maemo.org - Talk - [Announce] Telescope: Graphical task switcher with thumbnails

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- - [Announce] Telescope: Graphical task switcher with thumbnails (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=58691)

Re: [Announce] Telescope: Graphical task switcher with thumbnails

It's using .desktop files, right? That's a freedesktop.org specification so most distributions are probably following it for their GUI app packages and should work even if the user hasn't installed one of the "desktop environments".

Re: [Announce] Telescope: Graphical task switcher with thumbnails

Yep, but I'm not sure that it will look and behave well on large screen...
Need to test it

Re: [Announce] Telescope: Graphical task switcher with thumbnails

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mitrandir (Post 1232730)

Okay :) Anyway, Telescope needs some slight refactoring in some Maemo-specific places.

And I'm not sure that Launcher will work fine on non-maemo. Do you need it? I can simply disable it if it’s not needed.

In my case, I don't really need the launcher, so it can be disabled. There are plenty of launchers out there, not so much for Exposé/Scale like software. :)

Re: [Announce] Telescope: Graphical task switcher with thumbnails

I've done some fixes to Telescope and now it works fine on my Ubuntu 12.04.

I've no idea how to build i386 .deb on my amd64 PC, so I'm attaching only amd64 package now.

You can simply build package by yourself from the sources. By the way, I've moved development from garage.maemo.org to BitBucket: https://bitbucket.org/IlyaSkriblovsky/telescope. Check out latest sources from there.

To build desktop version, you need to change Makefile:
1. Uncomment "DEFINES = -DDESKTOP -DDBUS" and comment next line with -DMAEMO4
2. Change "LAUNCHER = 1" to "LAUNCHER = 0"

If you can compile Telescope but have no idea about packaging, you can simply do "make install" to install it. There is no "make uninstall" yet. If you want to remove Telescope installed that way, run

Code:

sudo rm -rf /etc/telescope.* /usr/share/telescope/ /usr/bin/telescope /etc/init.d/telescope-svc

Telescope's startup script in /etc/init.d won't work on desktop yet.

Currently, Telescope can't handle hotkeys with modifiers, i.e. you can't bind it to Ctrl+F10, for example. But you can change default F5 key to any other by adding "hotkey = <keyname>" in /etc/telescope.conf.

Telescope also can be called by following command:

Code:

dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.telescope /Telescope org.telescope.Telescope.Show

You may want to alter following settings by adding lines to /etc/telescope.conf:

hotkey = <hotkey name (default=F5)>
background.filename = <path to wallpaper>
background.mode = <stretched|centered|scaled|cropped>
background.color = <color in #ffffff notation>
border.width = <border width in px>
text.font.size = <caption font size (default=24)>
test.yOffset = <caption Y-axis offset (default=-7)>
show.desktop.thumbnail = <on|off — show desktop as one of thumbnails. Switching to it doesn't work on Ubuntu but worked on KDE. Needs to be fixed>
show.desktop.iconify = <on|off — show desktop by minimizing all windows. Ugly but useful if default _NET_SHOW_DESKTOP method doesn't work for particular WM>

Also, keybindings when Telescope is active can be configured in /etc/telescope.keys file. See description in old post and example in another one.

Looking forward for your reports! Please let me know if it won’t work or if you won’t be able to compile it

Re: [Announce] Telescope: Graphical task switcher with thumbnails

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mitrandir (Post 1233594)

Telescope also can be called by following command:

Code:

dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.telescope /Telescope org.telescope.Telescope.Show

The "--print-reply" shouldn't be needed.

I would really like to try this out but not sure how well it would work with the 200+ windows I have open across 28 desktops. Would it show all windows or only windows from current desktop?

Does setting show.desktop.iconify=off prevent my windows from being minimized if I accidentally click the Telescope background? It would really suck if all of my windows became iconified. :)

Re: [Announce] Telescope: Graphical task switcher with thumbnails

The Grey Pilgrim you are awesome - it's works! I compiled the telescope on debian 64 but I have a problem with some incorrect thumbnails (lxterminal, xarchiver).

