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GTK+ TTY Port

An anonymous reader writes: "FootNotes is reporting about what might be the coolest thing since textmode Quake: a curses-based GTK-2.0 port called Cursed GTK. This not only makes it possible to give Gnome the look and feel of Contiki, but also brings many real opportunities, such as remote logins where X forwarding is not possible, or remote logins over very slow modem lines. Screenshots here, here, here and here! Patches for bugs are welcomed by the authors."

277 comments

  1. But? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    How I'm supposed to run gimp with this thing?

    1. Re:But? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, precision editing will be accomplished in this new mode

    2. Re:But? by DashEvil · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yeah, that's a really good question, actually. Not just for GIMP though, but how HARD is it to compile any GTK2 app with this? I'm very interested in it. A lot of the trolls are sitting here bashing it as useless, but they don't realize the fundamental power that comes with flexability; the ability to use any GTK2 program ( which is a lot ) at the console through ssh is a great benefit.

      --
      -If God wanted people to be better than me, he would have made them that way.
    3. Re:But? by Wolfrider · · Score: 4, Informative

      --Ever heard of aalib?

      --
      .
      == WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
    4. Re:But? by nil_null · · Score: 1

      How I'm supposed to run gimp with this thing?

      I used to have a program that would convert gif/jpegs to ANSI text (with colors). It actually worked pretty well, though I think it only used character 219 and the other block characters (176-178). I'm sure something like this could be implemented.

    5. Re:But? by rotor · · Score: 1

      One of those screenshots shows the Gimp running. Apparently it must work.

      --
      Addlepated - punk & metal
    6. Re:But? by golrien · · Score: 1

      --Ever heard of "text comes out unreadable because it munges like 16 pixels into one letter and doesn't take text into account?"

    7. Re:But? by Wolfrider · · Score: 1

      --Ever heard of svgatextmode? ;-)

      ' apt-cache search svga|grep text '
      svgatextmode - Run higher resolution text modes.

      --I'm just messin'. Laugh.

      --
      .
      == WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
  2. april fools? by DarkAurora · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wasn't a similar thing with Qt an April fools joke a few months back?

    1. Re:april fools? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      April fools joke yes, a few months back no. More like a year or two.

    2. Re:april fools? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, there was. Link goes to the QT console website.

    3. Re:april fools? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what .. false / misleading information getting
      past a slashdot editor? .. no goddamn way

      motto : "whatever puts CmdrTaco out of a job and
      on to the streets is Good"

      he and jonkatz can shack it

      long live microsoft

    4. Re:april fools? by Turmio · · Score: 4, Funny

      Actually yes there was: http://qtconsole.nl.linux.org/. Pretty amusing thing. I wonder if this wicked mind got inspiration from that joke.

    5. Re:april fools? by Bingo+Foo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It was one of only a few April Fool's jokes that took me in, too. It makes sense and has such obvious utility, there was very little "joke" about it except the fact that it was false. It would be as if AOL Time Warner announced that they are splitting off their AOL holdings and renaming themselves "Time Warner." Ha Ha, April Fool? No, it makes perfect sense, but it's just not true. I keep hoping that Trolltech will resurrect this idea for real, sort of like Perl and Parrot.

      --
      taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
    6. Re:april fools? by Ed+Avis · · Score: 1

      It's well known that if something is announced as an April Fool's joke, it's likely to be implemented a few years later. The only example that comes to mind is the 16-bit instruction set for the ARM processor, announced as 'Thumb'; but I know there have been others.

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    7. Re:april fools? by Abcd1234 · · Score: 1

      One of my favorites is the joke of Python and Perl merging into a project called Parrot, which inspired this.

  3. Forgot by brokencomputer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You forgot to mention how great this will be for slow computers with low ram. I can't wait to try this out on my P1!

    1. Re:Forgot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      brokencomputer runs Gentoo. Makes sense.

    2. Re:Forgot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You run gentoo on a P1? You must have the patience of a Zen monk.

    3. Re:Forgot by Kashif+Shaikh · · Score: 1

      WindowMaker on a P133 /w 32MB ram works fine.

    4. Re:Forgot by brokencomputer · · Score: 1

      I dont have that much ram though.

    5. Re:Forgot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What on earth is wrong with a P1 for use as a small, headless, personal server? I've never found mine to be underpowered for the task.

    6. Re:Forgot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Will this finally give Red Hat text based config tools like SuSE? I hate having to deal with X just to config something. (Yea, I know I can do it myself, but I hate trying to outsmart RH's system).

    7. Re:Forgot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WindowMaker is a fucking window manager. Wow, I can run a window manager. Now how about software?

  4. Wow. by schon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow.

    Here I was thinking that it was utterly impossible to make the GTK file dialogue worse than it already was.

    Zemljanka, I bow before you in humility!

    1. Re:Wow. by Organized+Konfusion · · Score: 0

      it has been ported back to where it belongs!

      Before anyone marks me a troll, I love GTK+ and use it for all my development.

    2. Re:Wow. by JohnFluxx · · Score: 3, Funny

      I know they were trying to make gtk faster, but this is ridiculous!

    3. Re:Wow. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      What is wrong with the GTK file selector dialog??

      I keep hearing this about the gtk file selector (along with the debian install procedure). In both cases I am totally surprised, because I can't understand why.

      It supports tab completion. I don't know about you, but I like that I can traverse long directory with just a few keystrokes a few more , etc. The widget sensibly accumulates the Selection outside of the entry box (unlike many Motif and Xaw apps that don't do this and become a damn pain). This means that you can get to the root directory or your directory with one character (/ or ~).

      The Windows file selector looks pretty, but that's about it. It takes forever to get across one directory to the other. You have keyboard quick prefix navigation with the windows file selector, but nothing quite as efficient as tab completion.

      People just say it sucks as if its suction is obvious for everyone to see. Maybe I am just dense. WTF is wrong with it?

    4. Re:Wow. by RevAaron · · Score: 1

      You can use the keyboard in the windows file selector as well. It is like tab completion, although sometimes you omit the tab (not needed for the action) and in some cases you hit enter. A big leap, but with a bit of training, most people man get by....

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
    5. Re:Wow. by schon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What is wrong with the GTK file selector dialog?

      It's a pain in the ass to navigate between frequently used folders.

      It supports tab completion. I don't know about you, but I like that I can traverse long directory with just a few keystrokes a few more , etc.

      Yes, but for long directories that I use frequently, even "a few keystrokes" is too much. Try KDE3's file dialog - ONE mouse click takes me to my any of my most-used directories.

      Tab completion is OK, but it assumes that I already have both hands on the keyboard - which (after using something like Gimp is a very, very bad assumption) Try editing 100+ photos, from a read-only folder, and save the resulting images in a different folder, nested 8 or 9 levels deep. It's needlessly time consuming with GTK.

      The Windows file selector looks pretty, but that's about it

      Who said anything about Windows?

      Try KDE's file dialog. Get used to it - add some quicklinks. Then try to use GTK+, and you'll see how clunky it is.

    6. Re:Wow. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      You can use the keyboard in the windows file selector as well. It is like tab completion, although sometimes you omit the tab (not needed for the action) and in some cases you hit enter. A big leap, but with a bit of training, most people man get by....

      No it is not you pathetic fucker. The timer based Windows implementation does not allows wildcards.

    7. Re:Wow. by FooBarWidget · · Score: 1

      Try this new file dialog for GTK+ 2.2.2. It has bookmarks support and a back button, making it easier to navigate.

    8. Re:Wow. by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      Try editing 100+ photos, from a read-only folder, and save the resulting images in a different folder, nested 8 or 9 levels deep. It's needlessly time consuming with GTK.

      Try copying the files before you edit them :).

    9. Re:Wow. by schon · · Score: 1

      Try copying the files before you edit them :)

      You know what? I already do.

      But it would be nicer if I didn't have to.

    10. Re:Wow. by schon · · Score: 1

      Try this new file dialog for GTK+ 2.2.2. It has bookmarks support and a back button, making it easier to navigate.

      Thanks. I took a look at it yesterday (someone mentioned it in a different story.) From reading, it apparently only works for GTK2, so (I assume) it won't do anything for Gimp (which uses 1.2 or 1.4, IIRC)

      Once Gimp is updated to use the newer version of GTK, I'll be very happy though :o)

    11. Re:Wow. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I bet you've spent more time writing that post than you've wasted copying the files.

    12. Re:Wow. by schon · · Score: 1

      You lose. I spend way more time waiting for the files (CDRWs are SLOW.)

    13. Re:Wow. by jonadab · · Score: 1

      > Once Gimp is updated to use the newer version of GTK, I'll
      > be very happy though :o)

      The new version of Gimp (1.3) uses the new GTK. You will, however,
      want to keep your existing Gimp 1.2 install around also. The new
      Gimp has some cool features, but at this point it's still also
      missing some things that are present in 1.2.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    14. Re:Wow. by FooBarWidget · · Score: 1

      Gimp 1.3 uses GTK+ 2.x. You should install Gimp 1.3; it's a big improvement over 1.2 and pretty stable already. The UI got a large revamp and is now much better. You can install 1.3 in a different prefix so you won't overwrite 1.2.

  5. Re:Why go back to the CLI by rsborg · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Why, except for a pathetic fetish for obsolete technology, would you want to use a text-based interface to your X-Server?

    Perhaps for bandwidth preservation? Of course, then why use text-GUI if you've got CLI?

    --
    Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
  6. Re:Why go back to the CLI by mattdm · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Here I go, feeding the trolls again.... Perhaps this brings many real opportunities, such as remote logins where X forwarding is not possible, or remote logins over very slow modem lines.

  7. Okay but by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I realize this is all about geekiness factor, but how do they handle these :

    - Widget alignments when whatever widgets you align don't fall exactly on their equivalent ascii places?

    - GDK pixmaps : do they use AAlib to render them?

    Alright, I'm off to recompile X-Chat. If it actually turns out good in ascii, nobody will be able to give me crap on IRC because I don't use 1337 BitchX :-)

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:Okay but by multi+io · · Score: 4, Informative
      GDK pixmaps

      Judging from the screenshots, those just don't get rendered at all. Generally, the mapping algorithm to character cells seems to be quite smart though...

    2. Re:Okay but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      fuck that bitchx noise.

      real men use irssi. best irc client ever. it makes bx look like stock ircII.

    3. Re:Okay but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      xchat already comes with a text-mode interface (`which xchat-text`). Now perhaps they'll give you crap for not knowing about that.

