Advanced panel/applet/etc. use?



Hi all.  First time on the list and all that.

Tech: I have a Debian 2.2 system, and I'm using APT to get all the
latest Helixcode GNOME packages (very nice and easy!) on this new system.

On my older systems, and on my non-Linux boxes, I use FVWM (very latest
stuff, 2.3.x right now); I've been using FVWM/UNIX of many types/Linux
for years and years.  Although I know FVWM now has some GNOME support,
I'm currently using sawfish as my window manager on this particular box.

On my FVWM environment I had a fairly advanced button bar, and I'm
wondering if it's possible to do the same things I did there, with
GNOME's panel.

The main thing is that in FvwmButtons I configured the buttons to react
differently to different mouse buttons.  Typically, mouse-1 will invoke
a program, mouse-2 will invoke a program operating on whatever is in the
X selection buffer ("pasting" it to the button), and mouse-3 will bring
up a menu with related choices.

So, for example, I have a small button with an xterm pixmap.  Clicking
with mouse-1 starts an xterm (rxvt really).  If I select a hostname with
my mouse (double-click on it in some output or something for example)
then click mouse-2 on the button, I have a script that's run that uses
wxpaste to get the selection and starts an xterm on that host.  If I
click mouse-3 on the button, it comes up with a menu of hosts I often
visit; selecting one starts an xterm on that host of course.

Another thing FVWM has is FvwmForm, which is a very simplistic form
manager that lets you define forms with checkboxes, text fields,
etc. then invokes some operation based on what the user typed.  One way
I use this is in my xterm menu I have a "Generic" selection which pops
up a form with a text box for a username and another for a hostname, if
I want to log in to a remote host using another name.

Is there any way to do any of this with stuff available on the GNOME
panel?  Is there some kind of simple "forms" tool?  I'm mainly wondering
about the action of mouse-2 (operate on the selection) because I've
gotten _really_ used to that by now :-/ :).

If I switched from sawfish to FVWM I suppose I could swallow the FVWM
button bar into the panel?  I can't decide if that would be too much or
not.

Another question: can I change the icon associated with a menu I add to
the panel?  I have a menu of hosts I want to jump to; I'd like to use a
"terminal" icon for the menu instead of the default folder icon, but I
can't find any way to change it.

Are there some "GNOME desktop for advanced users" documents anywhere I
haven't found?

Thanks...

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Paul D. Smith <psmith@baynetworks.com>         Network Management Development
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   These are my opinions---Nortel Networks takes no responsibility for them.




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