Some general things

Here is some general stuff to think of when configuring AS

Modules
Modules are those little apps coming with AS that makes life more easy. The modules can be started from the autoexec file, then you got them running from start on, or they can be started from within the startmenu at runtime. For some modules it makes more sense to start them from the autoexec file for example Wharf, WinList, Audio, Animate, Auto, Pager to name the IMHO most used ones. The Pager also can be swallowed into the Wharf, so if you want that, don't execute it in the autoexec! But, of course, every module can also be started from the startmenu and can also be stopped there. So what modules are there and what do they do? Let's have a look:
  • Animate - This will animate the windows when they iconify or deiconify.
  • Audio - Will play sounds for different events of AS.
  • Auto - Is the module to autoraise your windows.
  • Banner - Shows a banner when starting AS.
  • Cascade - Should cascade your windows, IIRC it doesn't work yet.
  • Clean - Removes windows when they aren't used for a specified time.
  • Forms - Some small helpers, have a look at your own :)
  • Ident - With this, you can identify a window to get it's resources.
  • Pager - Gives you some virtual workspace.
  • Script - The AS Script, I don't use it and I don't really know for what it is good for.
  • Scroll - Puts some scrollbars on windows.
  • Tile - Should tile you windows, seems that this doesn't work yet.
  • Wharf - Is the button bar to launch some programs or to swallow some apps.
  • WinList - Is a list of all windows currently on all desktops, also for iconified ones.
  • Zharf - Is another button bar.
For the most modules there is a configuration page available, almost for all that allow some modifications.
Applets
The applets are not included in the AS distribution they are in a separate tarball on f.a.o. Most of them are little applications that can be swallowed into the Wharf (that means they are running in the Wharf). I only made a configuration page for asmail because it's the only one that is looking for it's configuration file in ~/G/L/A/. Most of the others are configured in the wharf file with only a few arguments like "*Wharf asclock - Swallow "asclock" asclock -shape &". Look into the man-pages for the syntax. For an overview of the applets follow the link below:
Afterstep applets
Update look, feel, all, startmenu
The update functions in the startmenu are important and seems to be often a cause for questions. If you choose a new look or feel file from the startmenu, the look or feel changes immediately but if you quit AS and re-start it the changes are gone. If this happens to you, you maybe forgot to update it! For example, if you choose a new look and then choose Update look from the startmenu the actual used look file will be written to ~/G/L/A/non-configurable/0_look.YOUR_COLOR_DEPTH. Next time you start AS, this file will be read and the defined look will be used. The 0 stands for the respective desk since you can choose different looks for different desks if enabled during compiling AS. YOUR_COLOR_DEPTH is the used color depth, if you start AS and X11 with 32bpp, 0_look.32bpp will be used. Same for the feel files.
If you add or delete an entry in your startmenu, you should choose Update startmenu. Then the actual startmenu will be written into the file ~/G/L/A/non-configurable/startmenu and will be read during the next start. It shouldn't be necessary to edit this file by hand.
If you choose Update all, then the look, feel and starmenu will be updated.
Background images
In the newer versions of AS (like 1.5beta4 and upwards) the pager uses an image-loader defined at compile time. So it can handle all formats the loader can handle, preferable jpeg. The bad thing is that, if you use the pager to handle the background, you can't pass any further options to the image-loader, like stretching the image or scaling it to fit the screen. Everything that is smaller then the screen will be tiled. So if you want an image to fill the whole screen you have to scale it first. If I'm right, that only takes some more disk space since the image is bigger, but it doesn't take more memory since the image that would be scaled by the image-loader would be same size then the one already scaled.
Maybe you would like your image to be tiled but don't know how to do it because it looks too regular? You can make an image tile-able with The Gimp. Just look for the Make Seamless filter and use it.

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