    4. Re:Okay but by Chris+Pimlott · · Score: 2, Informative

      I second that, irssi is the cat's PJs. I know a bunch of people who switched from BitchX and haven't looked back. And you don't have to fiddle with your terminal program to make the startup logo look right.

    5. Re:Okay but by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 1

      If you look at the screebshots it's not AAlib at all. Looks like svgalib actually.

      I'm not sure how this is an advance... it looks crapper than X but you have to configure the notoriously buggy svgalib first...

    6. Re:Okay but by uhoreg · · Score: 4, Informative
      Widget alignments when whatever widgets you align don't fall exactly on their equivalent ascii places?
      GTK uses a container model for widget placements (i.e. you put the widgets in containers, and everything gets auto-sized based on the contents). The placement of widgets isn't pixel-based. So this isn't an issue, at least in properly written GTK programs.
      Alright, I'm off to recompile X-Chat.
      Cursed GTK uses LD_PRELOAD, so there's no recompilation needed. Unless the program is statically linked, of course.
      --

      To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three persons, two of them absent.

    7. Re:Okay but by johanka · · Score: 1

      There were some problems with this - we needed to patch some widgets manually (spacing -> 0, alignment -> 0, size_request -> 50x80 etc.) and you need to do the same thing with custom widgets (if any).
      The other way, simple dividing by 5, 10, 20 didn't work correctly.

    8. Re:Okay but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alright, I'm off to recompile X-Chat. If it actually turns out good in ascii, nobody will be able to give me crap on IRC because I don't use 1337 BitchX :-)

      xchat already has a seperate text mode client.

  8. Re:Why go back to the CLI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the hardware still works, why not use it? There are plenty of reasons why this would be useful!

  9. Finally! by phraktyl · · Score: 4, Funny

    I won't have to bring up X to edit photos in the Gimp!

    --
    Karma: Marginal (mostly due to the border around the website)
    1. Re:Finally! by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Funny

      I won't have to bring up X to edit photos in the Gimp!

      Even better : use a TTS with that and you've got gimp for the blind :

      Tool-Eraser-Star-Transparency-Minus-Minus-Minus- Pl us-Minus-Minus-Minus-PipeSign-ColorRed-ColorRed-Co lorRed-ColorRed-ColorRed-ColorRed-ColorRed-ColorRe d...

      --
      "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    2. Re:Finally! by Eberlin · · Score: 1

      Or maybe it's time to explore Imagemagick's mogrify. :) I know, I know, it ain't that powerful, but for batch scaling/optimizing, it's pretty darn handy. I used to batch-process using Fireworks in windows. I've found imagemagick to be a heck of a handy replacement. Takes a while to figure out all the options but a quick read of the FAQs should take care of that.

      Yes, I do realize your comment was meant to be a joke...but thought I'd chime in for those who haven't messed with imagemagick and want CLI batch processing of images.

    3. Re:Finally! by mlk · · Score: 1

      NetPBM has done all my photo editing.

      --
      Wow, I should not post when knackered.
  10. Turbo Pascal by khrtt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The screenshots look awful like the good old Turbo Pascal (circa 1990 or so) text-mode GUI library. Which was a fine library, at least IMHO. However, does the word, ahem, "creative" mean anything anymore?

    1. Re:Turbo Pascal by samjam · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah; When Delphi 1 came out we were dissapointed to find out it could do not much with all our old turbo-vision applications; we hoped they would be windows-ised.

      Well now we can text-ize many!

      Cheers, kudos and karma to those who did it!

      Huzzah!

      Sam

    2. Re:Turbo Pascal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dumbass.. There are only so many ASCII characters with which to work. Why be "creative" just for the sake of creativity if the proverbial wheel has already been invented and perfected? This is precisely why (thank Satan) there are no patents on "look and feel" -- otherwise every developer would be forced to come up with their own GUI scheme resulting in a mish-mash of bad design and a nightmare of inconsistent interfaces for the user...

    3. Re:Turbo Pascal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who cares if it looks like Turbo Pascal... jesus christ, it's fucking ASCII!! You can't be that fucking creative with ASCII!

    4. Re:Turbo Pascal by khrtt · · Score: 1

      Dumbass yourself. It's not just the characters, it's the colors and the layout of the dialogs. They didn't really have to pick blue fields on white background, with green frames around, did they?

    5. Re:Turbo Pascal by quinto2000 · · Score: 1

      All text mode non-command interfaces look pretty much alike. Think about it; how much room do you have to play around with when you have only 255 characters in a fixed font, and only 80x25 places to put them?

      --
      Ceci n'est pas un post
    6. Re:Turbo Pascal by IM6100 · · Score: 1

      It reminds me of Microsoft's product 'Visual Basic for MS-DOS' which they only released one version of. It's something I picked up the 'Professional' box set of at a swapmeet a few years back. And it's pretty cool if you want an ASCII Windows-like GUI environment that runs on the lowliest of DOS hardware.

      --
      A Good Intro to NetBS
    7. Re:Turbo Pascal by BlackListedCard · · Score: 1

      I remember in high school, we used Turbo Pascal for programming. It was great environment to program small stuff in. It was great for teaching purposes. c is ok, but c++ is way to complicated for students first look at logic programming. Does anyone remember the windows.pas library? It was a really nice interface for having windows in your applications. Simple was the key back then. Now, it's 1gig of ram for the "hello world" program. 8*(

    8. Re:Turbo Pascal by BlackListedCard · · Score: 1

      I forgot the other requirements. A Nvidia FX agp video card with 128megs of ram for the "Hello world" programs of today.

    9. Re:Turbo Pascal by noda132 · · Score: 1

      The screenshots look awful like the good old Turbo Pascal (circa 1990 or so) text-mode GUI library.

      It uses ncurses, which originated in 1982.

    10. Re:Turbo Pascal by lokedhs · · Score: 1

      ASCII, yes. But there are a few hundred or so thousand or so Unicode characters to choose from. They could be using them too.

    11. Re:Turbo Pascal by penguin7of9 · · Score: 1

      Yes. "Creative", when it came to computers, used to refer to new applications, new concepts, and new algorithms. But as your own comment suggests, "creative" nowadays pretty much means "has flashy graphics".

  11. Yes I agree this project is very impotant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I have used these tools on many occassion, and often they help in the regard of offering significant speed to your work package. For example, GTK+ (the gimp toolkit) often preceeds the requirement to use ncurses based (and TCL/TCL+ based) applications.

    Using the combined toolkit allows most users to seemlessly integrate the two often opposed processes -- including SMP and multithreading support native to the frame buffer and GART API.

  12. cool! by Dreadlord · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wow, being able to do remote-desktop over slow connections sounds cool, I'm having a lot of trouble using vnc over modem to fix mom's pc every time :P

    --
    The IT section color scheme sucks.
    1. Re:cool! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you are on a slow connection, use ssh (in fact, use ssh anyway with X forwarding).

  13. Re:Why go back to the CLI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    *psst*

    Curses is a text-based GUI. Now read the article before embarrassing yourself again. :-)

  14. I think you miss the point by jared_hanson · · Score: 1, Informative

    Remote logins in the absense of an X server have been possible forever. This novelty hack did not bring many real opportunities as the submitter claimed it did.

    --
    -- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
    1. Re:I think you miss the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clearly you have not experienced the joy of using an X app over a modem as parent post suggested.

    2. Re:I think you miss the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Cleary you. . .

      Why bother.

    3. Re:I think you miss the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lets say I'm on a slow connection, or a text only terminal, or a public windows box with only mindterm java ssh, and I login to my server. Now I can run a lot of GTK programs that previously I could not. You sir are a troll.

  15. Shameless Plug by Jennifer+E.+Elaan · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Ooh, more TTY stuff. I love stuff that runs on a TTY. aalib rocks. I have mplayer set up for movies, I have the original port for Quake 1... I run links for webbrowsing. I use centericq for my chat.

    Even better, I wrote aavga2 to run Quake2 on aalib!

    Now that Gtk+ is moving to TTY as well, maybe I can get rid of X entirely? *grin*

    1. Re:Shameless Plug by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      ... all the TTY-weenies just jizzed their pants in one mass orgasm.

  16. A similar technology: 1986 WordPerfect on VAX/VMS by unfortunateson · · Score: 4, Informative

    Back in the minicomputer days, WordPerfect corporation created a reasonable port of WP onto the VAX/VMS environment. It supported a number of terminals, many of which were text-only.

    Mind you, this was in the days of DOS WordPerfect dominance, WPWin was relatively new.

    But the coolest thing was graphics mode for non-graphics terminals. They abused the font download capabilities of the VT220-series terminals that were the standard for the day to create 'mosaics'. Decent pictures of bitmaps could be created. I could recognize B&W bitmaps pretty well. Lousy for pr0n, but good enough that a letter-writing system we set up had recognizable signatures.

    --
    Design for Use, not Construction!
  17. Charva does the same for Java by llouver · · Score: 5, Informative

    For a character base port of javax/swing...

    see charva: http://www.pitman.co.za/projects/charva/
    screenshot: http://www.pitman.co.za/projects/charva/images/cha rva1.png

  18. Re:Why go back to the CLI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    he'd still win, tho.

  19. Re:Why go back to the CLI by fishbowl · · Score: 1

    I really like high resolution frame buffer consoles, much more than any X session at the equivalent resolution. I like X, but not for consoles where I do text editing.

    --
    -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
  20. Re:Why go back to the CLI by TummyX · · Score: 2

    *sigh*

    make it easier to write text based terminals.

    Try to think laterally. Not everyone uses computers on the desktop like you.

    There still need for text based terminals (embedded devices for example) and this will

    BTW, java has a has a text based swing (search for Charva).

  21. Textmode GUIs not all that new by Samir+Gupta · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Borland had something like this in their DOS-based IDEs (Borland C++, Turbo Pascal, etc) back in the 80s.

    Very cool for the time, supported dragging, resizing, iconifying windows, even pseudo 3-D buttons and "shadows" underneath windows.

    --
    -- Samir Gupta, Ph. D. Head, New Technology Research Group, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
    1. Re:Textmode GUIs not all that new by samjam · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What is cool here is NOT the text mode as such, but that programs tht were written for graphical GTK are running fine with the text gtk libs!

      NOT as the original developers intended, but works none-the-less.

      THAT is cool.

      Sam

    2. Re:Textmode GUIs not all that new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      UGH! I did NOT moderate this REDUNDANT! Of the last 20 mod points I've spend, 10 of them have turned in to the wrong point. I am sure there is some bug here.

    3. Re:Textmode GUIs not all that new by burns210 · · Score: 1

      Borland's text user interface is called TurboVision, and is opensource under the GPL... Search sourceforge.

