1
2------------------------------------------------------------------
3 README
4------------------------------------------------------------------
5
6 wmblob v1.0.4
7
8general information
9-------------------
10
11 I'll be honest with you. the truth is: wmblob is a totally
12 useless program. but unlike other totally useless programs (I
13 won't name them here, because they're made by an enormous and
14 rich company), it looks good and shows funny moving `blobs'.
15 I'm sure you'll like it. it's a nice dockapp for WindowMaker
16 (see `www.windowmaker.org'), but it's probably going to run
17 just as well with any other window manager.
18
19
20supported platforms:
21--------------------
22
23 I have no idea. go and find it out. I wrote it on `bender',
24 which is my i686-pc-linux-gnu system. this means it compiles
25 and runs well on *my* machine and I hope it will do so on your
26 machine, too, but I'm unable to test it on other platforms.
27 all comments related to the portability of this program are
28 welcome, especially for non-linux platforms.
29
30 Arthur Melissen sent me an email and pointed out some
31 modifications he did to make it properly work on FreeBSD.
32 those modifications were included in version 1.0.2 and 1.0.3.
33
34 if wmblob fails to compile or to run on your machine and you
35 are a smart person (meaning: not working for an enormous and
36 rich company), try to find out what the problem is by looking
37 at the source and/or config files. if you're unable to do
38 this, you can still try to drop me an e-mail with *useful*
39 informations, but I can't promise that I'll be able to help
40 you. also, if you fix some compatibility problems, tell me
41 about it.
42
43 wmblob is mainly written for WindowMaker. other window
44 manager may work just as well, because I don't use any
45 extension unique to WindowMaker, but I can't tell for sure. I
46 have tried to run it with old verions of twm, mwm, wm2 and
47 icewm. all four managers work only by giving `--windowed' or
48 `--broken-wm' to wmblob at startup.
49
50
51requirements:
52-------------
53
54 I can't tell for sure what is required, but here's a list:
55 + a working compiler and all that goes with that
56 + GTK+-2 (can't tell which version, but upgrading to the
57 newest major version is a good idea anyway.)
58 + An X11 system with the following libraries: X11, Xext, Xpm
59
60
61installation:
62-------------
63
64 installing wmblob should be trivial by simply following the
65 usual installation steps, beginning with `./configure'. read
66 the `requirements' (just above).
67
68 if this does not ring a bell to you, do the following:
69 + unpack the archive and enter the source tree
70 + type `./configure' with your favourite options (type
71 `./configure --help' to get a list)
72 + type `make' to compile
73 + type `make install' to install. for this you'll have to
74 be root, unless you install it locally by giving a local
75 path to configure (with `--prefix=path').
76 + to clean type `make clean'. or simply delete the source
77 tree
78
79
80how to use it:
81--------------
82
83 simply start it and watch it. nice, eh?
84
85 what? don't see anything? try giving the `--broken-wm' or
86 `--windowed' options to wmblob.
87
88 clicking in the window will open a dialog with lots of
89 options. (you can't change the colors anymore by clicking
90 with different buttons, like in older versions.) all these
91 settings change the way wmblob behaves. sorry, I won't
92 describe all of them here; you can find it out yourself by
93 fiddling around. you can look at some examples by loading the
94 presets. select a preset from the dropdown menu, click `load'
95 and then `apply'.
96
97 the command line options for setting the colors have been
98 removed.
99
100 wmblob saves its settings and presets in the file `.wmblobrc'
101 in your home directory. you should not edit this file unless
102 you really know what you're doing. wmblob may crash if the
103 file is not set up properly. if you've messed things up,
104 simply delete this file, wmblob will recreate it with the
105 default settings.
106
107
108how does it work?
109-----------------
110
111 some people asked me, how wmblob works. that's why I have
112 included the file `doc/how_it_works'.
113
114
115cpu usage
116---------
117
118 being nothing more than a toy (a nice toy), wmblob cannot be
119 tolerated to use too much of your cpu. while the amount of
120 cpu time required by wmblob is small (less than 1/2%) with the
121 default settings on modern machines, it can use considerable
122 cpu time (maybe 10%) on older and slow machines with heavy
123 settings (lots of blobs). it's your choice whether to run
124 wmblob or not. also consider to `nice' it.
125
126
127copyright
128---------
129
130 wmblob is copyright by jean-luc herren. the GPL version 2 (or
131 newer, if desired) applies to all portions of the code that I
132 wrote. if you don't know the GPL, please see the file COPYING
133 in the root of the source tree or go to `www.gnu.org'.
134
135 the file `wmlessgeneral.c' has been taken from wmgeneral.c by
136 Martijn Pieterse (pieterse at xs4all dot nl). `wmblob.c' was
137 originally derived from `wmdots.c' from `wmdots' by Mark I
138 Manning IV (?), but there's nothing left from his original
139 code. it was just the starting point.
140
141
142author
143------
144
145 wmblob was written by jean-luc herren. (jlh at gmx dot ch)
146
147
148bug reports
149-----------
150
151 bugs? where? well, if you find one or have some comments,
152 questions or problems or feel like saying hello, feel free to
153 send me an e-mail (jlh at gmx dot ch). warning: if you spam
154 me, I'll remote activate wmblob to delete all your precious
155 data and to break you a leg. :)
156
157
158known bugs
159----------
160
161 none. unless you tell me about one. I run it permanently on
162 my machine and never encountered any problems.
163
164
165thanks
166------
167
168 thanks to many other people who wrote dockapps, I read some of
169 their sources. especially: wmdots, wmMand and wmgeneral.
170
171 thanks to Thomas Otto for his patch for command line args.
172
173 thanks to G�rkan Seng�n, for making a Debian package and
174 writing the initial manpage.
175
176 thanks to Arthur Melissen for the help with FreeBSD.
177
178 ...and thanks to all the people, who dropped me an email!
179 it's nice to hear that you like it! :)
180
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