X-Launch version 0.2 - (C) Codexia, LLC. http://www.codexia.com ____________________________________________________________________ -- RANDOM INFORMATION -- X-Launch is an advanced application launcher written in C++ using GTK version 1.2. It has a double fork()'ing mechanism and intelligent history for launching applications in their in their own process. X-Launch has full skinning support and animations to let you know when a slow application is launching. X-Launch not only looks better then any other Run dialog, but is more powerful and faster then most. It will manage it's own hotkey, so you don't have to have a window manager that supports hotkeys and it doesn't have to launch every time you want to launch an application. The most recent version of this program can always be found at http://www.codexia.com ____________________________________________________________________ -- REQUIREMENTS -- X-Launch requires GTK+ version 1.2 and the gnome libraries (specifically gnomeui) installed. It is also expected that you are running some kind of window manager, duh. X-Launch was tested using: -WindowMaker -Fluxbox -Enlighenment -Gnome -KDE ____________________________________________________________________ -- INSTALL -- The easy way to install is: ./configure make make install The install will need root access if you don't change the prefix. Please see the INSTALL file for more information. ____________________________________________________________________ -- USAGE -- NOTE: The following is only suggested usage, you can change X-Launch to behave any way you want to. X-Launch is meant to be present (running) on the machine at all times. This allows you to quickly pull up X-Launch and start your new application. X-Launch will then hide itself waiting for the next time you want to launch something. Since this is not the default behaver of most *nix software, it doesn't function like that right out of the box. (Don't want to confuse anyone here. ;) To get the most out of X-Launch, just do the following: 1.) Place X-Lauch in your .Xclients file (or where ever you start your window manager) as such: /usr/local/bin/xlauch -d & This will start xlauch in hidden mode so your window manager will function normally. 2.) Pull up X-Launch by using the hotkey you have assigned. (default: Control+Shift+R) 3.) Open the options dialog by right mouse clicking on xlaunch or left mouse clicking on the options button or by typing :options in the text field. 4.) Select "Hide X-Lauch after loosing focus". This will give you a cool animation when you launch an application. 5.) At this point, you can change the hotkey by clicking on the Capture Hotkey button. (Please see section HOTKEY) 6.) Click Ok. Now every time you press your hotkey X-Launch will display waiting for you to type in the name of an executable file. After you press enter, it will launch the program and display an animation until the other program is displayed. You can hide X-Launch by pressing . If you close X-launch, you will have to re-launch it for your hotkey to work. ____________________________________________________________________ -- OPTIONS -- You can pull up options at any time by right mouse clicking anywhere on the application (with the exception of the text entry) and select Options. Assuming you are using the default theme, you can left mouse click on the options button located on the very right of the application. For those of us that *hate* the mouse, you can type ":options" (with out the quotes) in the text entry. (please see COMMANDS section) The options dialog presents several options: *Remember last position *Close X-Launch after launching an application *Hide X-Launch after launching an application *Hide X-Launch after loosing focus *Hotkey Setup Remember last position: This will do just what it says. It will remember the last position you have moved it to and display there from now on. This may not work in some window managers as they don't care if you make a request for a position. Close X-Launch after launching an application: This will close X-Launch after launching another application. This is not the suggested usage as every time you want to launch an application you have to re-launch X-Launch. This is how current applications like "grun" work. Hide X-Launch after launching an application: X-Launch will hide directly after trying to launch another application. This can be useful if you don't want your window manager to take in consideration the placement of X-Launch when displaying the new application. Hide X-Launch after loosing focus: X-Lauch will hide itself after it has lost focus. It will also display an animation between the time you have started the application and when it gets displayed. This is useful for slower applications (like galeon) to let you know that the OS is working on displaying your new application. This can also be confusing if you launch something that doesn't get displayed or takes focus when it gets displayed. EG: Try to launch galeon when it is already displayed... it will attach a new tab to the existing process, but doesn't gain focus. Hotkey Setup: Hotkeys are used to display X-Launch after it is hidden. This allows for FAST access to the application launcher so you don't have to launch a program just to launch another program every time. To setup a Hotkey press the capture Hotkey button. A dialog will appear. Just press a hotkey, one that is not already in use, and the hotkey will be added to the hotkey entry. Press Apply or Ok to assign the new hotkey to X-Launch. The default hotkey is Control+Shift+R. ____________________________________________________________________ -- OPTIONS FILE -- For those that feel brave, you can edit the options text file. It is located in ~/.xlaunch/options. Please don't edit this file when X-Launch is running as it WILL stomp your changes. Valid entries for the options file are: RememberLastPosition=[true][false] CloseAfterLaunch=[true][false] HideAfterLaunch=[true][false] HideAfterFocus=[true][false] Hotkey=[Key combonation] Theme=[Directory of where the theme file will be] WindowPosition=[X and Y of the window position] ____________________________________________________________________ -- HISTORY -- X-Launch keeps a historical list of commands you have typed. Use the history tab in the options dialog to edit this history list. You can also edit the ~/.xlaunch/history file, but make sure xlaunch is not running as it WILL stomp your changes. ____________________________________________________________________ -- COMMANDS -- For those of us that hate the mouse, there are several commands you can type in the text entry. Each option must start with a colon. ":" :options :close :quit :hide :options -- this will open up the options dialog. :close -- this will close the application :quit -- does the same as :close :hide -- puts X-Launch in hidden mode. (NOTE: you can also hide the application by pressing the Escape key) ____________________________________________________________________ -- THEMING -- You can theme X-Launch to have it look any way you want. Just change the Theme value in the options file to your directory. To learn more on how to theme X-Launch, please see the file THEME-HOWTO.