    4. Re:Textmode GUIs not all that new by hackstraw · · Score: 1

      Don't forget DESQview. Its an X windowing system for DOS.

  22. And by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It has the same miserable file selector dialog as the X11 version! Won't those monkeys ever realize what a barrier to adoption that thing is? It was behind the times they moment they wrote it.

    1. Re:And by noda132 · · Score: 2, Informative

      It has the same miserable file selector dialog as the X11 version! Won't those monkeys ever realize what a barrier to adoption that thing is? It was behind the times they moment they wrote it.

      Indeed. A new file selector is in the works. In the meantime, discover the nice tab-completion feature. While I certainly agree there is room for improvement and definitely wouldn't suggest the file selector to my grandmother, I save/open files faster with the GTK dialog than any other I've used.

  23. April Fools! by Sonicated · · Score: 2, Interesting


    This was actually an April Fools some time ago, but with QT.

    1. Re:April Fools! by BRSloth · · Score: 1

      This is *NOT* an april fools joke. I just grabbed the sources from CVS and compile all that stuff. Configure checks form ncurses and you can run the testgtk stuff. Looks weird, but works.

      Ok, that's not something very amusing, they could put all the GTK+ 2.2.2 stuff with a testgtk using ncurses just to fool everyone.

      My next step is grab the GTK2 version of Sylpheed and try to make it compile with this lib. My info later.

  24. For a second... by ElGuapoGolf · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    In this screenshot... http://zemljanka.sourceforge.net/cursed/screenshot s/najdi_rozdily.png

    I couldn't tell which was the real X/GTK based file selector dialog and which was the GTK/curses based file selector dialog.

    <carson>Golfswingafterjoke</carson>

  25. Hello! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    1992 called, and they want their GUI back!

    1. Re:Hello! by IM6100 · · Score: 1

      2003 called, and is so sick of all the eye-candy bloat that insulin may soon be needed.

      --
      A Good Intro to NetBS
    2. Re:Hello! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More like 1985 or so...

  26. Because non CLI text interfaces are useful. by hey! · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, for the hack value I suppose.

    However, the utility of non-command oriented text interfaces is pretty well established. There is, of course, the venerable curses; pretty sophisticated non command text interfaces were the norm on MS-DOS in the pre-windows days. These often featured mouse input, which combined with text display is enough for a wide variety of applications. Don't know if this GTK supports mouse inputs. From the screenshots I'd guess not which somewhat limits its utility.

    As an example of a non-command oriented text interface in common use today, look no farther than your BIOS setup program.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  27. VNC merged with screen by Boone^ · · Score: 2, Informative

    This looks like VNC that's been merged with screen. screen was a great text-based virtual login back in the day, and is still useful when latency is too high for VNC. However, it's still a pain to use. :)

    With GTK++ TTY mode, you could have a virtual text-based desktop capable of controlling (via mouse) any thing you'd want without opening many virtual screens.

    1. Re:VNC merged with screen by samjam · · Score: 1

      Screen is also cool when your connection keeps dropping cos your logged in session with all your work sticks around.

      Plus you can logout and come back later.

      And yes, being able to switch to another screen while a load of output whizzes by (as you said) is also cool.

      Sam

    2. Re:VNC merged with screen by Boone^ · · Score: 1

      That's what VNC does, but in a graphical sort of way. I do all my work through VNC servers, so when the inspiration hits, I can log in from home and obtain the same environment even through I'm WindowsXP at home and GNU/Linux at work.

    3. Re:VNC merged with screen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have what at home? I have windows too, but they are the usual glass type that let light in the house.

    4. Re:VNC merged with screen by Jonner · · Score: 1

      I use screen both remotely and locally, both for persistent login sessions and for terminal multiplexing. It may be a little clunky, but it's very powerful.

  28. Re:Why go back to the CLI by zakezuke · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why, except for a pathetic fetish for obsolete technology, would you want to use a text-based interface to your X-Server?

    If you are stuck with 56k, I can see this being very handy, very very handy! While yes we have faster then dialup connections, they are not all available from everywhere. Also, if you are with an ISP that bills based on byte use, I can see this as being most excelent.

    Also... if you are stuck in the Windows world, Xservers can be damn costly. Starnet for example charges $245 for their X-server. I assume since it can operate via TTY that it can also operate via ssh/telnet.

    Lastly, the more complex you make the plumbing, the easier it is to stuff up the drain. One thing nice about pathetic obsolete terminals is the fact that they work, they always work. The server may go down, but you know full well that ye' old terminal isn't very likely to fail. They don't need upgrades, patches, and in them selves can't get a worm/virus.

    --
    There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
  29. Re:Why go back to the CLI by ParallelJoe · · Score: 1
    I'm normally ssh'ed into a couple remote servers from work from which I run text browsers. (normally links) Why? Well, you don't really need graphics to read slashdot, it's faster than vnc, and despite the overhead of ssh it is faster than my work connection with its proxy server.

    But it isn't clear to me what advantages this will have over a pure text based browser.

  30. Re:Yet another reason why linux isn't ready for Jo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The gtk filedialog has tab completion. Hasn't seen that in Longdick yet.

  31. Xtree by rf0 · · Score: 1

    Am I the only one who think it looks like Xtree gold on DOS?

    Rus

    1. Re:Xtree by zx-6e · · Score: 1

      DOS is dead! Long live DOS!

    2. Re:Xtree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is official; Linux Magazine has now confirmed: GTK+ is dying

      One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered GTK+ community when IDC confirmed that GTK+ market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all desktops. Coming on the heels of a recent Linux Journal survey which plainly states that GTK+ has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. GTK+ is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent comprehensive programming test.

      You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict GTK+'s future. The hand writing is on the wall: GTK+ faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for GTK+ because GTK+ is dying. Things are looking very bad for GTK+. As many of us are already aware, GTK+ continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

      GNOME is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time GNOME developers Havoc Pennington and Owen Taylor only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: GNOME is dying.

      Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

      XFCE leader Olivier Fourdan states that there are 7000 users of XFCE. How many users of ROX are there? Let's see. The number of XFCE versus ROX posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 ROX users. Nautilus posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of XFCE posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of Nautilus. A recent article put GNOME at about 80 percent of the GTK+ market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 GTK+ users. This is consistent with the number of GNOME Usenet posts.

      Due to the troubles of Sun, abysmal sales and so on, Eazel went out of business and was taken over by Ximian who sell another troubled Toolkit. Now Ximian is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

      All major surveys show that GTK+ has steadily declined in market share. GTK+ is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If GTK+ is to survive at all it will be among Toolkit dilettante dabblers. GTK+ continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, GTK+ is dead.

      Fact: GTK+ is dying

  32. Re:Why go back to the CLI by mst76 · · Score: 1

    > I really like high resolution frame buffer consoles, much more than any X session at the equivalent resolution.
    > I like X, but not for consoles where I do text editing.

    Why not just use X with a minimalistic wm and maximized xterms? An accelerated X server is usually much faster than a vesa framebuffer. Besides, I've never found out how to get a higher refresh rate than 60hz on a framebuffer.

  33. Wonderful by AntEater · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I can have a text mode file dialog that loses my default file name too.

    --
    Alex, I'll take keybindings not used by Emacs for $400....
    1. Re:Wonderful by rowanxmas · · Score: 1

      Seriously, what is the status of the GTK file dialog? It is soo... bad. The best part is when Java made a swing version of it. Not sure what they were thinking.

    2. Re:Wonderful by damiam · · Score: 1

      Sorry, they didn't port GTK 1.2, so you can't bitch about that. GTK2's dialog may be ugly, but it does at least work well.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  34. Re:Why go back to the CLI by TummyX · · Score: 1

    bah, don't know wtf happened to my post.

    Here it is again:

    There is still a need for text based terminals (in embedded devices for example) and this will make it easier to write the interfaces for those terminals.

    Router manufacturers, for example, could support a text based gtk+ interface in addition to the standard command line interface.

    I can imagine plenty of other uses...

  35. for all the non-believers by spir0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    this will make system maintenance across ssh so much easier for chumps who don't know how to use CLI commands.

    hell, even I'd use it :)

    --
    The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
  36. Well, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it doesn't look nearly as good as xtg in DOS. Not as fast, either.

    1. Re:well, by Rysc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The GTK file dialog is bad for several reasons.

      Number one, shortcut navigation buttons do not exist. Typing ~/ only might take me to my home directory, it also might select the current directory (this seems to vary). A button would go a long way. An extra button for /tmp would not go amiss.

      A related problem is that the "location" pulldown does not allow typing. I must type full paths rather than modifying existing ones. Yes I could use relative paths in the input box, but this is hardly intuitive for the majority and often not convenient.

      While I'm at it, there's no guarantee of a way to create a new directory while browsing with a GTK dialog. I don't care how it's done, but this is a useful feature. Some GTK file dialogs have it... some just don't.

      The text-labeled buttons you describe are ugly.

      I cannot view file size or meta information inline. It's annoying to pop up a terminal for this purpose.

      Most of the time the file dialog is not resizable, confining me to a tiny viewable area.

      I cannot sort the viewable area by different things. I can only sometimes successfully use shell-style patterns to liit the file listing.

      It might be nice if I could drag and drop files to move them into subdirecories.

      These problems should all be solved at the toolkit level. Some GNOME developers have said that they are waiting for a toolkit solution.

      A lot about the GTK dialogs makes sense, like tab completion (even though this technically breaks a function that is considered "normal" throughout the windows/macintosh (and now KDE) worlds). You just can't call it good. It's passably functional at best.

      --
      I want my Cowboyneal
    2. Re:well, by schon · · Score: 1

      I have to ask what you think is wrong with it.

      Fair enough. It's too basic.

      I pretty much only use it for Gimp. Here's the biggest beef:

      It has no method to quickly navigate directories. Depending on what I'm editing (print-quality photos, web graphics, the family album, etc) I'd like to quickly switch between directories. Now, what happens:

      I load Gimp, open the file dialog, navigate to my images directory (slow, even with command-completion), then load the image. After editing, I want to save the resulting image to another folder, so I then go back to the file dialoge, and do the same damn thing again.

      Then I have a second (and a third, and fourth - frequently between 50 to 100) image to edit, so I have to do the same thing all over again. For each one.

      It's tedious, and completely uneccesary.

      Try the KDE dialog for comparison. You navigate ONCE to the folder you want to use, and then bookmark it. Same for saving. The next time you open your app, you click once to be taken to the folder you need.

      When dealing with tons of files, this saves TON of time.

