Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition

The FvwmWinList: Switching the Focus

The FvwmWinList is an fvwm2 module that lets you keep track of all the application windows on your many screen pages. Generally the WinList is configured to let you switch the focus to whatever window you want, but hypothetically you can set it up to perform other operations.

In many typical environments, you can start the FvwmWinList from an Fvwm Modules menu (often a submenu of the Root menu). If you’d instead like to configure fvwm to start the WinList automatically, see Section 17.15.2. (You might also configure a keyboard shortcut to start the WinList module; see Section 17.13 for details.)

Some of FvwmWinList’s appearance and behavior can be customized. We’ll see some typical module definition lines in the next section. If you are using this configuration, FvwmWinList performs the following operations:

First mouse button click:

Switch the focus to the window in question. If the window is iconified, deiconify. Switch the screen view so that the page with the window is displayed.

Second mouse button click:

Iconify/deiconify window; the page displayed does not change.

Third mouse button click:

Display a pop-up box containing information about the window in question (e.g., dimensions in pixels, whether it is sticky, permanent or transient, etc.). Pop down the box by clicking any mouse button on it.

One of the interesting features of the WinList is that none of these commands moves the pointer to the focus window. Instead, the pointer stays on the ...