I used to use the Ion window manager, which I was very happy with, once I got over its large learning curve. However, it borks on any program which doesn't conform to some crazy standard which no-one listens to, so I decided to try a more traditional window manager. I decided to give OpenBox a try (if anyone thinks I would like some other WM, feel free to comment - the main thing I'm looking for is a WM which is superfast, does what I want, and is easily controlled from the keyboard). There are two things I'm missing from Ion. The first one I think I can work out myself - having a key bound to open xterm. However, there was one other thing which I found really convenient which I miss - the ability to run a command without opening xterm in a little mini-buffer. For example, in ion, to run emacs, I would just press F3, type emacs in the little mini-buffer that appeared, and pressed enter. Is there some way I can do the same thing in OpenBox (I don't want to bind a key for every program I use!) Basically, I'm looking for a little utility which runs a command.

Amusing. I just tried OpenBox a few days ago and I was wishing for this same thing. This was one of the great features of ion (although the whole idea is superb), and I think one that should be MANDATORY in any window manager. Sadly window manager and browser authors don't ask me what I think.

What I ended up doing was resizing a single term to the one line and the width of the screen, removing window decorations, and dropping it right at the bottom of my first virtual desktop.

I've since then gone back to Fluxbox, where it doesn't really matter. My Fluxbox setup is basically one virtual desktop with four Eterms on it and second virtual desktop with just a browser window. To switch between them, I maximize my browser and then move it down a tiny bit so there is desktop space at the top of the screen. Then I use desktop wheeling to switch. This is a very quick mouse movement, as anyone familiar with Fitt's law will realize. I also have a keyboard shortcut (windows key + tab) to switch between virtual desktops.

I feel your pain in a way. ion is a great window manager and nothing really comes close to it. The only problem was I ran too many apps that needed real windows (ie, games) and I decided after about a week that I needed something a little less rigid than ion. I still miss it a great deal sometimes. I think you've made a good choice in switching to a blackbox-based window manager. It should be quite nice once you get used to it.

Nice feature. I've never used it, but it sounds really useful. Hell, I could even use it (instead of launching xterm everytime).
Why not write it? It couln't be hard. A one-line window without a title-bar that pipes the input/output to bash, or some other shell. You could make it simpler without using an external shell, by means of the exec() system call (IIRC), but you won't get completion.
I'll think about writing it. (When I'll have the time :p)

fbrun is a fluxbox util that does just that, and should work under openbox. There are also some others. In gentoo the package that contains fbrun "commonbox-utils".

Unhappy with everything else, I have reverted to ion. Someone should make a branch of ion which isn't so standards conforming.

In fluxbox you can doalt+P would start xmms playing. I'm pretty sure openbox can do this too.

It can. That's not what I wanted. I wanted a key which would start some sort of minibuffer which would allow me to enter any command I wanted, not just a specific program.

Quote:
I wanted a key which would start some sort of minibuffer which would allow me to enter any command I wanted, not just a specific program.

If you make a hotkey that runs fbrun you'll get exactly that. Maybe you should try using your brain before dismissing something, it might help you ;)

Quote: Original post by bytecoder
If you make a hotkey that runs fbrun you'll get exactly that. Maybe you should try using your brain before dismissing something, it might help you ;)

No need for the snideness.

Quote: Original post by bytecoder

Quote:
I wanted a key which would start some sort of minibuffer which would allow me to enter any command I wanted, not just a specific program.

If you make a hotkey that runs fbrun you'll get exactly that. Maybe you should try using your brain before dismissing something, it might help you ;)

I know that, the reason I dropped OpenBox was because I didn't like the general feel of it, not because I couldn't get that particular feature. The reason that I replied that that's not what I wanted is because I thought he had misunderstood me, not because I didn't have a solution to that particular problem.