      It's fast

      "fast" is relative. It's "fast" if you're talking display time. But spend any amount of time with it, and you'll hate it as much as I do.

      does what it should

      No, it most certainly doesn't. A file dialog should make life easier for the user. It should make switching to frequently used directories simple. GTK doesn't.

      I kicks M$ ass

      What's your point? I'm probably better at ice skating than the best hockey player in Kenya. Does that mean there's no room for improvement in my skills?

      My curse on you is that you be forced to WinCE on a keyboardless de

      My curse on you is that you acutally gain some perspective.

    3. Re:well, by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      I liked the AmigaOS style asl.library / arq.library..
      A system library which contained the standard file requester, most system-friendly apps used the library, there were different versions of the library depending on wether you wanted speed, flexibility, low memory usage, pretty graphics etc, and your apps used whichever version you had installed... If you didnt like the default, you could always go and install a third party version.
      And thus we have a modular system, which promotes freedom of choice, while maintaining compatibility and offering reasonable defaults.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    4. Re:well, by Minna+Kirai · · Score: 1

      I have to ask what you think is wrong with it. It's got a nice little tree, tab completion, multiple M$ style shift key first to last list

      I was going to ask what dialogue you were talking about, because the GTK FileOpen box I know of is nothing like what you describe.

      However now I see that the latest GTK has a halfway decent box, nothing like the piece of trash installed with Redhat 9 for example.

    5. Re:well, by FooBarWidget · · Score: 1

      Try this new file selector patch for GTK+ 2.2.2. It has shortcut navigation buttons, the location box allows typing, and you can see metadata like file icon, file type, size and date.

  37. Eye Candy by femto · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Those screen shots actually look quite usable. (Well, no worse than the original versions of 'Turbo C'.)

    It's interesting that once the flashy grapics is stripped away, today's user interface looks (and functions?) basically the same as yesterdays. Perhaps much of what we call 'advances in user interface' is just eye candy, or am I being deceived by appearances?

    1. Re:Eye Candy by Enrico+Pulatzo · · Score: 1

      Or, maybe not all of the advances to UI tech is visual? There's much more to interfaces than what you see. The rules behind where you put things amd being able to exploit the objectiveness of widgets to create new ones are two of the most advanced ideas of ui technology in my opinion. Also, i18n, l10n, and section 508 concepts are making their way into interface design more and more, that's not necessarily a visual upgrade.

      I think the problem with most people is that "advances in user interface" means only prettier looking buttons and such, when that should be one of the last things on the list for user interface design.

    2. Re:Eye Candy by swillden · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Or, maybe not all of the advances to UI tech is visual? There's much more to interfaces than what you see. The rules behind where you put things amd being able to exploit the objectiveness of widgets to create new ones are two of the most advanced ideas of ui technology in my opinion.

      Google for TurboVision, the UI toolset Borland created in the process of building their text-based IDEs. One of the nicest, most object-oriented UI toolkits I've used... and a very nice tool for creating applications quickly. I think Borland released it as public domain, or under a permissive license, so you can find the source code on the net in quite a few places.

      The complete C++ toolkit source is around 250KB, zipped.

      Also, i18n, l10n, and section 508 concepts are making their way into interface design more and more, that's not necessarily a visual upgrade.

      TurboVision had great support for internationalization as well. Granted, it was really only workable for languages that used a latin character set, but that was more of a platform limitation.

      So, I'd say the other poster had it right: Most of the changes have been eye candy. Not that there's anything wrong with eye candy, I like my nice proportional, anti-aliased fonts and my pretty icons and rounded "lickable" controls, but, at bottom, the desktop metaphor hasn't changed much in the last 30 years.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    3. Re:Eye Candy by starseeker · · Score: 4, Informative

      TurboVision has apparently been somewhat modernized from the original source release. Here's the website:

      http://tvision.sourceforge.net/

      --
      "I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
    4. Re:Eye Candy by zsau · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's interesting that once the flashy grapics is stripped away, today's user interface looks (and functions?) basically the same as yesterdays. Perhaps much of what we call 'advances in user interface' is just eye candy, or am I being deceived by appearances?

      No, that's more or less right. Back in the 80s there were more advanced user interfaces than today. It's quite a pity Microsoft and Macintosh had to win out.

      --
      Look out!
    5. Re:Eye Candy by jelle · · Score: 1

      Hmm. shouldn't they be making an X11 version of tvision then?

      --
      --- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.
    6. Re:Eye Candy by aziraphale · · Score: 1

      So quickly people forget, in a world where the main application for computers is email and web browsing, that the biggest driver behind Apple's original Mac GUI, one which I still think is valid today, was WYSIWYG. Remember that one of the key functions of business computers used to be document editing and printing. Macs were created to let you produce nice, well laid out documents, preview them on screen, then print them out on your laserwriter.

      That's what drove people away from the text based interfaces of WordPerfect and, yes, TeX. And it was a good reason to switch to high res display. Graphics was another obvious driver - the first time I used MacPaint with a mouse, I was convinced this was how computers were meant to be. Look at the original mac application suite - programs like MacPaint, MacWrite and MacDraw - and you've got a basic reason for almost every feature of standard GUIs ever since (buttons, dialog boxes, toolbars, menus...).

      What you're saying is a reproduction of all the glory of a modern GUI in text form is just a reproduction of those bits - buttons, dialog boxes, menus. You're losing the ability to have high res WYSIWYG documents - which was the whole point.

      Of course, if you're a programmer, you probably do most of you work in a fixed width font anyway, so WYSIWYG doesn't really affect you. Personally, though, I like the way text looks rendered on screen with a little anti-aliasing, so I tend to prefer my terminals and text editors the way they look in a windowed GUI with a bit of eye candy, rather than raw and sharp on a pure text terminal.

    7. Re:Eye Candy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It already supports X11 (explicitly, not just through xterms).

    8. Re:Eye Candy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Good Point. I had forgotten about the excitement of using a WYSIWYG word processor for the first time. I guess I was mainly thinking about the window manager and friends, and not about what is inside the windows.

      I think you have answered my question. Do you reckon it's safe to say that the window manager (and friends) hasn't advanced much beyond eye candy, but the applications have? To play devil's advocate with myself, perhaps those little cuctomised icons that nautilus generates really are useful?

    9. Re:Eye Candy by aziraphale · · Score: 1

      Take a look at Neal Stephenson's In the beginning was the command line for an interesting take on this - he argues that WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointers) interfaces were only ever meant to serve as a metaphor for controlling virtual objects on a computer screen as if they were physical objects (windows~=documents, etc.), but have been used as so much more that the metaphor (never that well defined in the first place) has got lost. So much so that devices like phones and video recorders have introduced interfaces which use a WIMP metaphor - an interface which is supposed to remind you of a computer windowing GUI. at that point, all metaphor is gone, and your left with very insubstantial user interfaces.

      An even worse trend now is towards 'web-like' interfaces. This crops up in applications like MS Money which uses the incredibly misguided metaphor of presenting you with what seems to be a web site devoted to your finances. And because web interfaces are even less standardised than WIMP GUIs, this is an excuse for creating truly appalling interfaces. With 'web-like' interfaces cropping up on cashpoints, personal video recorders, and the like, we're well due for a user interface revolution, because frankly most systems I use these days are really just a flashy mask over a crappy hierarchical menu system (look at digital cameras, MP3 players, in-car computers, and DVD players). Personally, I want more physical dials, switches and buttons on these devices, not just a sleekly styled 'up-down-left-right-select' control.

  38. very cool by Atilla · · Score: 4, Interesting

    this is very handy, alhough I wonder how well it scales beyond 25x80...

    this could also be very useful as a standalone X-less toolkit (a la Qt Embedded). RedHat (and some other distros) could really use a cleaner console widget toolkit... The one they use now (for system tools, etc) works like crap.

    OTOH, I wonder what kind of resources it uses.

    hmmm might have to try this out.

    --
    --- sig moved for great justice.
    1. Re:very cool by jafuser · · Score: 1

      Hmm.. if we could configure our terminals to be 1024 characters wide and 768 characters tall, this could work wonders =P

      --
      Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
    2. Re:very cool by GiMP · · Score: 1

      you could do it, but you would need a very high resolution monitor to make those characters more than a few pixels large.

      If you wanted to have each character only 1-4 pixels, then it would be a lot faster to use X11.

    3. Re:very cool by cos(0) · · Score: 1

      You're right, individual letters would look too small. So, I have a idea! Represent a single letter using more than one of these blocks!!! I know what a bold and daring step that is -- breaching unexplored terrain --but I have a feeling that it may work.

    4. Re:very cool by GiMP · · Score: 1

      That would be slower than drawing pixels.

      Imagine two situations:
      1. 800x600 drawing each pixel
      2. 1600x1200 drawing 2x2 text characters to represent an 800x600 display.

      Both situations will result in an 800x600 display; however, the second will be much slower and will actually require more expensive hardware.

      Nearly any monitor from the local junkyard will do 800x600 resolution, but not many at your local BestBuy or Frys will do 1600x1200.

      Solution 2 would result in loss of quality due to the limitations of ASCII art and the console; however, assuming that these problems were eliminated, the solution is still slower.

      It requires more power to render fonts than it does to render pixmaps. Text interfaces are generally faster and require less hardware simply because text interfaces render less information and run at lower resolutions than graphical displays. At 2x2 pixels for the fonts, the fonts would have to be special or scaled which would be even slower.

      This isn't to say that curses/text interfaces are a bad idea.. they just aren't a replacement for any modern pixmap-based windowing system.

  39. contiki for windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    That link to contiki had some really cool screenshots, but they were for C64 only. Does anyone know if there's something like this for windows?

    1. Re:contiki for windows by Phil+John · · Score: 2, Informative

      Contiki has been ported to x86, so you could get it running under vmware or Virtual PC.

      --
      I am NaN
  40. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Your problem is probably beetween the chair and your keyboard.

  41. NOOOOO! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NOOOOOO!!! I thought we were rid of the generic ascii text!!!

    I'll admit, maybe in specialized circumstances, but man there has to be a better way than this in 95% of the cases.

  42. Not useful without developers testing it by romi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This isn't going to be of much use unless app developers of common gtk apps actually test it - it may work fine for the Gtk demo app but (speaking from experience as a developer at a mid-size company that ships a GTK UI) real GTK apps often abuse GTK to get around window manager incompatibilities, resize and widget placement restrictions, etc., and developers, OSS or otherwise, aren't going to verify that their crazy hacks actually work on the TTY port. This is exactly why the Windows GTK port sucks in real life even though in theory it should work just like GTK on X.

