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Enlightenment and The Rasterman

Roxus wrote in to send us a nifty article about Raster and Enlightenment. It's a cool little piece, although I suspect he was fibbing about his fashion sense. Anyway check it out, and drool with the rest of us waiting for DR15 (/me wipes spittle off chin)

67 comments

  1. Themes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've only ever got the default and Mac3D themes to work. Not much of a problem as I imagine things are changing a bit.

  2. re-write-itis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rasterman seems to have NIH (Not Invented Here) Syndrome pretty bad. He even throws out his own work every 6 months or so.

    When are we going to see a version of Englightenment that:

    1) Works
    2) Puts ease of use above "prettiness"
    3) Is not a complete re-write of the previous version

  3. E by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    E is good for impressing your buddies whom use Windows, but pretty poor for doing anything reasonably productive. Sure, it looks nice, but it's simply not as useful as WindowManager.

    And ESD is just plain WRONG!

  4. re-write-itis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hmm.... i tried it twice, and both times it had problems with sound and crashed when I clicked one of the buttons...

    and how long does it take to write 65K lines of code?

  5. E by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not certain but aren't E and WindowMaker's feature sets about the same now.. they both have root menus, they both have shading, and docking.
    What more do you need?

  6. No offense... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...but done and done.

    I HAVE checked it out. Everything installed just fine. But I've never ever ever gotten any theme on any version (13, 14 and 15) to work at all. Furthermore, there is absolutely zero feedback for anything. Here's a typical user (me) attempting to use E:

    Me: "Hmm..wonder what this button does" *press*
    E: *nothing happens*
    Me: "Was that an error? An unimplemented feature? Maybe it wasn't a button but just some decorative feature?"

    I realize you that this is an early early version...but user feedback has to be built in before themes.

    It would also be very helpful (and you can pass this on to your GNOME friend) to have some D-O-C-U-M-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-N.

  7. Question for other CVS E .15 users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CVS E .15 segfaults about 4/5 of the time I try to run it, does this happen with anyone else? Albeit I took a shortcut and used the rpm's from the Gnome 0.99.x releases. Just curious if it was just me or other people have this problem.

  8. 1998 Startup??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow! I've been using RedHat since before the company was formed?

  9. I do wear that stuff! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He really does wear what he says. Hell, he even wears that big hat of his when doing work in his apartment! And I know of at least one other developer there who shuns all but black clothing. Kind of cool..reminds me of how the programmers for "Archon" used to dress for the ads for that game in the magazines. =)

  10. a valid part of the Eric Raymond (TM) Movement? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i don't see anything about eric raymond (TM) in this article.

    please don't waste our time with articles that aren't about eric raymond (TM). after all, it's his movement, and he should get the credit when he does something like enlightenment. i don't know who this "rasterman" person is. does he have a trademark? i don't see (TM) after his name. if he's not serious about eric raymond (TM) i don't see how he can expect us to take him seriously.

  11. No Subject Given by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have to say that I don't like the current direction of enlightenment and gnome is going. It really seems that they are getting worse and worse after every new release. (I am currently using e-13 and refuse to use gnome at all).

    All these things are becoming big, slow, unstable and complex (imlib now depends on glib, gtk+, ..., and refuse to compile if library versions don't match).

    esd is an evil. It blocks other program from using the sound in E-14 and now it takes up 25% of CPU on my Linux box.

    I was really impressed by enlightenment when I first saw it and use it. I removed KDE from my computer and expect gnome can bring me something good. However, after disappointed again and again, I begin to realize that not every newer version is better than the old ones (the main panel push button of gnome in 0.28 is better looking than the one in 0.30 for example).

    I now begin to believe that the whole KDE and gnome thing is really a mistake. Who need them anyway?

    Another bad thing is now since gtk, imlib, gnome and enlightenment is all under the big gnome project, there is no stable library anymore. For example, which imlib and which gtk I should get to compile enlightenment?

    I spent the whole holiday to dig out E-13 stuff (no archive on ftp.enlightenment.org!!!) and get it work. It is great. Could anyone point me a good resource (utils, themes, etc.) for E-13? I can only find some on e.hole.org. Thank you very much.

