Emacs as the desktop?

Emacs as the desktop?

[gamename]

Hi,

I normally run emacs inside a vnc session with "blackbox" and the
desktop manager.  Is there any way to simply use Emacs as the desktop
manager instead?

-T

Re: Emacs as the desktop?

[Malte Spiess]

"gamename" <namesagame-usenet@yahoo.com> writes:

> Hi,
>
> I normally run emacs inside a vnc session with "blackbox" and the
> desktop manager.  Is there any way to simply use Emacs as the desktop
> manager instead?

So, do you only want to run Emacs or also other applications?

> -T

*t

Re: Emacs as the desktop?

[gamename]

Malte Spiess wrote:
> "gamename" <namesagame-usenet@yahoo.com> writes:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I normally run emacs inside a vnc session with "blackbox" and the
> > desktop manager.  Is there any way to simply use Emacs as the desktop
> > manager instead?
>
> So, do you only want to run Emacs or also other applications?

Only emacs.

> 
> > -T
> 
> *t

Re: Emacs as the desktop?

[Jay Belanger]

"gamename" <namesagame-usenet@yahoo.com> writes:

> Malte Spiess wrote:
>> "gamename" <namesagame-usenet@yahoo.com> writes:
>>
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I normally run emacs inside a vnc session with "blackbox" and the
>> > desktop manager.  Is there any way to simply use Emacs as the desktop
>> > manager instead?

Window manager?

>> So, do you only want to run Emacs or also other applications?
>
> Only emacs.

If Emacs is the only app you want to run, and don't use more than one
frame, then you can always run Emacs in X without a window manager.

If you want an unobtrusive window manager to run Emacs in (not what
you asked for, I know), then something like ratpoison would do the job
nicely. 

But you asked about an actual window manager (I think) that is run by
Emacs, I don't think there is one, but there is one run by XEmacs,
namely XWEM (www.xwem.org).  

Jay

Re: Emacs as the desktop?

[Dieter Wilhelm]

"gamename" <namesagame-usenet@yahoo.com> writes:

> Hi,
>
> I normally run emacs inside a vnc session with "blackbox" and the
> desktop manager.  Is there any way to simply use Emacs as the desktop
> manager instead?
>
> -T

I probably don't understand your problem.  But why not using Emacs
without X, just as a terminal application?  When enlarging the
terminal to full-screen voilà your Emacs-window-manager 8-).

-- 
Best wishes

     Dieter Wilhelm

Re: Emacs as the desktop?

[Gian Uberto Lauri]

Quoting Dieter Wilhelm <dieter@duenenhof-wilhelm.de>:

> "gamename" <namesagame-usenet@yahoo.com> writes:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I normally run emacs inside a vnc session with "blackbox" and the
> > desktop manager.  Is there any way to simply use Emacs as the desktop
> > manager instead?
> >
> > -T
>
> I probably don't understand your problem.  But why not using Emacs
> without X, just as a terminal application?  When enlarging the
> terminal to full-screen voilà your Emacs-window-manager 8-).

You lose some hundred possible colours for highlighting plus a set of benefits
from being an X application.

You can indeed drop the desktop manager, Emacs or (heresy) not Emacs, there's
something called shell that does all a DM does plus more :)

Emacs does all that a DM does and more too :)
-- 
 /\           ___
/___/\_|_|\_|__|___Gian Uberto Lauri_____
  //--\| | \|  |   Integralista GNUslamico
\/                 e coltivatore diretto di Software

Re: Emacs as the desktop?

[David Hansen]

On 2 Mar 2006 10:30:01 -0800 gamename wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I normally run emacs inside a vnc session with "blackbox" and the
> desktop manager.  Is there any way to simply use Emacs as the desktop
> manager instead?

Maybe not exactly what you wanted to know, but i find tiling
window managers like ratpoison or ion very convenient.

David

Re: Emacs as the desktop?

[William Xu]

"gamename" <namesagame-usenet@yahoo.com> writes:

> I normally run emacs inside a vnc session with "blackbox" and the
> desktop manager.  Is there any way to simply use Emacs as the desktop
> manager instead?