    1. Re:Not useful without developers testing it by penguin7of9 · · Score: 1

      real GTK apps often abuse GTK to get around window manager incompatibilities, resize and widget placement restrictions, etc.

      Your application shouldn't try making any assumptions about global window placement: they are likely going to be wrong in many environments.

      If you need fine control over where things end up in your UI and you need multiple independently movable windows, use an MDI interface, don't fiddle around with the placement or size of top-level windows.

      Doing this right is harder than the kinds of hacks you are using, but it's important.

      If there really is some top-level functionality you need, abstract the functionality, implement it as a toolkit component, in conformance with X11 window management guidelines, and contribute it to Gtk. That way, ports of the toolkit will do the right thing and your application will work better on other platforms.

      This is exactly why the Windows GTK port sucks in real life

      Yes, but the problem isn't with Gtk or the Windows port, the problem is with developers like you.

      Windows, unfortunately, encourages application-based top-level window management. It's one of the misfeatures of the Windows GUI.

  43. Re:Yes I agree this project is very impotant [OT] by i_am_nitrogen · · Score: 1

    What the crafriggiap are you talking about? You just spouted a bunch of nonsense! Nonsense troll! SMP has nothing to do with frame buffer has nothing to do with GART API (what the crap??) has nothing to do with GTK+ has nothing to do with ncurses!

    Move along folks. This one's just plain pathetic.

  44. Re:Why go back to the CLI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He was clearly responding to the misleading subject "Why go back to the CLI."

  45. bug reports? by selfabuse · · Score: 2, Interesting

    >Important note: Patches are welcome! Bugreports without patches send directly to /dev/null :)

    What's the deal with that? If you find a bug, and you can't write code, they don't even want to know the bug exists?

    1. Re:bug reports? by rusty0101 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In almost every case where I have seen this disclaimer, the reason is that the developers are often much more aware of the bugs people are running into than the person who gives it a try. It's on their "to be fixed" list, and they will get to it when they have the opportunity.

      This is not expected to be used in a production environment yet, so they don't need a couple hundred people reporting to them that right clicking on the [V] indicator closes the window when the user expects it to bring up a menu.

      One of the things they are looking for in this case is help! in actually fixing those things you happen to run across.

      I am reasonably sure that when the code gets to a level that they feel is near production level, they will change how they want bugs to be reported. As it is, effectively a bit of technology demonstration code, they know it isn't perfect.

      At the same time, considering that this code is at a very early stage of development, it is possibly one of the best places to start looking at developing code. Perhaps it is something as simple as providing the supporting code for a clock module that will show time in iTime. Or it could be improving the way that a scroll bar functions on a window. If you download the CVS tree, and see a routine flagged "this routine is to be developed in the future" and you happen to think that it is something you can do as a way of learning how to write software, then by all means, jump in.

      If you don't develop the best possible solution, I don't think they are going to worry too much so long as it works, and doesn't introduce serious instabilaty or security problems with the program. You may also get valuable feedback from the project lead as to what you need to improve.

      Then again, perhaps that's too much work and you should just go to using safe, vetted software.

      -Rusty

      --
      You never know...
    2. Re:bug reports? by johanka · · Score: 1

      Sorry :( I'm the main developer now and I don't have enough time(!!)/skills(:)) to patch the bugs, the other developer (who had actually written 80% of Cursed GTK..) doesn't want to have anything in common with it...I'm looking for a maintainer :)

  46. Re:A similar technology: 1986 WordPerfect on VAX/V by topher1kenobe · · Score: 1

    I used WP5.1+ for VMS for several years. Being on a campus of only vt100 terms made us do all kinds of interesting things to get The Job done.

    --

    yadda

  47. Re:weak. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't get karma for funny mods. Idiot.

  48. what are you wankers gonna bitch about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...when gtk 2.4 comes out with a new file selecter? how sad it will be when you can't repeat the same old tired bullshit over and over and over and over and over and over and over an.......

  49. Re:Why go back to the CLI by NicolaiBSD · · Score: 1

    Starnet for example charges $245 for their X-server.

    On the other hand, Xfree86 on Cygwin is free - as in beer and as in Xfree license.

  50. Ternery logic and business - perfect partners by jimmy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    1) Start
    2) ...
    3) Profit !

    Sorry.

  51. Available for X in early 1990's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I recall a Usenix presentation on something similar (either for vanilla X or or one of the early toolkits), mapping a window system's graphics calls to text. This was back in the day when lots of businesses were still being run off dumb terminals.

  52. File Selector by jtev · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I actualy like the GTK+ file selector. it's very powerfull, and I like that it makes traversing the direcotry tree easy. Apple liked it enough to steal it and pretty it up in Aqua, so I don't know why people gripe about it.

    --
    That which is done from love exists beyond good and evil
  53. Very useful for write system utilities by wqun · · Score: 1

    TUI is very useful to write system utilites which needn't graphics at all.

  54. TurboVision by AT · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It was called TurboVision. A user-maintained fork still exists and has been ported to various platforms and compilers including gcc and Linux.

    Its key difference from the text-based GTK+ is that it was a text-based library only. There was no graphical implementation of the same API.

    1. Re:TurboVision by EzInKy · · Score: 1

      It was called TurboVision. A user-maintained fork still exists and has been ported to various platforms and compilers including gcc and Linux.

      Rhide, my favorite console IDE, uses TurboVision.

      --
      Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
  55. XFree UI == UI free from XFree by axxackall · · Score: 2, Funny
    Should it be called TUI (TTY-based UI) or CUI (Curses-bases UI, or CLI-based UI)? And how about CWM, CLI-based Window Manager?

    On a serious note, is it GPM sensitive?

    --

    Less is more !
    1. Re:XFree UI == UI free from XFree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On a more important note, has your BLT drive gone AWOL?

    2. Re:XFree UI == UI free from XFree by BRSloth · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes. You can even move the "windows" around the screen. But try it on console, not on a terminal emulator. It will start selecting text and not move it. But you can click on the widgets, as expected.

  56. Bug or feature? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So are the godawful color schemes intentional or not?

  57. Re:Why go back to the CLI by Some+Dumbass... · · Score: 1

    Try to think laterally. Not everyone uses computers on the desktop like you.

    "Try to think outside your box."

    Or perhaps you mean vertically?

    "Try to think below your box. Waaaaay below."

  58. Re:Yet another reason why linux isn't ready for Jo by I+KNOW+MARTIAL+ARTS · · Score: 1, Informative

    It's in XP. Probably 2k as well.

  59. But... by einhverfr · · Score: 1

    Here is the thing---

    The CLI is generally designed around scripting and system administration for professionals. The GUI tends to focus around general productivity and interactivity.

    This still had limited power for many things, but it still has many uses and may help make administrating a Linux system easier for the beginner.

    --

    LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
  60. Forget GIMP, I want GNOME for TTY! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Forget GIMP, I want GNOME for TTY!

    The only real stumbling block is, how do you draw a "gnome foot" with only text?

  61. wxWindows by dJCL · · Score: 1

    Now would the wxWindows GTK port link with this? If so then I could bring all my wxWindows apps to terminal access... that would actually be quite usefull, all those little utils I wrote from any system I control...

    Just a sec, I have a text terminal that I was working on a few days back... I suddenly have an urge to redouble my efforts on that. Heh.

    And for those who are complaining about how this is a total waste of time, and this person could have been more productive elsewise: You didn't pay them to do this, and your money would not pay them if they were, eg..., fixing the file dialog as many complained about.

    This is one of the nice things about coding open source: If you want to, you can try to code it. It can be totally useless, but that is not a reason to stop trying. Usefullness is not a deciding factor for everyone out there.

    Anyway...

    --
    On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
    1. Re:wxWindows by Giggerotta · · Score: 1
      Usefullness is not a deciding factor for everyone out there

      Fortunately, it is a deciding factor for most of the world. Writing open source apps myself, I learned quite quickly that "usefulness" is a deciding factor when it comes to who will use it and how your app will be used.
      Sure, you can write apps that do only what you want them to do, and that are utterly useless to the rest of the world, and we all do, but if you're writing an app for a general audience (not just you and your buddies) usefulness and useability as well as accepting feedback and correcting issues that your users don't like (of course within reason) are major factors.

      --
      "Hello waste of skin!" -- Giggerota the Wicked
    2. Re:wxWindows by dJCL · · Score: 1

      True, but as I stated, not everyone out there creates stuff just for those reasons. I beliave this falls into the "I wonder if I can do this" category, and the person just decided to release it to see what happens, I know that I would do that if I had written something like that.

      If no one is paying you to do something, you get to decide what your influences are. If someone does not like your decisions, well, then they can find their own solution.

      --
      On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
    3. Re:wxWindows by Giggerotta · · Score: 1
      I quote: Sure, you can write apps that do only what you want them to do, and that are utterly useless to the rest of the world, and we all do

      Learn to read and to spell... and don't tell me your bad spelling is because you use linux, there are spell checker packages for most, if not all, the distros, and BSD. Or because you're a programmer... even programmers use spellcheckers....sometimes....

      If you had actually read that part of my post, you'd see that I've already said what you're neeping about. We ALL write apps that are utterly useless to others just to see if we can do it.

      I would not hire you in my company to be a programmer, web designer or the like. The attitude of "well, they can find their own solution" is not one that should be promoted, wether you are being paid to do it in an open or closed source enviroment, or not... and especially on the web.

      If you create a, oh, lets say, community-building website for lack of a better example, wether this is out of your pocket or an employer's pocket, you want to make that app/site as easy to use as possible, new user signup clearly marked, a way for the user who fits into the category of "Make it idiot-proof, and someone will make a better idiot." who can't remember that their password for the site is their own real name, and signups for communities made easy from any part of the site. As well, it has to look good from any browser, considering that the majority of the "non-geek" world is using either Windows 98 with IE 5.5, or Windows XP with IE 6... you and I might be using Moz (or similar) on another platform... but not the user that a site like that would be trying to reach as it's target audience.... of course there are the users who are using the same as we are, but I digress... so, for this, which you may have initially thought "hey, just for me and my buddies....", you now have a wider user base than just geeks, and, as that site's developer, you can't just tell your users to "find their own solution" if you expect them to use it. Of course, you will have functions that fall into the "wonder if I can do it" category, but the app/site has to be usable. The people that I employ and that are my programmers and developers, if they release anything to the outside world make sure that they have clear instructions on how to use the application, what it does (or is supposed to do) and accept feedback. Even if it never sees the light of day for users, we all forward them back and forth between each other and take what advice is offered constructively. So perhaps you should get a new attitude, and learn to accept feedback, even if the app is never used by anyone other than you and your buddies.