    Not really meant to discredit lots of developer's work, but to express my worry as a Linux user.

    Wakeup, guys!

  12. E by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >so you expetc everyone to code apps using svgalib instead of X?

    Of course not, I don't know where you got that from.

    >esd is the equivalent of X for audio. to date everyone has used "svgalib" esd does a better job than that.

    I disagree. esd seems to be a bit more e-centred than anything else. perhaps `xsd' would be a better name than if what you say is true..

    Raster, I apologise if what I said was misinterpreted. I think you're an excellent coder, and E is doing really great things for Linux. And, yes, I've used CVS E, and I completely realise that esd is only an option.

    Kudos for your work to the community.

  13. Hey Rasterman, How About A Short Bio? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I heard that you actually started coding in the linux environment with the fvwm-xpm project, which i actually did run at one time. How about a short doodad about how you started programming under the j00nix environment in the crufty bits? Some of us would be interested in knowing. I for one, think that E15 is amazing, keep up the good work (this goes to the ever-slaving Mandrake as well)

  14. No Subject Given by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >All these things are becoming big, slow, unstable and complex (imlib now depends on glib, gtk+, ...

    No, this is wrong. Imlib does NOT depend on glib, or gtk+. gdk_imlib does, and that's only used in gtk+ based programs...

    >esd is an evil. It blocks other program from using the sound in E-14 and now it takes up 25% of >CPU on my Linux box.

    Right, this evil app lets any number of apps play sounds at the same time, when without it, you can play one single sound. Pretty damn sucky. Just about everything can be made esd-aware with about 5 minutes of effort.

  15. I do wear that stuff! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Paul McGann is the 8th doctor. He's the Nineth.

  16. ESD does blow goats by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But E is actually to the point of being useful now. I just CTRL-ALT-B all the buttons off and run gnome and it's just as nice as WindowMaker and very configurable to boot (Assuming I can bend themes to my will.)

  17. No Subject Given by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't know what you mean by big slow and unstable. Enlightenment is much faster than fvwm with the settings I have (default from gnome 0.15-2 rpm (cvs snap) release of E).
    E uses 1.7M of memory, of which 1M is shared libraries. Compare with netscape, which is an example of REAL bloat. 22M, 6M libraries.
    E is **not** bloated. You don't appear to have met something that is **really** bloated...
    Oh, and I've never crashed E, and I've been running it for about a year.

  18. E, How to ESD-enhance apps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It has been mentioned a few times that modifying apps to use ESD should be easy enough to do. Being only a mildly capable programmer, I think that given a bit of guidance I could do this, and I think it might be a fun project to try and get as many X-apps converted and made available...


    Anyone?


    Kennric

    kennric@azstarnet.com

  19. enLITEment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dear Raster Oh Mighty Raster......

    Could you please create a LITE (stress on lite) version of Enlightenment called enLITEment
    which based on the source of Enlightenment but...

    1.do not use any graphics at all like blackbox
    2.gnome compliant
    3.fast, very very fast, the fastest in X world
    4.use less memory, the least at possible
    5.stable, speed and secure...(SSS)

    Why ???

    'cause i'm using a pentium 100 128 RAM 4MB video
    enlightenment is already TORTURE my machine
    and if gnome is added, its goind to kill my machine.....

    Hopefully there will be two default window manager..when RedHat 6.0 is out
    1. the heavy one...enlightenment + gnome
    2. the middle one...windowmaker, etc + gnome
    3. the light one... enLITEment + gnome

    I know icewm exits and it is fast(slow compare to blackbox), the problems now blackbox is not gnome compliant and i don't think it will be in the future...since is in the hand of KDE...and its crew..

    1. RE: enLITEment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >EDR15 with the default theme is very fast on my >Pentium 200 system with 80 megs of ram

      What graphics cards you use ????
      I use s3 virge, S3 VIRGE....the cheapest....
      Try use it on a pentium 100 first with default themes and gnome too !....
      then you tell me is fast or not....
      :-)

  20. enLITEment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks man for letting me know ....

