button-bar. This is handy for applications like xclock, xbiff, and
xload. Modules can be swallowed by specifying SwallowModule instead
of just "swallow" NOTE: if you use xclock for this application, you will want
to specify xclock -padding 0.

For ceratian applications that overrun the 48 pixel by 48 pixel boundary of Wharf
icons and Swallowed programs there is a special option called
MaxSwallow.
MaxSwallow
will allow the application to draw itself larger than the 48x48 boundary. It is
invoked the same way Swallow is.

*WharfNoPush
Causes the Wharf not to have the 3D button pushes for mice clicks. This helps on
8-bit displays that tend to cause Wharf to die when buttons are pushed with the 3D
look activated.

SAMPLE CONFIGURATION
The following are excepts from a .steprc file which
describe Wharf initialization commands:

##############################################################
# Load any modules which should be started during
# AFterStep initialization
ModulePath /usr/lib/X11/afterstep:/usr/bin/X11
Module Wharf

Module Wharf
NoTitle Wharf
NoBorder Wharf
Sticky Wharf
StaysOnTop Wharf
WindowListSkip Wharf
*WharfGeometry 63x384-1+3
*WharfColumns 1

#button definitions
*Wharf Dopey rterm.xpm Exec "big_win" xterm -T big_win -geometry 80x50&
*Wharf Snoopy rterm.xpm Exec "small_win" xterm -T small_wi &
*Wharf Xcalc rcalc.xpm Exec "Calculator" xcalc &
*Wharf XMag mag_glass2.xpm Exec "xmag" xmag &
*Wharf Mail mail2.xpm Exec "xmh" xmh &
*Wharf - whatever SwallowModule "Pager" Pager 0 3
*Wharf Recycler recycle.xpm Restart

AUTHORS
Frank Fejes <frank@nina.dorknet.com> -- continued develop-
ment & upgrades Dan Weeks <dan@mango.sfasu.edu> -- man
pages

Wharf May 1996 3