Does JWM support generic launcher names?

[JASpup]

Example:

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[Desktop Entry]
Name=DeaDBeeF
GenericName=Audio Player
GenericName[pt_BR]=Reprodutor de áudio
GenericName[ru]=Аудио плеер

I've seen the setting in alt-DEs.

[snoring_cat]

Hi JASpup,

It can support GenericName...kind of.

JWM does not use .desktop files directly. JWM uses the file /root/.jwmrc to display your Start Menu. This .jwmrc file is genereated via a Puppy Linux script called fixmenus, which parses all of your .desktop files.

So from a .desktop file below

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[Desktop Entry]
Name=DeaDBeeF
GenericName=Audio Player
GenericName[pt_BR]=Reprodutor de áudio
GenericName[ru]=Аудио плеер
Comment=Listen to music
Exec=deadbeef
Icon=deadbeef

fixmenus creates an entry similar to the following in .jwmrc

<Program label="DeadBeeF" tooltip="whatever you want" icon="deadbeef">deadbeef</Program>

Note that what is in red above is not included by fixmenus. If it was, the tooltip value would be visible when hovering over a Start Menu entry.

fixmenus code could be modified to add a tooltip option to .jwmrc entries. However, the problem is, what do you want it to contain? For example, you could use the Comment=, or GenericName[ru]= value. I guess the community would have to decide on if changes should be made to fixmenus.

[JASpup]

Hi @snoring_cat,

Tooltips could be a useful JWM feature.

On desktop launchers I tend to like to use just the version number (of, say, a browser) and the icon. A tooltip could provide more information if sought.

Generic names in alt-DEs, however, actually change the name of the menu entry.

Both LXDE & XFCE pups offer this feature:

[snoring_cat]

JASpup,

personally I would prefer that the Comment= value be used because:

• It can explain what a menu entry actually does (e.g. Sylpheed is a mail client, PPLOG is a blogging server)

• Programs like YAD already use the Comment line when using the .desktop file importer

If more people on this forum have input on this, we can probably figure out the best way to update fixmenus, et al.

[JASpup]

@snoring_cat I suspect the basic answer is JWM menu entries only support the Name= field. Otherwise I would have seen generics by now I think. I would not put this on the Puppy community unless they want to compete with alt-DEs which does not seem like a smart idea.

Personally my struggle is I still don't know how I want to run JWM menus (customize).

I need an individual browser config refresh and sfs-load category, and my idea right now is to make them all Fun because it already exists and I have gutted it. Yet this is more of a hack.

The concept how of JWM menus work is not too difficult but the implementation is not natural -- 'editor tools' we might think.

What it is like when you have user-friendly menus is you can double the number of entries, reduce the font size, and still go right to your menu entry because it is intuitive, even without a search function (I will boot new 32 +D pups and am always changing my mouse theme in XFCE menus, quickly).

JWM menus are technician's labyrinth.

XFCE's Whisker may be the best menu in computing.

So for the masses I would keep JWM the way it is with minor refinements and put out other official Puppy flavors so everyone can realize what I am writing about, but as a lay user this is just a visionary thought.

In XFCE you can choose to print the comment under your menu entry.

[snoring_cat]

JASpup,

To give you some inspiration, here is my solution for JWM

menu.png (118.22 KiB) Viewed 363 times

I use sub-menus because I think it makes more sense to me. If I load a SFS file the menu option automatically goes into the correct sub-menu. An example is if I load a Thunderbird_v1.sfs and/or Thunderbird_v3.sfs.

Regarding a browser refresh, note that I have menu items for Gmail and Proton mail. Those menu items each will start my browser, but will use separate browser profiles.

pRun is used for direct app startup (even for items not in the Start Menu).

[JASpup]

@snoring_cat pRun looks like FindNRun. Perhaps an evolution?

findnrun-tahrpup.png (44.75 KiB) Viewed 354 times

Tray from left: Menu * FindNRun * Monitors * Task Manager * Console

I noticed submenus reading the JWM documentation for generic name support. It's good to see the implementation working.

I will probably just turn every entry off I do not commonly use and put my launchers in with false categories for discretionary placement.