      --
      "Hello waste of skin!" -- Giggerota the Wicked
    4. Re:wxWindows by dJCL · · Score: 1

      I do feel you miss how I look at this. I know that you are refering to my site at cauze.com when you mention a community site. The thing is that I do not have the intention to make it a majorly open and usable site at this time. People can sign up if they can figure it out( I threw that together, and it is ugly ) and request a community if they wanted. But I only have one community on there that I don't know the founders. I write it in some of my spare time, and the only reason I did that was to learn PHP. I decided to learn a language, and at about the same time a site that we used decided to announce that they would start to charge for access.

      My question is: Why do I have to make this nice and simple and accessible to everyone? I pay for it, I do the work on it and my friends and I use it. It works for us, with few bugs( I will get to them, but as a hobby I don't rush it ).

      Now since you say that you make sure that those who work for you do such a bang up job, give an example I can take a look at(even as a commercial app, I can probably find someone who knows about it). I never pass up an opporitunity to learn something, maybe they could help.

      As for web browser compatability, I don't code the frontend look and feel. One of my friends recently finished a web dev course(I feel the course was a waste, but not my money) and I'm letting him experiment with the layout. We have not set on a look, so have not set on getting it working everywhere. As for the community sites themselves, that is my code( yes, I know I cannot do design ) and I test it in every browser I can get my hands on. It works equally well in Mozilla, Netscape 4.x, IE4/5/5.5/6 and a number of others.

      And the spelling, I type this up and post it. If I want a professional spell check, I'll do that, but the effort is generally not apreciated when done, so I don't bother. This post will have spelling mistakes, deal with it, you will be able to read it.

      Anyway...

      --
      On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
    5. Re:wxWindows by Giggerotta · · Score: 1
      I know that you are refering to my site at cauze.com when you mention a community site.

      Are you sure, there are OTHER comminity building sites out there that suffer from the issues as mentioned in my last post to you... that's a rather large bit of hubris there, to assume that I'm talking about you. And if you don't know what "hubris" is, look it up.

      Now since you say that you make sure that those who work for you do such a bang up job, give an example I can take a look at. I never pass up an opporitunity to learn something, maybe they could help.

      Sorry buddy, but we have agreements with our clients for a lot of the software we develop, and ye, while some of it is under the GPL, not all of it is. So, in that regard, I'd have to hire you to work for me, and that isn't going to happen any time soon.
      Now you may say, as I'm going to guess you're going to, that we don't exsist as a company, that I'm talking through my hat... anyone with any business sense would not be forwarding off code to random people on the internet. When our GPL code is ready to be deployed, perhaps we may put it up on freshmeat... that is for the future though.

      My question is: Why do I have to make this nice and simple and accessible to everyone? I pay for it, I do the work on it and my friends and I use it. It works for us, with few bugs

      Ok, here's a question in return - do you want others to use it? Re-read my last post and you'll see what I'm not going to say again. And if you've EVER worked technical support, you should not have the faith in the average person to "figure something out".

      (even as a commercial app, I can probably find someone who knows about it)

      Doubt it. The people I work with are my friends as well as co-workers, and we don't operate in the same social circles as you. Seriously, you probably wouldn't recognize any of us as programmers if you ever ran into us anyway. Our work stays at work, it doesn't run our lives. (Ok, I can't speak for our accountant in that regard) Sure, we may get a "brilliant" idea at 4am on Saturday morning, and code it then, but we have other interests beyond computers and programming... and some of us have three-dimensional families -- wives, husbands, children, significant others -- that we have to take care of.

      It was nice to see an attempt to goad (look it up if you don't know) a person into coughing up code. Perhaps if you had put as much effort into finding a job as you have into this last post of yours, as well as your site, you would be employed, instead of lamenting on /. that you still can't find a job, but with your attitude, probably not.

      --
      "Hello waste of skin!" -- Giggerota the Wicked
    6. Re:wxWindows by dJCL · · Score: 1

      Well, let me see here, you personally chose to pay attention to me. You have replied on 2 sub threads on this site under this name. This one, and a random stupid comment I made about a game. In that random comment you replied with a link to my photo album, a certain part of it and included a simple comment that let me know that you knew me directly or indirectly in real life. So, based on that and the relativly recent signup of the username: I come to the conclusion that you are very likely not who you imply you are.

      So, unless you have a good reason that convinces me otherwise, I think continuing this sub-thread.

      Anyway...

      --
      On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
    7. Re:wxWindows by Giggerotta · · Score: 1
      I'd like to know who you think I am?

      Sure, I recently signed up here with this username... but I've been reading /. for a while.

      I noticed this post:
      I grew up in the middle of BF nowhere, you learn these things, I have purchased 2 boxes of KD in the last year, one was given to a food drive that stopped by, the other is still on my shelf, I don't eat it, my ex-gf bought it for some reason... I do know how to survive over 2 weeks alone in the woods, even without shelter in the summer... Such is my life.
      and added the link from your site (which itself is NOT too hard to find on the net... I found it during a search for the term djcl while studying for my CCNP) to the game post... so that doesn't mean I know you personally... plus if you've got a woman in her underwear on your site, the pictures date back a while, there's an assumption that two and two equal four, don't they in your world?

      I digress... evidently you think I'm here to stalk you... actually no, I was just having a little fun teasing someone, from his history of posts on this site doesn't have anything else to do.. and would respond to everything said to him...
      So it's been fun, but I see other posts that are calling my attention, and you won't hear from me again.
      Good Luck In Life -- You'll Need it.

      --
      "Hello waste of skin!" -- Giggerota the Wicked
  62. Rik Emmet? by Andrewkov · · Score: 1

    Is that former Triumph guitarist Rik Emmet on the desktop wallpaper?

  63. The key question by David_W · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does it support themes? :)

    1. Re:The key question by justrob · · Score: 1


      Yes, the default theme is based on Thinice 2.0.2.

  64. A real leap forward for folks on 386 Sx25's ... by qoquaq · · Score: 1

    but also brings many real opportunities, such as remote logins where X forwarding is not possible, or remote logins over very slow modem lines.

    --

    "They say travel broadens the mind, so I went over the falls in a barrel." -Thomas Dolby

  65. Re:Why go back to the CLI by mlk · · Score: 1

    I wonder if the orginal poster would swap a XFree install for some beer?

    Mmmmm Beer.

    --
    Wow, I should not post when knackered.
  66. HAHAHAH, you should be a commedian by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hahah, so, Sun + Novell standardizing on gnome/gtk means its dieing? hahaha, riiiiight

  67. wxWindows? by hey · · Score: 1

    I wonder if it works with wxWindows and
    in particular with wxPythonGTK which I'm into
    these days. If so it would be pretty cool to
    have the same application work on MS Windows, regular GTK and TTY GTK.

    1. Re:wxWindows? by justrob · · Score: 1


      I tried it with wxPython. Doesn't work for me. Either does gftp. Actually nothing I've tried works right yet, except the examples it came with.

  68. Bring back the BBS! by Bruha · · Score: 1

    Man I miss the ASCII days :) I used to hack at Maximus, Gecho, and Frontdoor to get my system to look really cool over a modem before the internet came along and changed things. Though it was interesting to see some of my friends try to exist in the same manner through TCPIP instead of a dialup session to someones computer. I rather just moved on to HTML and did cool things there though I never got as serious about it as I was with BBS software when I was a kid.

    1. Re:Bring back the BBS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, bring back DOOR games!

      I missed tradewars 2002, Land of Devastation, the PIT, Solar Realms Elite, and etc.

  69. Gnome Foot by Enucite · · Score: 5, Funny

    _
    OOO( )
    O ---,
    ( /
    \ L/)
    ---

    or maybe something a little simpler, like:

    G

  70. Regarding the file selector by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A lot of people are making jokes and comments about the GTK+ open/save file dialog. However funny, they also bring back a very big question I have had.

    Has there been any efforts of replacing it ? Is there code/patches/whatever I can get ahold of to do just that ?

    Because, seriously, the dialog drives me fucking nuts. Someone mentioned losing the default file name in another post, etc. This isn't whining, or flamebait, it truly gets in the way of me doing work on my machines.

    Any info is appreciated, but if you're gonna reply with praises about it or demands of knowing every little problem people have with it, then try to realize that there is a reason why so many people have issues with it.

    N.

  71. Use alt text by yerricde · · Score: 1

    The obvious way to do a GNOME foot with only text is to try to draw a G with an umlaut sign over it (U+0047 U+0308), but because character-cell terminals generally don't support many composed characters, the GNOME port will probably use alternate text like [GNOME].

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  72. Semi-Off-topic question by Quass · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hey... I've never really heard of this aalib stuff before, and I followed a bunch of links to a site for MPlayer, and it was playing DVD's in ascii...

    Is there any players for win32 that will play using the aalib codec?? I would love to see this in action, but don't have linux installed on my laptop!

    Help??

    1. Re:Semi-Off-topic question by Jonner · · Score: 1

      The native win32 port of MPlayer is getting more stable and capable by the day. However, I don't know whether the aalib driver is working on Windoze yet.

    2. Re:Semi-Off-topic question by penguin7of9 · · Score: 1

      Look on the web for Movix or Knoppix; they allow you to boot Linux from CD without installing it on your hard disk. Both come with Mplayer. Movix is designed to let you remove the boot CD and play a DVD, while Knoppix at least would let you look at MPEG clips that you download. (No, I don't know for certain that Mplayer on either distribution comes with aalib, but there is a good chance.)

  73. Re:GNOME Armageddon by usotsuki · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Don't like the direction? Fork it!

    -uso.
    Or, if you don't want to do anything but gripe, Fork You!

    --
    Dreams, dreams, don't doubt dreams, dreaming children's dreaming dreams. Sailor Moon SS
  74. Does this thing nest? by lplatypus · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Does this thing nest? Can I run a gnome terminal window inside it, and then run gtk+ in that terminal?

    1. Re:Does this thing nest? by BRSloth · · Score: 1

      Yup, as shown on the screenshots.

      But it looks quite weird on rxvt (probably some problem with my Bitstream Vera fonts).

  75. Cut and paste in the command line by The+OPTiCIAN · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I find this exciting for quite a specific reason: cut and paste within the comand line. I like to run framebuffer rather than X because my machine is quite old (k6 with 256MB) and I still don't think X has evolved to be command-key friendly enough yet (although the recent releases of gnome are very close). When I use my computer, it tends to be an exercise in managing multiple command lines rather than running any windowy applications beyond firebird.