    Maybe Technoir can write some documentations....
    on running E on slow computer with lousy graphics cards.

    My suggestion, raster
    Maybe you can try running E on a
    pentium 100 or below
    use S3 virge or something like that
    32 RAM

    to get the feeling....

    'cause i know you are running at
    1680 1240..
    Xi server...(i think is mandrake)

    maybe you can get the feeling and enchance it more
    ...

    Keep up the good work.....same goes to mandrake which i thikn on vacation now...

    My first interest in Linux is by the E12 screenshot in you and mandrake create..... Still the best themes in my mind now....

    regards
    enLITEment

  21. Re: Docs on running on slower machines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The docs are pretty much there. Get the latest E you can (either CVS or the RPMs posted with gnome or at e.themes.org) and read the dox (click on the question mark).

    Next, turn everything off. This means opaque moving, opaque resizing, animated desktop slides, animated windows etc.

    The default theme is pretty fast, and with that setup it's going to fly.

    The biggest problem with Enlightenment, as I see it, is that it's really hard not to turn those features on :-).

    Cheers,
    Travis

  22. very appropriate article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...i hope all the core developers (as well as the unknowns, and just plain ol believers) can take something nice from this great article.

    i wish it was a little longer, with more background and anecdotal stories (i'm sure raster has a few!)

    congrats to raster, all the developers, redhat, and everyone in the phenomenon! great job!

  23. re-write-itis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So ..Why don't you write one monkey boy? It sure is easy to criticize. You go raster dude.

  24. No Subject Given by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Again I am stunned by the negative attitude of some of the (mostly AC) posters (M$ Trolls?).

    Anyway E is one of the most creative things I have ever seen.

    When it gets done I think it will be one of the most important things to bring Linux to the desktop.

  25. I do wear that stuff! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    he does. saw him last year at linuxexpo :)

  26. Benchmarks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hmm, if you are looking for something small/fast - i recommend blackbox. (blackbox.wiw.org). i've been running it for quite awhile and i fully enjoy it.

    ananke.

  27. E-xperience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've been using E and the KDE window manager regularly for some time now. What I noticed is that kwm is ugly as the night, but stable, whereas E looks great (and I care about the appearance, after all, I have to look at the thing the whole day), but rather unstable. The same goes for Eterm, which reliably crashes my whole X session. But I'm not gonna whine about the stability of a version 0.15. If E hits 1.0, and still crashes, then I'm gonna complain.

  28. ok article, but enlightenment "replaces" X? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I agree...I don't think this is what the author meant though. Most people's exposure to X has included WMs of the MWM/FVWM and the FVWM95/QVWM variety (although Window Maker has become quite popular.) Most people not tainted by the X way of thinking think of window management functions as being part of the user interface.

  29. KWM, KDE and Window Managers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some information for those who don't know yet.

    KDE is not a window manager. KDE is a Desktop Environment. KWM is a window manager. KWM is part
    of KDE.

    In order to run KDE-applications, you need to install KDE.

    KDE is not that different from other products:
    To run Linux-applications you need to have Linux installed. To run GNOME-applications you need to
    have GNOME installed.

    Also note that although KWM is part of KDE it is
    not a required part. You can use any other WM as
    well although some things will work better if the
    WM understands the WM-hints used by KDE.

    Thank you for your attention.

    Waldo Bastian
    bastian@kde.org

  30. Listen Pal... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You must be new here. We don't have time to worry about what the facts are. If you're not going to flame, then quit wasting bandwidth and get lost.

  31. Erm, that's cos it's CVS by TechNoir · · Score: 1

    Unless you didn't notice, DR0.15 is in cvs cos it's not really for the 'normal user' to use. I'm not saying that it's going to die and crash X or something, but if it dies, forgive it. Don't expect perfection, especially from something where even the people who wrote it say it's imperfect.

    Anyway, those RPMs from GNOME are pretty out fo date now. Get some new ones from e.themes.org, then see if it seg-faults.

