Here's a quick summary of how I learned to minimize mouse movement while working in Fossapup, Jackalpup, F96, KLV, and KLA.
Having played around with desktop launchers, theming, and window management for the last few years, having employed techniques like wmctrl scripts, Rox panels, Cairo Docks, Rox Iconified Windows, symlink launchers in directories, JWM tray launchers, and Xfce panels, I've come to realize that I can limit the amount of mouse movement by having either a tray, panel, or dock on the upper right side of the monitor which enables a quick movement of the mouse to minimize, open, and manipulate the windows running on the desktop.
I will begin uploading some gifs of examples.
First this is Jackalpup (a fossapup remaster), which comes with Cairo dock built in. I have customized the dock, positioned it at the upper right and activated the Rox Iconified window option. The iconified windows are simply icons placed on the desktop/pinboard when the window is minimized. These iconified windows aren't so necessary when using the Cairo dock, because minimized windows are accessible in the dock. By having the dock at the upper right, a window can be minimized and maximized with minimal mouse movement.
Now I'll shut off Cairo Dock and use a Rox panel in it's place. At the bottom left corner of my desktop is a launcher for a script called xcharm, which is a toggle switch for a Rox panel. Once toggled on, the Rox panel can be configured by right clicking on the panel and choosing "Panel Options." In this scenario, the Rox Iconified windows placed at the upper right allow the same minimizing and maximizing capability as the Cairo dock, with minimal mouse movement.
Rox panels have certain advantages over say a Cairo Dock. Cairo Dock is pretty huge, a bit buggy, prone to crash, etc. Rox panels are lightweight, easy to setup once familiar with them. They can also be copied to other OS's using Rox, though the launchers may not point to existing applications, not a problem, items are easily deleted and added. Icons can be chosen in the usual Rox fashion. A Rox panel won't display applets and fancy clocks, not that I'm aware of. But for launching they are hugely effective. One launcher I have opens a Rox window to /usr/share/applications, where I can launch any application that has a desktop entry. No need to organize a JWM menu, though that of course is still available in fossapup or similar puppy.
So why not just use the JWM tray? For one, the tray in fossapup doesn't seem to be able to be configured vertically. There is a choice for it, but it is greyed out, not available. My JWM tray is still at the bottom of the desktop, fully configured to my taste. So the Rox panel is simply an added convenience, which can be toggled on and off with my xcharm script launched at the bottom left.
Next I will boot into KLV to show how the same flow is achieved with Xfce's deskbar panels.
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