Re: [Announce] Telescope: Graphical task switcher with thumbnails

Aaaah, have a problem compiling in Arch

Code:

Thumbnail.cpp:481:5: error: narrowing conversion of ‘((((Thumbnail*)this)->Thumbnail::_clientOffsetX - borderWidth) + Settings::instance()->Settings::textLeftMargin())’ from ‘int’ to ‘short int’ inside { } is ill-formed in C++11 [-Werror=narrowing]

Thumbnail.cpp:481:5: error: narrowing conversion of ‘(((Thumbnail*)this)->Thumbnail::_clientOffsetY - headerHeight)’ from ‘int’ to ‘short int’ inside { } is ill-formed in C++11 [-Werror=narrowing]

Thumbnail.cpp:481:5: error: narrowing conversion of ‘(((((Thumbnail*)this)->Thumbnail::_clientScaledWidth + (borderWidth * 2)) - Settings::instance()->Settings::textLeftMargin()) - Settings::instance()->Settings::textRightMargin())’ from ‘int’ to ‘short unsigned int’ inside { } is ill-formed in C++11 [-Werror=narrowing]

Thumbnail.cpp:481:5: error: narrowing conversion of ‘headerHeight’ from ‘int’ to ‘short unsigned int’ inside { } is ill-formed in C++11 [-Werror=narrowing]

cc1plus: all warnings being treated as errors

make: *** [Thumbnail.o] Error 1

Any idea how to get around this? It's practically Chinese to me.

Re: [Announce] Telescope: Graphical task switcher with thumbnails

Quick'n'dirty workaround: try adding -Wno-error=narrowing to CFLAGS in the Makefile.

Re: [Announce] Telescope: Graphical task switcher with thumbnails

That did it, I suppose it was a C++11 syntax error, right? It was just a warning, though. I was looking around for a way to compile even through errors, but you gave me a hand there, lma - thanks!

As for Telescope... Wow! Desktop performance is brilliant. And I only tried it on DWM, but it's already working pretty well :D

http://ompldr.org/tZW91bA

I'll try it also on Fluxbox, as on DWM clicking the "X" doesn't close windows, but I expect it to be window manager related.

Apart from that, thank you, so much, Mitrandir: it's a thing of beauty. Mind if I announce it on Arch Forums? I'm guessing there'll be lots of love for Telescope there.

edit: I'm also getting segfaults when I invoke Telescope and I'm on an empty tag/workspace, but both those errors only happen on DWM. In Fluxbox it's working fine and dandy, even closing windows. Some of the thumbnails have no display, though. Getting that on maximized and tiled windows (Fluxbox).

Next step for me is to create an active edges kind of script. Here I go digging into Python.

2nd edit: Compiled and working on the Raspberry Pi (ARMv6), blazing fast. Brilliant stuff. I'm buying you a beer. Or two. ;)

Re: [Announce] Telescope: Graphical task switcher with thumbnails

Thanks for reports and appreciation!

Quote:

Originally Posted by auouymous

The "--print-reply" shouldn't be needed.

It is needed :) Don’t know why, probably something wrong with my D-Bus handling code. But without --print-reply it doesn't work. Needs to be fixed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by auouymous

Would it show all windows or only windows from current desktop?

Currently, no. This is a point for future improvements.

Quote:

Originally Posted by auouymous

Does setting show.desktop.iconify=off prevent my windows from being minimized

This option only switches the method Telescope uses to show desktop:
1. show.desktop.iconify=off — Telescope shows desktop by sending _NET_SHOW_DESKTOP event
2. show.desktop.iconify=on — Telescope shows desktop by minimizing all windows
In either case desktop will be shown by clicked on background. But I can introduce new option to disable this :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by riv64

I have a problem with some incorrect thumbnails (lxterminal, xarchiver).

Yes, I have issue with gnome-terminal’ thumbnail too. This needs to be investigated further. Probably something wrong with my thumbnail getting code, because it was only tested on Diablo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Onyros

Aaaah, have a problem compiling in Arch

You probably have newer GCC than mine :) lma’s workaround is quite good.
Or "(short int)( ... )" might be added around lines 477–480 in Thumbnail.cpp

Quote:

Originally Posted by Onyros

as on DWM clicking the "X" doesn't close windows

Quote:

Originally Posted by Onyros

I'm also getting segfaults when I invoke Telescope and I'm on an empty tag/workspace, but both those errors only happen on DWM.

Needs to be fixed. I need to install DWM and test this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Onyros

Mind if I announce it on Arch Forums? I'm guessing there'll be lots of love for Telescope there.

Sure! But I can't promise I will have enough time for possible feedback and suggestions ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Onyros

Compiled and working on the Raspberry Pi

Please, please do some video when you’ll have time for that :)

Onyros, I'm looking at your screenshot and thinking that I need to do some antialiasing for thumbnails :)
Btw, you can adjust caption position by following options:
* text.yOffset (default=-7)
* text.leftMargin (default=7)
* text.rightMargin (default=27)