    --
    David Coulson (TechNoir)
    technoir@themes.org

  32. Erm, that's cos it's CVS by TechNoir · · Score: 1

    I never said don't use it. I said don't bitch when it doesn't work. It works every day for me too, but if you can't get it to work, you could always wait for the official release.
    --
    David Coulson (TechNoir)
    technoir@themes.org

  33. So I'm not original? by TechNoir · · Score: 1

    I've you've been to e.themes.org recently you'll notice that there is quite alot of original stuff from me, including the new theme and screenshot gallery.

    To be perfectly honest, the docs on www.e.org suck, so go to http://cfg.will.enlighte.nu, which tells you pretty much everything about E's config.
    --
    David Coulson (TechNoir)
    technoir@themes.org

  34. E by bob · · Score: 1
    The main troubles I have had with E are:
    • Learning curve. There's nothing like getting a desktop that does approximately nothing to lure you into any sense of comfort. I'm sure that it is straightforward to add menus, but I had trouble figuring out how get myself functional enough to read what documentation there was. Even twm in X classic gives you more help here. The documentation that RedHat is writing should help. Also, starting up the Gnome panel by default will help as well, since that comes with a bunch of pre-done menus. However, when I started up the 0.99 build, clicking on the start menu scattered stacked menu trees all over the place.
    • Icon management. This could well be a learning curve thing, but I found I had to place icons manually, which is a real drag. I still pine for twm's icon managers, which give nice, compact and unobtrusive button arrays organized by application.
    • Intrusiveness. I did a fresh build of Red Hat 5.2, including most stuff except for the IPX stuff and any form of emacs (ugh!). I then grabbed the 0.99 Gnome release. In order to install gnome, I had to back out:

      • AfterStep-APPS-1.5-0.3
      • control-panel-3.7-7
      • gecko-1.6-0
      • gimp-1.0.1-2
      • gnome-linuxconf-0.14-4rh
      • usermode-1.4.3-1
      • usernet-1.0.8-1
      • wmakerconf-1.1.1-3
      • AfterStep-1.5-0.7
      • printtool-3.29-3
      • timetool-2.3-7
      (I saved the list so I could un-do everything). This seems a bit much, especially since there isn't any obvious way to restore the functionality.
    The one other comment I'd like to make about E, and I could certainly RTFM (it could be there and I just don't know it) but it is a point that anyone considering developing a window manager might take into account so I'll say it here: Please give a good amount of macro processing on the window manager's configuration file. At my office, we support about 350 users in a production X environment. We need to be able to deliver .*wmrc configuration files that (a) make sure that everyone has menus that deliver all the basic software, (b) allow for extensive per-user and per-workgroups customization and (c) are rdistable. This is extraordinarilly difficult to provide simply by giving include-file hooks. We still make extensive use, for example, of tvtwm and ctwm, precisely because of the extensive support for m4 preprocessing of the configuration files.

    But this is intended only as constructive criticism. E is an amazing piece of work, and the separation from the Gnome panel so that other, simpler wms can be used is a huge advantage of Gnome over other systems. No one should be flamed for developing a functional piece of free software. RedHat cannot shove anything down anyone's throat. Even when RH 6.0 comes out, assuming that it has a full-blown Gnome/E environment by default, users will still have a choice in desktop software, which those of us with memories going back to the '70s and '80s can only see as a wonderful, novel development.

  35. .15 stability? by Clifton+Wood · · Score: 1
    Stefan Baums said something similar to:
    "It's the only window manager I use at the moment, and it has never crashed on me. You should be careful about iconization, though: I had icons disappearing from my desktop _and_ pager, so I couldn't access the associated program, even though it was still running."
    What pager are you able to run with E 0.15? I thought they hadn't even started on that module yet!
  36. Why drool, rob? by balmeida · · Score: 1

    You know I'm making .deb's out of E15 CVS up at http://www.debian.org/~bma/e-cvs/debs
    If you find problems with them, just email me :)
    --
    Debian GNU/Linux - http://www.debian.org/

  37. 0.15 the RPM by Thomas+Charron · · Score: 1

    'Tis not a final release.. Merely a fairly stable development version..