I found this, http://www.nongnu.org/xwem/, but only for XEmacs. I
haven't tried it myself, as i don't use XEmacs.

-- 
William

Re: Emacs as the desktop?

[Xavier Maillard]

   From: William Xu <william.xwl@gmail.com>

   "gamename" <namesagame-usenet@yahoo.com> writes:

   > I normally run emacs inside a vnc session with "blackbox" and the
   > desktop manager.  Is there any way to simply use Emacs as the desktop
   > manager instead?

   I found this, http://www.nongnu.org/xwem/, but only for XEmacs. I
   haven't tried it myself, as i don't use XEmacs.

I discussed with XWEM original author a while back and adding GNU Emacs
support was on his todo list. I do not know if the project is still maintained
though.

I also read yesterday that someone on the sawfish mailing list wanted to have
some kind of interaction between sawfish and GNU Emacs.

At last, ion3 comes with mod_ionflux which has now his GNU Emacs module.
Mod_ionflux allows one to (remotely or not) control ion3: really neat.

Xavier

Re: Emacs as the desktop?

[William Xu]

Xavier Maillard <zedek@gnu.org> writes:

> I discussed with XWEM original author a while back and adding GNU Emacs
> support was on his todo list. I do not know if the project is still maintained
> though.
>
> I also read yesterday that someone on the sawfish mailing list wanted to have
> some kind of interaction between sawfish and GNU Emacs.
>
> At last, ion3 comes with mod_ionflux which has now his GNU Emacs module.
> Mod_ionflux allows one to (remotely or not) control ion3: really neat.

What i'm thinking of now is that, with Emacs being the WM, we could,
control other applications just like a buffer or a mode in Emacs. For
instance, when there is a firefox, and an Emacs, "C-x 2" can split the
screen into two parts, one of them is firefox. This way, it would be
very convenient and consistent to manage applications running outside
Emacs.

-- 
William

Re: Emacs as the desktop?

[David Hansen]

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 20:20:40 +0800 William Xu wrote:

> What i'm thinking of now is that, with Emacs being the WM, we could,
> control other applications just like a buffer or a mode in Emacs. For
> instance, when there is a firefox, and an Emacs, "C-x 2" can split the
> screen into two parts, one of them is firefox. This way, it would be
> very convenient and consistent to manage applications running outside
> Emacs.

I use ratpoison, with C-q as the prefix for window manager
commands:

C-q C-x 2, C-q C-x 3, C-q C-x 1, C-q C-x b, ...

But it's a pain when you need to run applications that don't
like to be managed this way (like gimp).  There are other
window managers with a similar philosophy that can deal with
such applications (e.g. ion or wmi).  Or like me, you just
run FVWM in a Xnest window.

David

Re: Emacs as the desktop?

[Zajcev Evgeny]

William Xu <william.xwl@gmail.com> writes:

> "gamename" <namesagame-usenet@yahoo.com> writes:
>
>> I normally run emacs inside a vnc session with "blackbox" and the
>> desktop manager.  Is there any way to simply use Emacs as the desktop
>> manager instead?
>
> I found this, http://www.nongnu.org/xwem/, but only for XEmacs. I
> haven't tried it myself, as i don't use XEmacs.

That is pretty dead link, xwem now hosting separately at
http://www.xwem.org

xwem runs only under XEmacs and SXEmacs, there was plans porting xwem
to GNU Emacs, however there was no volunteers to do the job.  However
i suspect serious fundamental problems in porting.  Some time ago i
wrote about it to Kim Storm:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2005-04/msg00136.html

If someone really interested in trying to port xwem to GNU Emacs i
will provide help as much as needed!

As to xwem itself, it is extremely ergonomic and powerfull Desktop for
Emacsen ..

Main problem why xwem is not widely used is total lack of
documentation, however xwem team is very friendly to new users

If you are seriously consider making xwem be your desktop also
consider SXEmacs.  Its FFI feature in conjunction with upcoming
xlib-ffi for SXEmacs will make xwem run 10-100 times faster then with
native xlib written in Emacs lisp

-- 
lg