    Anyway - the problem I have with the framebuffer is a lack of decent cut and paste support. It's sort of available in screen ... I tried to learn it once but remember it being very awkward. I've also tried to pick up emacs for the shell but fiound that to be klunky and the terminal definitions primitive. Vim has a terminal program for it and suffers the same problems.

    But with GKT+ under framebuffer, I should be able to run gnome-terminal in a vt, and with that have access to a clipboard! I hope it's easy to navigate around for selecting text and the like.

    --


    Believe with me, my saplings.
    1. Re:Cut and paste in the command line by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could always cut and paste w/ gpm

    2. Re:Cut and paste in the command line by vadim_t · · Score: 1

      Install gpm, then you get copy and paste just like in pretty much any terminal emulator.

  76. Boomhauer replies ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Talkin' 'bout dang 'ole why Hank ... why?

  77. Re:Why go back to the CLI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anything is faster then VNC

  78. Re:Why go back to the CLI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I do the same as you, sir. But I must say, you are an absolute MORON for choosing links. It sucks. Use w3m. If you need Japanese support, you are pretty much confined to Lynx, because the fuckwad developers of other text-based browsers are all AmeriKKKan centric and only speak English.

  79. well, by twitter · · Score: 1
    you say:

    Here I was thinking that it was utterly impossible to make the GTK file dialogue worse than it already was.

    I have to ask what you think is wrong with it. It's got a nice little tree, tab completion, multiple M$ style shift key first to last list and CTRL key for individual inclusion, tab completion and three obvious, text labled buttons for rational tasks, rename delete and directory creation. It's fast and does what it should, what more can you ask for? I kicks M$ ass, and works on devices small and large.

    My curse on you is that you be forced to WinCE on a keyboardless device until you beg for a CLI and know the true value of what you now despise. Eat your own dog-food, astroturfer!

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  80. You only think that's a joke. by twitter · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I won't have to bring up X to edit photos in the Gimp! Even better : use a TTS with that and you've got gimp for the blind :

    Considering the fact that the interface is all text, TTS would be nice for blind people. On X start up, depending on what XDM is used, you would get something like, "My box, login, name, password, Using every normal program, email client (Balsa), web browser (Galleon) would all be much easier, especially with tool tips enabled. Compare that to Microsoft's Accesability options! Rock on GNOME!

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  81. Embedded by HermanAB · · Score: 1
    developers will love this!

    Don't dig up that Apple II from the dump though - it is still 32bit Linux...

    --
    Oh well, what the hell...
  82. Remote logins over very slow modem lines: use NX by xint_64 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I agree that text-mode can be very handy in some circumstances, but I think that more research should be devoted to improve X. I was a mlview-dxpc supporter and now I use NX, that has superseded the old project (http://www.nomachine.com). I can run GNOME from home, connected to my computer at office through an old 28.8 pcmcia modem. Here are some statistics:

    1019 B/s average, 1966 B/s 5s, 1050 B/s 30s, 2954 B/s maximum.

    NX Compression Summary

    link: MODEM with protocol compression enabled.

    images: 22097472 bytes (21580 KB) packed to 2431560 (2375 KB).

    Images compression ratio is 9.088:1.

    overall: 25101152 bytes (24513 KB) in, 448863 bytes (438 KB) out.

    Overall NX server compression ratio is 55.922:1.

    NX is a free client+commercial server. Server is very cheap, compared to Citrix and uses X-Window as underlying protocol. Server compresses the X traffic down to the client to an extent that you never thought it was possible. The compression and X stuff are GPL while some parts are closed source. I don't care much, as the alternative would be MS+Citrix. There is a document explaining how compression is working (http://www.nomachine.com/doc_NX-XProtocolCompress ion.php). The client for Windows includes an X server based on the Cygwin port of XFree86. It is slower than many commercial X servers for Win32 I tried in the past, but it's free and quite "standard".

  83. OT: The new GTK file dialog by BRSloth · · Score: 1

    GTK+ 2.4 will have a new file dialog. They didn't show any shots of it, but the new API is already documented. It will be ready for GNOME 2.6 (or they hope, at least).

  84. curious by MegaFur · · Score: 1

    How did you get this through the "lameness filter". Don't get me wrong--I don't think your ASCII Gnome foot is lame, I think it's cool. I'm just curious--most ASCII art things get rejected by the filter.

    --
    Furry cows moo and decompress.
    1. Re:curious by Haeleth · · Score: 1

      Probably by using the "code" mode, which appears to bypass the lameness filter altogether. I think that was the only way they could get it to let people post Visual Basic.

    2. Re:curious by Enucite · · Score: 1

      Yes, I used 'code' mode so the foot would be displayed properly.

  85. Font AA? by Chupa · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, but can I get font antialiasing with that? :)

    1. Re:Font AA? by Jonner · · Score: 1

      Of course you can get antialiased fonts, as long as you use Gnome Terminal ... running on X. On an entirely unrelated note, one should be able to run any GTK+ 2 app inside a Gnome terminal, inside another terminal. It may be nestable as deep as one wants, like with Xnest or VNC.

  86. Perspective and help. by twitter · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I do lots of photo work on my machines and free software kicks ass. The problems you have is the use of the wrong tool for the job. The GTK open file dialog is made for simple file retrieval. What you are doing is batch work. Getting around that problem is easy. You describe your beef this way:

    It has no method to quickly navigate directories. Depending on what I'm editing (print-quality photos, web graphics, the family album, etc) I'd like to quickly switch between directories. Now, what happens: I load Gimp, open the file dialog, navigate to my images directory (slow, even with command-completion), then load the image. After editing, I want to save the resulting image to another folder, so I then go back to the file dialoge, and do the same damn thing again.

    First, use multiple instances of your programs and real file browsers to drag and drop. This is the easiest step of all. Run multiple coppies of GIMP, each from a shell in the directory you want to work. This way, the dialog box will be defaulted to where you want to be. Next, use the drag and drop capabilities of GMC, Nautulis or KDE's file browser. If you try to use bookmarks, you will quickly be overwhelmed by too many of them. Depending on what window manager you are using, one or more of these should work. SSH X11 forwarding currenly works to move clipboard contents accross different computers on a network, I'll bet it can or will soon be able to drag and drop files the same way. How's that for spanning directories fast? Use multiple file viewers, of course, for place keeping as well as multiple versions spawns of GIMP.

    Next, try more appropriate programs for viewing and batch manipulation. Eye of Gnome and Gqview are excellent programs for viewing and moving multiple files. For batch manipulation, use Image Magic's convert utility. It's a front end to lower level utilities that resample, rotate, convert file types and more. "man convert" is informative and contains examples of usefull stuff. Use igal to make quicky web pages. Between that and a simple shell script to feed multiple directories, your days of waiting for dialogs are over. You won't get around the time your computer takes to manipulate the images, but you will save loads of clicky clicky GIMP time.

    Right rotates are a typical example. I use gqview to select and move all picutes that need to be rotated right and left to seperate directories. The CTRL key selections also work in gqview's thumbnail screen. Selecting them is as easy as looking hoding the ctrl key and a mouse button. Moving them is as eay as right clicking the mouse, selecting "move" from the pulldown menu and creating the new directory withing the directory you are in. You did remember to start gqview from a shell in the directory with pictures to manipulate? That way the right directory will always be the default. Next I run the following script to rotate all those pictures:

    count=1
    while [ -n "$*" ]
    do
    convert -rotate 90 $1 $1
    shift
    count=`expr $count + 1`
    done

    I named it "rr" issuing ~/home/me/bin/rr dir_1 dir_2 dir_3 does the directories. Other common convert commands can be substituted for each and every batch job you may have.

    A similar script can be used to call igal for many directories and thus generate thumbnails, an index and an html page for eveery photo in every directory listed.

    Happy editing and don't try the above in windoze!

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

    1. Re:Perspective and help. by 303 · · Score: 1

      hmm, have you tried gthumb? you can do all this without mucking about with scripts. select files you want to rotate (from the nice thumbnail view). click the "rotate" button. click "apply to all" in the rotate dialog that pops up. click ok. not too hard ;).
      gthumb homepage
      i use it all the time, i love it, it is much better than eye of gnome.

    2. Re:Perspective and help. by schon · · Score: 1

      Run multiple coppies of GIMP, each from a shell in the directory you want to work

      YIKES! Try doing that with 100+ photos, all 2048x1548x24. And it doesn't help with saving - I still have to use the file dialog to switch to the save directory. (As I don't want to overwrite my originals.) Currently, my workaround is to copy all of the pictures to a temporary folder, and save there - it saves me some work time, but it's still a poor workaround, when it could be eliminated by a proper file dialog.

      use the drag and drop capabilities of GMC, Nautulis or KDE's file browser.

      Unfortunately, KDE's file browser won't drag-and-drop into Gimp.

      If you try to use bookmarks, you will quickly be overwhelmed by too many of them.

      I disagree, bookmarks work wonderfully. I only have 3 or 4 per app (KDE allows you to define global and app-specific bookmarks, so I have two global, and 1 or 2 app-specific), so there's no chance of being overwhelmed.

      try more appropriate programs for viewing and batch manipulation.

      Viewing isn't a problem. And I use ImageMagick for batch jobs where it's possible (see below.)

      Eye of Gnome and Gqview are excellent programs for viewing and moving multiple files.

      The problem is that I'm not just "viewing and moving" - I'm editing. I have a few hundred photos from a shoot, I need to go through them one by one, adjust the color balance, do minor touch-ups, and crop. About 40% of them are not usable, either because the shot is wrong, or because it's too similar to another (in which case I have to view them side-by-side to select the best one.)

      If the shoot is going to go to the web (which it frequently is) I'll use ImageMagick to scale the phots to a better size and create thumbnails. This is pretty much the only part that's batchable (and I have bash scripts to handle that.)

      Use igal to make quicky web pages

      I use other software, which is better suited to my needs. A custom module (written in 1/2 hour) for the Caudium webserver automatically creates the photo albums, and allows the end user to annotate the pictures, and re-arrange them if they need to change the order.

      Thanks for the advice though. I appreciate the effort, even if it doesn't help me :o)

  87. Re:Mesh Networking by burns210 · · Score: 1

    I thought the tubroPascal (and turboC++, which my school still uses, and i like) had a very good GUI... Since the code was GPLed (turbovision) why hasn't someone made a linux gui that uses it?!

  88. My experience with that... by Ayanami+Rei · · Score: 1

    has been less than stellar. It runs like a dog (CPU-wise) as it lacks acceleration, and it seems slow even over 10/100mbit ethernet.