    --
    -- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
  38. I Agree by Foxpaw · · Score: 1
    I suspect WindowMaker will gain gnome compliance before E hits 1.0 (or becomes as usable as WindowMaker is at 0.20.x)...

    FYI, Alfredo just posted on the Window Maker devel list that the next version of Window Maker will have full KDE and GNOME compliance.

  39. Benchmarks? by jd · · Score: 1
    How does E compare, performance and memory-wise, wih other window managers? I like the look of the screenshots, but I'm on a limited-memory machine (16 megs) and need to pick-and-choose what's running.

    (Once upon a time, 16 megs was a lot, for Linux. 20 netrek clients and a netrek server on a 5 megabyte box, and 7 heavily-used MUDs on an 16 meg machine. Hardly any performance-loss, either.)

    Also, has anyone tried running E through either GGI's X server, or X11R6.4?

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  40. No Subject Given by jd · · Score: 1
    If you don't like where they're taking the code, d/l the versions you -did- like and take them in the direction you'd prefer. After all, that's the whole point of GPL. Alternatively, write a totally new system, using the ideas you liked.

    If you do either, at the very least you'll end up with the system YOU prefer, and that IS the ideal, in an open-source environment.

    There again, you might have stumbled on some key points that the current developers haven't seen. Easy way to find out - write, release and see what other people think.

    I'm not joking and I'm not trying to be patronising. To me, the essence of the GPL and of "free" or "open" software is the freedom to experiment and try new ideas out. One size does not necessarily fit all.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  41. Right! A lot longer than 100,000 by monk · · Score: 1

    I don't know what planet these guys are from, but Rasterman's doing this OpenSource for a reason. If they have a problem with performance or documentation. Get writing!

    This is a Development release!

    ***mutters about flameing posers with no names***

    --
    [-- Trust the Monkey --]
  42. It sounds like by monk · · Score: 1

    The trolls just don't realize there asking for the a 1.0 release with a low-end machine config example. :) It always amazes me that when you give people a light switch they will complain that it is in the wrong position.

    Excellent work! I can't wait to see what you come up with next.

    --
    [-- Trust the Monkey --]
  43. enLITEment by GrenDel+Fuego · · Score: 1

    interesting machine...
    a slow processor with a hell of a lot of ram. (Well.. not exactly a hell of a lot these days.. but it is for that speed)

  44. I Agree by maynard · · Score: 1

    AC Writes:
    E is good for impressing your buddies whom use Windows, but pretty poor for doing anything reasonably productive. Sure, it looks nice, but it's simply not as useful as WindowManager.


    I recently installed the new DR15 available with gnome-0.99.0 and I have to agree with this sentiment. It *looks* nice, but it's unstable and tended to crash regularly. But I'm NOT complaining! This a a DR snapshot and as such we should expect that it's basically unusable for production work. Hell, gnome is basically still unusable in production - but it sure does look nice too!

    I suspect WindowMaker will gain gnome compliance before E hits 1.0 (or becomes as usable as WindowMaker is at 0.20.x)... In that case I'd say to Rasterman 'don't push yourself to release something broken just so RedHat uses E instead of WindowMaker when they release RH-6.0... spend time and make it right.' Of course I don't say this to disparage either Rasterman or E, just to point out that meeting this deadline is probably less important than finishing up E's featureset and ironing out the bugs before going 1.0.

    RH-6.0 is going to be an important release for the US Linux community because it will probably be tested out in the major corporations for ease of use and ease of administration issues. While RH5.2 is at the cutting edge as far as library support goes, its current AnotherLevel window manager configuration is badly broken, and FVWM95 is getting old.

    I'm pleased to see them incorporating KDE in the next RH developer release. This way RedHat is covering their butts in case gnome isn't ready for RH-6.0. KDE is something just about every PHB can understand... this is *important* for Linux to become accepted as a small departmental server like NT. Given Caldera's target market they were right to include KDE with COL 1.3, QT issues aside.