[JASpup]

<Program label="DeadBeeF" tooltip="whatever you want" icon="deadbeef">deadbeef</Program>

Note that what is in red above is not included by fixmenus. If it was, the tooltip value would be visible when hovering over a Start Menu entry.

fixmenus code could be modified to add a tooltip option to .jwmrc entries. However, the problem is, what do you want it to contain? For example, you could use the Comment=, or GenericName[ru]= value. I guess the community would have to decide on if changes should be made to fixmenus.

Please correct my understanding:

If we enter the tooltip in the file that generates .jwmrc, menus will display tooltips when that menu entry is highlighted?

Is there a normal tooltip launcher entry used in any DE, or is your point about just using an existing field?

[snoring_cat]

Let's say your palemoon.desktop file looks like this

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[Desktop Entry]
Name=Pale Moon
GenericName=Web Browser
Comment=Palemoon is a Mozilla based browser
Exec=/opt/palemoon/palemoon
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=/usr/share/icons/palemoon.svg

Puppy Linux will generate a .jwmrc menu entry that looks like this (via fixmenus command and other associated files)

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<Program label="Pale Moon" icon="/usr/share/icons/palemoon.svg">/opt/palemoon/palemoon</Program>

Notice that Puppy Linux did not add a tooltip= argument. If the fixmenus coding was altered, you could make the entry look like

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<Program label="Pale Moon" tooltip="Palemoon is a Mozilla based browser" icon="/usr/share/icons/palemoon.svg">/opt/palemoon/palemoon</Program>

Now you will have a tooltip like the following

comment.png (75.86 KiB) Viewed 310 times

.desktop files have many standard options, such as GenericName and Comment. It is at the discretion of the window manager (e.g. JWM, XFCE, Cinnamon) if they want to do something with those fields. XFCE might make menu tooltips automatically using the Comment= value (I haven't tested that out yet).

Again, since JWM doesn't use .desktop files directly, but converts them into a .jwmrc file, the limitation for tooltips isn't with JWM, it's that fixmenus wasn't coded to add tooltips= intothe .jwmrc file. In my above example, I assume that fixmenus was modified to use the Comment= field. It could betold to use GenericName= or other field for tooltips.

[Side note: Also notice that there are many more fields in a .desktop file that aren't converted into the .jwmrc entry (e.g. "Terminal=false" isn't added anywhere to .jwmrc)

[JASpup]

@snoring_cat I believe what you're writing is:

Tooltips have to be manually specified (i.e., there is no specific launcher field) and the fixmenu script customized for it to work.

I am in JWM with discretionary time on these menus, but I have seen comments under menu items in XFCE, trying to recall if it was just menu categories or also the app launchers.

I would use tooltips if they were default.

Aside: I am getting scripts to run in terminal with

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xterm -hold -e '[command]' &

[mikeslr]

Rather than re-write JWM, AppFinder --together with 'the Menus under xfce' file-- can be installed in any Puppy. viewtopic.php?p=21513#p21513. See screenshot on that post.

As far as I can tell, the main import of this thread is to figure out a way for newbies to know the significance/use of installed applications. Without regard to the mechanisms used, on my systems JWM-Menu shows the English name used in the Name= argument of an applications /usr/share/application's desktop file. AppFinder adds the English version of that file's Comment= argument. Desktop files, being mere text files, can be assigned whatever arguments the publisher of the application chooses, and edited to show whatever information the User might prefer.

The desktop files of many applications contain "Name=" and "Comment=" in other languages; sometimes many. If a language other than English is selected via Menu>Setup>Quicksetup first run settings (or otherwise) would the name of the application appearing on the Menu be that of the User's chosen language; and the 'comment'/description shown by AppFinder be in the User's chosen language [if that info was provided in the 'desktop' file]?

[JASpup]

As far as I can tell, the main import of this thread is to figure out a way for newbies to know the significance/use of installed applications.

My motivation was to simplify JWM menus for usability, starting with app names. Peebea has started on this, but it's a comprehensive project with all else that he does.

If one went through all the .desktop files making the generic name their perference and there were a switch, we'd have a solution. Alas, JWM does not offer this feature.

The rest is just discussion of other possibilities.