NEWS.old

2003-01-01

- Um.  A later note on plaigarism....  

- Wellsir, I started this rewrite out with the intention of not copying any
  code from anyone else.  Of course, that wasn't how bbkeys started 4+
  years ago, so I don't know why I expected it to be different this time
  around....  bbkeys borrowed heavily from XEmacs and windowmaker before...
  I guess I was hoping to not have to do the same thing again this time
  around.  

  Well anyway, I started the bbkeys re-write out with 0 existing code.  I
  did class diagrams and sequence diagrams, designing the new system to be
  truly object-oriented and reusable for other bbtools, etc.  I started off
  the re-write by focusing on the config classes.  I think they're clean
  and well-done, and am pleased with them.  Then I started into the hard
  stuff.  As the CVS repository will tell, I didn't originally start out
  with any anything other than my class-diagram-generated code base.

  But as I started working on coding the screen handler, the main client
  itself, and the keybindings interface, I frequently looked at epist's
  code.  And the more I looked at their code for ideas and sanity-checks,
  the more I realized that they truly did a marvelous job.  Not only that,
  but some of their classes were exactly what I had in mind with my early
  class and sequence diagrams.  I also quickly realized that I could either
  take some of their classes inline or spend quite a lot of time writing
  just about exactly the same thing myself.  I chose the former.

  In particular, I've brought in epist's actions, keytree, and window
  classes and modified them to work with the new blackbox library.  I've
  also borrowed code from openbox's XAtom class and used it in Netclient.
  I was determined that I could do it better than they did with screen, and
  I think I've done some good things, but all in all, much of ScreenHandler
  uses epists's screen methods.

  That being said, I feel less than happy about the means, but I do believe
  that the end will still be good.  bbkeys has an extremely good code base
  now--much, much better than it did before.  It's not quite a code-fork
  from epist, but it feels sort of the same, which isn't nearly as
  satisfying as I had hoped.   But credit does need to be given where
  credit is due, and I hope I've done that.

  *sigh*

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2002-11-02

- Okay. complete rewrite time....  Check out the README for the new
  low-down....

- A note on plaigarism...  I've poured through epist-ng's code and it is
  truly a thing of beauty.  xOr, woodblock, and shrimpx did an EXTREMELY
  nice job with the code.  I personally don't like the lexx/yacc parser
  stuff, and since ob2 doesn't have a common window manager library to go
  against, it's really tied very closely to openbox2.  This means, if
  people want to use epist-nb with blackbox, they have to first download
  and build openbox2.  =:)  All that's to say that I would loved to have
  used more of epist-ng's code, but couldn't because it is so deeply
  dependent on openbox2's code.  The funny thing is--some of the syntax
  that epist uses (actions, etc.), look very similar to those which were
  in bbkeys.  And oddly enough, some of the code looks rather familiar to
  the epist-ng code.  The reason for this is... there's not honestly that
  many different ways to do this stuff, folks.  So, hush to all you
  nay-sayers and "he jacked epist-ng's code!"-sayers too.  Zip it, even.
  =:)


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2001-11-15

- Make use of this file. :) Stuff like the note from 2001-08-03 should
  really be in here, so it moved. README will contain non-INSTALL-related
  usage instructions.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2001-08-03...

- This hasn't been updated in a LOOONG time, so I'll do so now.  Some
  exciting new features have been added to bbkeys with this release
  (0.8.0), and I'll try to explain one of them here.  By default, bbkeys
  will now window-cycle MUCH better.  Of course, all keybindings are
  user-configurable as before, and whatever keys you were using before for
  PrevWindow/NextWindow will still work--they'll just work better.

  xOr has helped me considerably (HUGE THANKS AGAIN, xOr!!) with this
  release, and one of the new features that we added was a "stackedCycling"
  methodology to window-switching.  To turn off this incredibly GOOD
  feature (although I have NO idea why you would want to), put this in your
  bbtools/bbkeys config file (no, not ~/.bbkeysrc--this is the other one
  that's by default looked for at ~/.bbtools/bbkeys.bb or
  ~/.bbtools/bbkeys.nobb)....

  ! set this to false to use the linear style of window cycling
  bbkeys.menu.stackedCycling:	False

  Again, why you'd want to do that is beyond me, because there's SO much
  more benefit to letting bbkeys do things the way it wants to--the new
  way.  But if you're absolutely dead-set against progress, then put that
  in.  What you'll then be using is another improvement--a "linear" cycling
  method.  This will look the same as the old blackbox/bbkeys window
  cycling method, but will act a little bit better and make more sense.  It
  will, for instance, put a newly-created window into the cycling stack
  immediately after the currently-focused window, so you just have to
  "alt+tab" to it, rather than having to go all the way around the stack.

  As for the new method for cycling windows...  When you hit your
  NextWindow keybinding (mine's <alt+tab>), a window menu will pop up and
  stay up until you release your PrevWindow/NextWindow keys.  This allows you 
  to navigate through the window list (only showing the windows on the current
  workspace, but INCLUDING STICKY WINDOWS!!), and then release your keys
  when you have the window hilighted that you want to switch to.  You can
  go backwards or forwards through the list, by using your NextWindow and
  PrevWindow keys.  You can also make the pop-up window menu go away by
  hitting <Escape>, or if you want, you can select the window currently
  hilighted with <Return> or <Enter>.  What this last little feature also
  means is that if you have only one key bound to PrevWindow or NextWindow
  (i.e. using F11 to cycle forwards and F12 to cycle backwards), you can
  keep cycling backwards/forwards, and then when you've hilighted the
  window you want, just hit <Return>, or <Escape> to cancel.

  But that's not all!!  With this new cycling scheme, the window list stack
  will be re-organized when you cycle to a new/different window.  The
  window that you had previously focused is now right below the one you now
  have focused.  So you can switch back and forth between windows with a
  simple <alt+tab> (or whatever you choose for your NextWindow keybinding.

  I guess that's about it.  Give it a try.  I think you'll be pleasantly
  suprised.