    Next thing: Linuxconf samba configuration module.... along with including (hopefully) samba-2.0...

    rantrantrantrant

    Thanks for all your hard work, Raster!

  45. Correction Correction by Trick · · Score: 1

    Actually, the article calls E a "graphical user
    interface replacement for Linux's X-windows." I read that as meaning it's a replacement for X's interface, not X itself. O.K., so it's still not technically accurate (X itself not having it's own GUI), and it's of questionable grammatical merit, but it's not THAT bad a mistake.

  46. re-write-itis by Ponder · · Score: 1

    rule of thumb used in some large companies
    is that 10-20 lines of bug free code per
    working day is a typical output for an average
    programmer.

    --
    -- Back to the shadows again...
  47. re-write-itis by ink · · Score: 1
    $ uptime
    2:56pm up 56 days, 1:12, 1 user, load average: 1.31, 1.22, 1.13

    Hmmm, E seems to work for me (I'm running 14).

    I could use iconization and LESS desktop buttons, though. :)

    The wheel is turning but the hamster is dead.

    --
    The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
  48. Raster, you can be neat at times, but DAMN your typing sucks. :)
    ---

    --
    "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
    Quine "quine?
  49. ok article, but enlightenment "replaces" X? by mazeone · · Score: 1

    hmm, the facts in the article are a little screwy...enlightenment doesn't replace X, it
    runs under (over?) X...but anyway, enlightenment 0.15 (available via anonymous cvs) rules!

    --
    When in danger or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout.
  50. 0.15 by LinuxGeek · · Score: 1

    It is available but it isn't the release.. I've had it blow up a time or two. Can't hardly wait for the release.

    --

    Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
  51. NIH?? by LinuxGeek · · Score: 1

    Anonymous Cowards seem to have a very bad case of NIA-itis (Not Invented Anything-itis) and since their development time is completely unused, they have mucho time to complain about what others have implemented.

    I like the approach that Raster & Mandrake have taken in developing Enlightenment. They haven't built on a flawed foundation. They have scraped the existing work when their knowledge has outgrown the limits of previous implementation. If MS had taken this approach, we might have a stable windows platform and no huge Linux growth.

    Of course, this is only my opinion...

    --

    Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
  52. E Stability! by bse · · Score: 1

    Just to chuck in my 2p...

    Since I installed E CVS .15, and kept up with the CVS updates, i havent had any errors, except for the odd bad code, or memory problem which makes it segfault.. but this is _development_ software, you cannot expect it to be stable all day, everyday... And back to the bad code, if you wait around for a while, a fix is always up..
    ANd for me, E is pretty small, especially if you run Strip on the binary.. and (gee.. i love that word ;) speed is pretty good... only if i have netscrape running do i see any kind of slow down, speed in E has increased a lot in the past few weeks...

    Thanks a lot guys, E is just kickass!

    --
    bse - the cow that goes.. boo? ->
  53. The Enlightenment Approach: by Cassius · · Score: 1

    Put more crap on the screen until all the real estate has been consumed with non-functional garbage.

    People who value their productivity know that minimalism is a science.

  54. Turn the "crap" off, then. You CAN do that... by makohund · · Score: 1

    Hmmm. That's funny. I run it specifically for "lack of crap". Don't like tons of graphics? Pick a small theme with minimal graphics. Don't like all the buttons on the screen? Take them off and use the keybindings to launch your programs or do whatever. Change them to do whatever you want. Or just hide the buttons temporarily. (CTRL+ALT+B). You can hide every little thing on the screen, and just have a root window, with a root menu. That's about as clean a desktop as I can imagine.

    Yes, I'm actually using it, and doing precisely that. With gnome minimized to a little tab on the side. Real estate usage is practically ZERO. Minimalism is achieved, and quite nicely. The floating desktops add up to more real estate than I can imagine anyone needing on top of that. Use keybindings to switch between them. Turn off all of the animations, transparencies, opaque moves and whatever, and it flies. On a crappy Cyrix 6x86 200 that needs replacing, at that.

    If you still don't like it, don't use it. If you're not using it, complaining is silly. Unless it's to make a point that parts of it don't suit your needs, and you would like it to. And from what you've written, I'd say that it already does.

