Making use of custom actions with Xfce Appfinder

One addition in the latest versions of Appfinder was the custom actions. I never used it until after I started typing several times twitter which didn't work (a habit from the web browser url bar).

The custom actions can be useful for anything, and it's really quick to run it.

Examples of custom actions:

• twitter: xdg-open https://twitter.com/
• us: setxkbmap us

It can be very handy, check the online documention for a quick setup. There are also online examples, don't mind to leave a comment or to fill the bugtracker if you have clever ideas, I can add them, I just did with the setxkbmap us example ;-)

Moving from Unique to GtkApplication

A new class has been introduced in GTK+3 that is GtkApplication, and GApplication with GIO 2.28. A common use case is to have a single window present every time the same application or command line is run, that is also known as process uniqueness. This is already possible with Unique that was especially developed for single instance applications. This very basic post will show an example in C with Unique, and also how to do it with GtkApplication, where you will see that GtkApplication makes things even easier.

First of all, the documentation available from the GIO source code doesn't give a concrete example for process uniqueness with GApplication. There are mainly examples about using GApplication with GSimpleAction, that is pretty cool since it lets you easily define actions to run on the primary instance outside of the process, either with the same program or a different one.

Single window with Unique

In the following example, a UniqueApp class is instantiated, then it's checked against another running instance. If not, a window is created and a handle is connected to the UniqueApp object to react on received messages. Otherwise a message is sent, and the existing instance will execute the connected handle and put the window in front.

#include <unique/unique.h>
#include <gtk/gtk.h>

static UniqueResponse
cb_unique_app (UniqueApp *app,
               gint command,
               UniqueMessageData *message_data,
               guint time_,
               gpointer user_data)
{
  GtkWidget *window = user_data;
  if (command != UNIQUE_ACTIVATE)
    {
      return UNIQUE_RESPONSE_PASSTHROUGH;
    }
  gtk_window_present (GTK_WINDOW (window));
  return UNIQUE_RESPONSE_OK;
}

gint main (gint argc, gchar *argv[])
{
  GtkWidget *window;
  UniqueApp *app;

  gtk_init (&argc, &argv);

  app = unique_app_new ("info.mmassonnet.UniqueExample", NULL);
  if (unique_app_is_running (app))
    {
      if (unique_app_send_message (app, UNIQUE_ACTIVATE, NULL) == UNIQUE_RESPONSE_OK)
        {
          g_object_unref (app);
          return 0;
        }
    }

  window = gtk_window_new (GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
  gtk_widget_show (window);

  gtk_main ();
  return 0;
}

Single window with GtkApplication

In this example, a GtkApplication class is instantiated. This one is then registered, and a check is done to know if the running process is the primary one or a remote one. Just like in the previous example, either the process is the main one and a window is created and shown, otherwise a signal is sent and the connected handle will put the window in front. The handle used here is directly a GTK function that presents the window which spares the need to write a custom handler.

#include <gtk/gtk.h>

gint main (gint argc, gchar *argv[])
{
  GtkWidget *window;
  GtkApplication *app;
  GError *error = NULL;

  gtk_init (&argc, &argv);

  app = gtk_application_new ("info.mmassonnet.GtkExample", 0);

  g_application_register (G_APPLICATION (app), NULL, &error);
  if (error != NULL)
    {
      g_warning ("Unable to register GApplication: %s", error->message);
      g_error_free (error);
      error = NULL;
    }

  if (g_application_get_is_remote (G_APPLICATION (app)))
    {
      g_application_activate (G_APPLICATION (app));
      g_object_unref (app);
      return 0;
    }

  window = gtk_window_new (GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
  gtk_widget_show (window);

  g_signal_connect_swapped (app, "activate", G_CALLBACK (gtk_window_present), dialog);

  gtk_main ();
  return 0;
}

In both examples there is just one difference, it is how the primary process is seen. With Unique there is a function to know if another instance is running, while with GtkApplication there is a function to know if the current process is not the primary one e.g. a remote instance. I prefer the second approach, since with Unique if there is only one instance running, the is_running property will tell you false but the primary instance is running, isn't it? But anyhow, as you can see, it is possible to implement painlessly what is done by Unique with GtkApplication.