    It's nice, I guess. But what Exceed and Reflection and Starnet let you do which I can't figure out in cygwin is nice is use Win32 window decorations by running it rootless, which really helps since that's how I tend to run most of my session on unix boxes too (remote X windows, not XDMCP). I don't want it taking over my screen, or relying on any local cygwin binaries to provide the windowing environment (even slower).

    --
    THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
    1. Re:My experience with that... by zakezuke · · Score: 1

      On the other hand, Xfree86 on Cygwin [cygwin.com] is free - as in beer and as in Xfree license.

      I'll have to give Cygwin and Xfree86 a try again. One thing that I enjoy about Starnet is the fact that you can run Gnome and have it totaly incorperated into your windows desktop 100% transparently. And Starnet was lightning fast over my lan.

      I haven't tried the Hummingbird or WRQ solutions to be honest, I was pretty happy with starnet. However, if there was a reasonable TTY solution I probally wouldn't have bothered getting DSL.

      --
      There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
    2. Re:My experience with that... by iserlohn · · Score: 1

      It easy. Just run X in cygwin with the -rootless option. Remember to update your cygwin installation though. You will still need to run a window manager though.

  89. That's just dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As an ordinary user longing for Linux to be a complete alternative--competitor--to Windows, I shake my head at such efforts and wonder why such time and effort could not be better devoted to filling more popular user needs.

    1. Re:That's just dumb by angulion · · Score: 1

      I'd say quite the opposite. As an sysadmin that does much administrative stuff on a server in another city, through ssh, i welcome this addition.

      I see it as quite pointless installing X on a server w/o monitor etc. but this enables configuration tools to be written that looks good in X but works w/o as well.

  90. What people are saying about Cursed Gtk by dgp · · Score: 1

    WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT TEXTMODE QUAKE^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HCURSED GTK

    "people are starving to death in this world... and somebody had time for this....."

    "This is the greatest *sniff* I'm too broken up...I can't believe how wonderful this is. I can't stop the tears streaming down my face. Oh the humanity!!"

    "This is seriously, extremely perverse. I'm impressed."

    "This is quite possibly the most inherently wrong thing in the world today."

    "I can now die. This totally, totally, totally rules."

    "I would need serious tylenol 3's after playing this for more than 2 seconds. My eyes are still hurting from looking at it!"

    "Rarely do I see something on the web that makes me scream OUT LOUD, but I saw this page and yelled, "Oh Jesus God, NO!" like I had just seen Rosemary's Baby. I don't know what the contest was, but YOU WIN!"

  91. run gimp-console! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "gimp-console" is console based app thats not gtk dependent useful for running script-fu and other scripts, this should make "gimp" start faster since it would not be needed to start all the plugins as they would handled by gimp-console. you can a see a mention about it here also see ftcameron's flamingtext and cooltext have been using "gimp --console" from a very long time.

  92. I have a patch by JohnwheeleR · · Score: 1

    I got a patch. here it is:

    rm -rf gtk-curses

  93. Re:Remote logins over very slow modem lines: use N by divec · · Score: 2, Informative
    NX is a free client+commercial server. [...] The compression and X stuff are GPL while some parts are closed source. I don't care much, as the alternative would be MS+Citrix.

    Just to clarify, do everything on the command line using the GPLed stuff, running a remote GUI session over a modem. It's only the GUI interface to this functionality which is non-free.
    --

    perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'

  94. Re:Why go back to the CLI by fishbowl · · Score: 1

    >Why not just use X with a minimalistic wm and
    >maximized xterms?

    There are qualities to the native console that I prefer. The keyboard map is the same but the behavior is slightly different.

    Actually the FrameBuffer is a compromise. On systems that svgatextmode support, I prefer that.

    What's really annoying is that I can't get the equivalent console under Windows2000. And I really want it.

    --
    -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
  95. wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it has antialiased fonts!

  96. Dog by JimPooley · · Score: 1

    This is like the dog walking on its hind legs.

    It's not that it's done well,
    It's that it's done at all.

    Except far less entertaining...

    --

    "Information wants to be paid"
  97. Deadmeat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Shouldn't this be on dead^H^H^H^Hfreshmeat?

    This has very little importance to be on /. it should be where it belongs.

  98. Re:Why go back to the CLI by slim · · Score: 1

    Why, except for a pathetic fetish for obsolete technology, would you want to use a text-based interface to your X-Server?

    Perhaps for bandwidth preservation? Of course, then why use text-GUI if you've got CLI?

    Here's a scenario: you've been asked to develop a new stock management system for a retail chain. They have TTYs in their warehouses left over from previous systems, they have Windows boxes on their execs desks and in stores, and they're interested in saving money by deploying Linux boxes in the stores instead.

    Now you can develop *one* GTK app, and deploy it everywhere, cheap. I think that's pretty neat.

  99. Re:Remote logins over very slow modem lines: use N by Jonner · · Score: 1

    How much better is it than LBX?

  100. Re:Because non CLI text interfaces are useful. by SammyTheSnake · · Score: 1
    Don't know if this GTK supports mouse inputs. From the screenshots I'd guess not which somewhat limits its utility.

    the webshite says:

    Requirements/dependencies:
    To install RPM/DEB packages: ncurses + gpm

    I'd imagine that's because it uses gpm for mouse input

    Cheers & God bless
    Sam "SammyTheSnake" Penny

  101. Re:Why go back to the CLI by Jonner · · Score: 1

    Cursed GTK+ is not "a text-based interface to your X-Server." It cuts X out of the picture completely. This is "a text-based interface to your X-Server." Are you disgusted now?

  102. Remote login by ajs · · Score: 1

    The comment about this enabling remote login is incorrect. What this enables is executing GTK-based apps over a remote login that has already been established (e.g. via ssh, rlogin or telnet). Of course, ssh already allows X-protocol forwarding, but that might be too heavyweight for your remote connection, depending on what kind of bandwidth you have available...

  103. Another example by TuringTest · · Score: 1

    Think of the infamous Vigor. It was not an April Fool's joke thought but a cartoon from Userfriendly.org

    --
    Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
  104. Damm now I carn't use Gnome by Grizzlysmit · · Score: 1

    some one put a curse on GTK :-)

    --
    in my life God comes first.... but Linux is pretty high after that :-D
    Francis Smit
  105. Re:Remote logins over very slow modem lines: use N by xint_64 · · Score: 1

    I can easily say that there is not comparison between the two. I know it's difficult to believe. A lot of people to whom I spoke about the project were hesitant, especially because of the commercial stuff. That happened until they tried themselves. At least for myself, NX did put a different light on what X can do.

  106. Another use: OS Installers by ar · · Score: 1

    Didn't see this one mentioned.

    Assuming that the runtime requirements can be made small enough, this would be an ideal way to rewrite the long-suffering FreeBSD systinsall! (and others)

  107. Re:Why go back to the CLI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I use daily at work an Xserver on WinNT to connect to my linux box (also at work) and the whole cost my nothing.

    Search a bit for "cygwin" and "Xserver with Cygwin". There was documenation around with very detailed step-by-step instructions. I know I had no pb whatsoever to make it work. On my Linux box, I started xdm and the WinNT/Cywin Xserver knows who to ask for a XDM login.

    Works like a charm and zero cost.
    Artaxerxes

  108. Re:Remote logins over very slow modem lines: use N by Jonner · · Score: 1

    Good. I'll have to give it a try some time. I've never tried LBX either, usually opting for remote text logins.

  109. bugs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Patches for bugs are welcomed by the authors

    yeah? sure i'm great at making buggy software, i'm sure i could come up with something...

  110. Re:Why go back to the CLI by nil_null · · Score: 1

    Now you can develop *one* GTK app, and deploy it everywhere, cheap. I think that's pretty neat.

    I think it is very cool. I've actually thought about creating something like this myself (though never gave it any serious thought). I'm one of those guys who misses the days when everything was text mode and user interfaces were lightning quick.

    This gives more value to the GTK+ toolkit and gives people more incentive to use it. I hope we start seeing a lot of TTY ports. Personally, I'd like to see a TTY version of Evolution.

  111. nope, I had not tried that. by twitter · · Score: 1
    hmm, have you tried gthumb? you can do all this without mucking about with scripts. select files you want to rotate (from the nice thumbnail view). click the "rotate" button. click "apply to all" in the rotate dialog that pops up. click ok. not too hard ;). gthumb homepage

    Nope I had not, so I just did. I tried the version in Debian stable but did not see the rotate button, nor did I see it in any dialog or the homepage. You would think it would be a trivial call, but it's just not there. It could be that the designers don't want to make the thing too big or too dependent on other libraries. I prefer gqview because you can drop the thumbnail views if you want. This makes it very fast.

    Rotation, of course, was just one example of batch work. I expect most of the useful and common manipulations will make it to a right click menu in gqview and other viewer programs.

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

    1. Re:nope, I had not tried that. by 303 · · Score: 1

      stable!?! has gnome2 even made it in there yet ;)? the version i have (2.1.5) is in unstable. maybe you are using the gnome1.4 version? anyway here is a screenshot of what i am talking about. i believe there are several other operations you can perform in batch mode as well.

  112. Re:Yes I agree this project is very impotant [OT] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What the crafriggiap are you talking about? You just spouted a bunch of nonsense!

    Sounds like nonsense to me too, but you know there's going to be someone who reads it and swears by it.

  113. CLI != text mode by penguin7of9 · · Score: 1

    CLI and text-mode interfaces are independent concepts.

    There have been a number of graphical CLI interfaces in the past. That is, you type commands, get results back, and occasionally use the mouse to select something. It's a graphical user interface, it's just completely different from the "menus and mouse" stuff you are thinking off. People use CLIs, either of the text mode or of the graphical variety, because they are by far the most effective way of interacting with computers for anything complex: database searches, distributed systems administration, symbolic math, numerical math, software testing, simulations, etc.

    People use ASCII or text-mode interfaces for bandwidth reasons or because they have lots of text-only hardware installed. Text terminals may be "obsolete", but they are cheap, very reliable, and very widely deployed. Many text mode interfaces are mouse based and, except for the somewhat clunky looking appearance, work just like interfaces on bitmapped displays.

  114. Re:Remote logins over very slow modem lines: use N by penguin7of9 · · Score: 1

    I was a mlview-dxpc supporter and now I use NX, that has superseded the old project (http://www.nomachine.com).

    DXPC is a simple, open source proxy that works just about everywhere, and works pretty well. NX may be a pretty nice commercial product, but in what way does it "supersede" NX?