    And it's not even done yet. Yeah, there's still things to add, clean up, improve, and probably bugs to kill. It's looking good to me so far, at least.

    Keep coding, Raster. Your work is much appreciated, at least in my book...

  55. Documentation & a quick E question by daviddennis · · Score: 1

    I think that in order to write documentation, you have to understand how to use the program.

    At least in .14, though, the online help (just click the "?" icon) does a pretty good job in explaining what the buttons are supposed to do - but I do sympathise with the lack of feedback, I'd consider that a legitimate gripe.

    That being said, I've used both KDE and Enlightenment. I'm presently using Enlightenment because I've been seduced by (i) the sheer beauty of it all, and (ii) the fact that it was not, repeat, not, designed to look anything like Windows(tm). Too much Linux software (I'm talking specifically about KDE and StarOffice) is designed to fake Windows(tm) rather than doing something ground-breaking and original.

    I do have a question for E fans, though - what do the buttons on the upper left corner of windows do? I've tried pressing them and they don't seem to do anything, but I'm sure there's some magical function or other that I should know about :-(.

    D

  56. .15 stability? by daviddennis · · Score: 1

    Ah, okay - many thanks.

    Is .15 stable enough to use (I'd define that roughly as "crashes once a day in heavy use)?

    D

  57. enLITEment by daviddennis · · Score: 1

    I have to defend Raster Man here. If you want to run a high-performance oriented product, you should own a high-performance computer. I put together a system that runs Enlightenment just great from a $ 1,000 consumer PC.

    But, curiously enough, Enlightenment is also running great on my home machine, an IBM ThinkPad 365XD which runs a Pentium/120 with 48MB RAM.

    It's one slick product. My only regret is that I can't figure out how to get 24-bit colour to work on my video card in X, but that's surely not his fault.

    D

  58. D-O-C-U-M-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-N. by HappyHead · · Score: 1

    Well, there's a fair chunk of Doc's on e.themes.org, as well as a message board there (looks full of questions and answers to me) Plus, there's Hilarion's (slightly outdated, but still valid) doc's over on enlightenment.org that might even get updated now that exams are over (hint hint!), and of course, if you've installed correctly (ie: installed imlib, gtk+, glib, and all that, in the correct order) then clicking on the little '?' button at the bottom right of the screen (between the dustpan and the swirly arrows) will pop up 'dox', the Enlightenment help program. If the buttons in the upper right area aren't doing anything, it's because you don't have the associated programs installed. The best one to start with is the 'web' button - the left mouse button starts Netscape. If you don't have Eterm installed, don't use the left button on the little computer, use the right button instead, since it gives you an Xterm. Plus, if you're using a current CVS, there's bubble help (ok, cloud help) that pops up when you leave your mouse over a button for a few seconds. Personally, I'm not sure what other Documentation you could want, execpt maybe an O'Reily 'in a Nutshell' book, which will have to wait for version 1.0. :)

  59. Ok enlightnment cool except for one thing by Lumpy · · Score: 1

    I've used afterstep forever, and was saddened to see it's demise.. when it was toe to toe with fvwm2 it was faster than it, and had the same capabilities, Now we have E, KDE, etc... I despise KDE completely.. what a way to destroy linux... make a system that has apps written for it that will not work without it. KDE = Microsoft as far as that goes... Now If E starts a group of E only apps then I'll condemn that too.. a window manager is a window manager, it's not a platform, it's not a programming environment.. It's something that looks pretty and has buttons for us to click and make X easier to use.. Remember that E team.. noone wants a replacement for motif, we despise motif and it's new clones. (Gnome is getting way to close to being a motif clone! and if it requires that you run E then it's worse!)

    E is too slow, in fact it's getting to the point where I cant brag anymore to my friends that my linux windows manager is faster than the Win95/98. If there is another re-write of E I would love to see lean and mean, kill the fluff make it look cool and make your target model a 486 class computer, that way it will SCREAM on everything out there.