Apache restart with Vim autocmd

In order to execute a command right after saving a file in Vim, you can use the :autocmd command. Here is a quick example how it can be useful with Apache files.

NB: on my system, Debian in this case, an Apache file is automatically recognized as filetype=apache.

augroup apache
    autocmd BufWritePost */sites-enabled/* !/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
augroup END

Vim and Vala

I once wrote a quick note about Vala and Vim (or Vim and Vala) and the use of the Tag List plugin. Here is a clean post about these two beasts.

Vim — probably the best editor out there, at least always after trying out different editors I end up with Vim — has great plugins. However there is a lack of support for the Vala language. So here are two basic add-ins to include in the Vim editor.

Vala syntax

First there is no syntax color for this language. A quick fix is to use the C# syntax with the command :set filetype=cs. That works but is not ideal, ideal is to install a vala.syntax file, and there is one available on this GNOME Live! page.

First download the file from this page and save it under ~/.vim/syntax/. Next add the following lines to your ~/.vimrc file:

" Filetypes
augroup filetypedetect
        au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.vala,*.vapi setfiletype vala
augroup END

augroup vala
        autocmd BufRead *.vala,*.vapi set tw=100 efm=%f:%1.%c-%[%^:]%#:\ %t%[%^:]%#:\ %m
augroup END

Tag List

Tag List is a powerful plugin that lets you explore classes or functions from a source file, also called a source code browser. The installation steps are simple, they are also available bellow, and again to get it working with Vala there is a small hack to include inside the ~/.vimrc file.

First download the latest version of taglist from this page. Then uncompress the archive with, for example, the command line:

unzip -x taglist_45.zip -d $HOME/.vim/

Then go inside ~/.vim/doc, run Vim and inside Vim execute the command :helptags .:

cd ~/.vim/doc
vim
:helptags .

Finally add the following lines inside ~/.vimrc:

" Work-around Tag List for Vala
let tlist_vala_settings='c#;d:macro;t:typedef;n:namespace;c:class;'.
  \ 'E:event;g:enum;s:struct;i:interface;'.
  \ 'p:properties;m:method'

Now Vim is ready for Vala, and it's possible to browse source code by typing the command :TlistToggle.

Vim Vala Tag List

.screenrc

So I pimped up my .screenrc, and since it's been a long time I didn't care about my hardstatus I keep the content here just in case I need it again in a few years...

defscrollback 2048
startup_message off
caption always "%{= Wk}%-w%{= KW}%f%n %t%{-}%+w"
hardstatus off
hardstatus alwayslastline
hardstatus string "%{= ky}[ %H %l ]%=%{= kg}%{+b}[ %n %t ]%-=%{= ky}[ %D %d.%m.%Y %0c ]"

screen -t irssi 0
screen -t mutt 1
screen -t bubbie 2

Xfce 4.8 with Conky

I have been following a short discussion on the IRC channel #xfce regarding an issue with the use of Conky and transparency. I didn't use Conky for a very long time, but since I knew it was possible to have Conky perfectly running, I gave it a shot again and since I did a fresh reinitialization of Xfce on my workstation, I tweaked the configuration file to my need. Now I have it running in the background and I'll most probably keep it.

The configuration I was able to get for a good working Conky window with transparency is bellow. Of course I could tell you which combination doesn't work, with the why, but since there are so many of them I simply put a working one.

own_window yes # create a separate XWindow over the one from Xfdesktop
own_window_type desktop # the window cannot be moved or resized
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager # make it behave like it belongs to the desktop
own_window_argb_visual yes # true transparency, a compositor has to be active
own_window_argb_value 100 # make the background semi-transparent
double_buffer yes # avoid flickering

Here is a screenshot of the desktop with Conky in the bottom right corner, I made sure there is some I/O activity going on :-)

Xfce with Conky

Now if you want you can steal my .conkyrc file.