Re: Questions about Sawfish

[Clemens Fruhwirth <clemens endorphin org>]

Hi Damien, 

First of all, you want your questions to be asked on the sawfish mailing
list. Therefore, I cc'ed it and provide a full-quote of your original
reply.

Damien Clauzel <dclauzel aup fr> wrote:

> Hi Clemens
> 
> I am a part of a research team at the American University of Paris
> (http://www.aup.fr) who works on a project for supporting attention in
> e-learning; the atGentive project (http://www.atgentive.com).
> 
> In this project, we are developing several prototypes in order to validate
> some hypotheses. Some of those prototypes are related to user interfacing.
> 
> We would like to create a tool for defining a few groups of windows (for
> example, by clicking on them or by using a list constructed by another
> external tool), then hiding or to displaying those groups. The groups being
> not exclusive and could having elements in common.
> 
> The main idea is to define a work context for every task, and to be able to
> switch from one context to another by displaying only the windows useful to
> the current task.
> 
> For example, we could have this list of windows:
> 	a) a PDF document
> 	b) a word processor
> 	d) a window of a web browser
> 	e) a window of a instant messaging system
> 	f) a window of an email software; general window
> 	g) a window of an email software; composition window
> 
> and wanting to create 2 windows groups for those 2 distinct tasks:
> 	1) redaction of an article: windows a,b,c,e
> 	2) redaction of an email: windows d,e,f,g
> 
> Then, with a tool, we could hide group 2 so the learner can work on group
> 1, then displaying group 1 while hiding group 2 when he wants to change the
> current working task.
> 
> As developments are linux based with free software, we are considering the
> possibility of using the Sawfish window manager in order to use the notion of
> groups (cf
> http://home.blarg.net/~sand/sawfish/v0.11/sawfish/Window-Groups.html).
> 
> Sadly, I cannot find any proper documentation and examples about how using
> the API in order to do what we want. That is where you can help us :)
> 
> Do you think that Sawfish could be an interesting choice for us for building
> this research prototype ? If yes, do you know where we could find code
> samples for learning how to quickly use the Sawfish groups ?
> 
> Damien Clauzel
> 

Sawfish is written in a dialect of Lisp, namely librep. This scheme-ish
dialect is -- as every Lisp -- very suitable for rapid application
development and prototyping, iff you are used to programming
Lisp. 

If you have a crew member that is familiar with free source development
peculiarities, you don't have a problem finding the few function that
you will need for your efforts -- even without much Lisp knowledge. If
you need to create more complex interface behavior, you are likely to
need more knowledge than that. Maybe ask on the list. Probably, some lisp
expertise is for hire here. I can imagine that implementation requests
can be handled even with a continent between the requester and the
implementor.

I have no idea where you can find examples for Sawfish groups. Use the
Wiki and the sawfish mailing list for questions.

-- 
Fruhwirth Clemens - http://clemens.endorphin.org 
for robots: sp4mtrap endorphin org