    If it Screams, works, and looks cool.... then people will use it.. If it's slow it's called microsoft. (New Windows 2001 written in JAVA!)

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  60. re-write-itis by MattCorby · · Score: 1

    I guess it all depends on your system and how you use it. When i was using .14 (note this is not the same with .15) it used to crash at least once every few days, and there was a bug that kept getting worse and worse until i eventually had to stop using it where closing a window made me need to reboot my machine. Note: .15 is a lot more stabler and and a lot more usable (iconization, finally!).

  61. Ok enlightnment cool except for one thing by warmi · · Score: 1

    Obviously you don't know much about KDE. I use IceWM + KDE apps all the time - check your facts before posting crap.

  62. I do wear that stuff! by raster · · Score: 1

    Hey. I DO wear that stuff! :)

    If anyone has seen me of late I actually tend to wear lots of black and long tailed jackets. :)

    Now back to code... :)

    --
    --------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" --------------------
  63. enLITEment by raster · · Score: 1

    It already is all of the above. The solution isnt in code - its in configuration - I do not believe a person should ever have to recompile a program to ever turn a feature on or off - it shoudl be in the configuration - and that is exactly what E is.

    just turn "expensive" options off - make it do what YOU want - it can.

    as far as technicalities - loading graphics as an image or doing it the blackbox way makes almost zero memory diffrence - blackbox STILL produces pixmaps in the end of the same size as the pixmaps E produces. - E just gets to that end result a different way and via a much more generic mechanism.

    E is gnomne compliant already.

    E is alreayd pretty damn fast. It coudl do wiht more optimisations - I work on them on a regular basis.

    E alerady throws out all memory it doesnt need / inst using - it unloads images form memory continuously - reling on the cache in imlib tokeep the recent ones (commonly used ones) in memory for speed. E removes backgroudn images for other desktops from memory if you havent looked at the desktops for a while - it does this quietly behind the scenes for you.

    E is prertty stable - only some of the newer features I may have written int he last few weeks that aren't finished are not 100% stable - but even most of them are stable.

    E is Speedy - works liek greased lightning on my box. It's secure. There is no way another user or a user outside of your box can gain access to your user or machine via Enlightenment nor can you gain access to another users account via Enlightenment. If you use another users config for E that is another matter - but liek any WM they can have a button that executes somehting as oyu - just like menu and toolbar entires - so in that regard its as safe as any WM out there.

    Not to mention E has the ability to remote control it form the other side of the world if you wish - SECURELY. It has many features you probably have no idea are there.

    --
    --------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" --------------------
  64. .15 stability? by Stefan+Baums · · Score: 1

    I'm running Gnome 0.99 together with E. (I
    used alien to convert the ftp.gnome.org .rpms
    to .debs.) There's a panel applet "gnome pager"
    which cooperates beautifully with E.
    (BTW, E configuration can now be done inside the
    Gnome control center.)

  65. E13 v E15 by Jaded · · Score: 1


    E13 was nice, had alot of themes etc.. for it. However times change, people want more and more. Everything has to be faster, use less memory, make bleeps and noises, look better... and whats the catch to all this ? it just gets far more complicated. So E 15 requires a billion libs if you want everything, but isnt that always the way ? As for esd... bah i dont bother with sound.

    The only remaining archive of E13 stuff that I know of is ftp://e.hole.org mainly cuz i backed everything up after enlightenment.org killed itself.

    As many people have said, if its not like you like it, then modify it, and release the modifications. If you personnally cannot do it, perhaps make suggestions ?

    Anyways laters,

    J

    --
    Jaded http://www.enlighte.nu http://themes.will.enlighte.nu http://scrollz.hole.org http://black.hole.org
  66. I like E by jdavisp3 · · Score: 1

    I don't understand a lot of the negative
    comments on this page. I've been using E
    for several months now and it's extremely
    stable, and very functional.

    I also run gnome, so I turn off all the
    buttons in E (ctrl-alt-B) and have a very
    clean screen.

    Furthermore, compiling E and gnome from
    cvs is a breeze if you just follow the
    instructions on the gnome web page.