Managing Window Manager Menus

The OSF/Motif Window Manager menus are defined by a text file in /usr/lib/X11 called system.mwmrc, unless you have a file in your home directory called .mwmrc. You can add or delete menus and menu selections by copying system.mwmrc to your home directory as .mwmrc and modifying it to suit your needs.

Default Menus

The OSF/Motif Window Manager comes with two default menus:

Default Window Menu

The default window menu is built into mwm. For reference, a copy of its contents are placed in .mwmrc.

   Menu DefaultWindowMenu

   {

       "Restore"   _R      Alt<Key>F5      f.normalize

       "Move"      _M      Alt<Key>F7      f.move 

       "Size"      _S      Alt<Key>F8      f.resize

       "Minimize"  _n      Alt<Key>F9      f.minimize

       "Maximize"  _x      Alt<Key>F10     f.maximize

       "Lower"     _L      Alt<Key>F3      f.lower

       no-label                            f.separator

       "Close"     _C      Alt<Key>F4      f.kill

   }

By default, the window menu displays when you do the following operations:

Press button 1 on a window frame's window menu button.
Press button 3 anywhere on a window frame.
Press Shift Esc with the keyboard focus set to a window.

The windowMenu resource must be set in order to replace the DefaultWindowMenu with a different menu.

Default Root Menu

The default root menu is specified in the same files by the following lines:

   Menu RootMenu

   {   

    "Root Menu"    f.title            

    "New Window"   f.exec "hpterm &"  

    "Start Clock"  f.exec "xclock -geometry 100x90-1+1 &"

    "Start Load"   f.exec "xload -geometry 150x90-130+1 &"

    "Shuffle Up"   f.circle_up    

    "Shuffle Down" f.circle_down 

    "Refresh"      f.refresh    

     no-label      f.separator 

    "Restart..."   f.restart  

   }

By default, the root menu displays when you press button 3 on the root window.

Modifying Menus

You can modify either menu to suit the specific needs of your application; however, for the sake of the consistency of window operation, it's usually better to modify the root menu and keep the window menu the same.

All window manager menus, regardless of the mechanism that calls them to the screen, have the same syntax.

Menu Syntax

   Menu MenuName

   {

      selection1  [mnemonic] [accelerator]  function

    [argument]

      selection2  [mnemonic]  [accelerator]  function  [argument]

      selection3  [mnemonic] [accelerator]  function [argument]

                                    .

                                    .

                                    .          

      selection*  [mnemonic]  [accelerator]  function  [argument]

   }

Each line identifies a selection name followed by the function to be done if that selection is chosen. The order of the selections is the order of their appearance when you display the menu. A selection name may be either a character string or a bitmap.

The f.title function creates a menu title, and automatically places a separator above and below the title.

Selections

Any character string containing a space must be enclosed in double quotes (""); single-word strings don't have to be enclosed, but it's probably a good idea for the sake of consistency. An alternate method of dealing with two-word selection names is to use an underbar (_) in place of the space.

Mnemonics and Accelerators

You have the option of using a mnemonic and accelerator with a menu selection. A mnemonic is specified using the syntax:

mnemonic = _character

An accelerator is specified using keyboard binding syntax described later in this chapter (see "Keyboard Binding Syntax").

Functions

Each function operates in one or more of these contexts:

root: Operates the function when the root window is selected.
icon: Operates the function when an icon is selected.
window: Operates the function when a client window is selected.

Each function is triggered by one or more of these devices:

Button: Button binding (mouse).
Key: Key binding.
Menu: Window manager menu.

Most contexts and devices are valid for most functions. Occasionally, a context or device doesn't make sense for a particular function. Any selection that uses an invalid context, an invalid function, or a function that doesn't apply to the current context is grayed out.

Function Names, Contexts, and Devices

The following table lists the valid functions, contexts, and devices.

Table 7-17 Valid Window Manager Functions

Functions		Contexts			Devices
Name	Description	Root	Icon	Window	Button	Key	Menu
f.beep	Causes a beep to sound.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.circle_down	Puts window on bottom of stack.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.circle_up	Puts window on top of stack.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.exec	Uses `/usr/bin/sh` to execute a command.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.focus_color	Sets colormap focus when colormap focus policy is explicit.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.focus_key	Sets keyboard input focus when keyboard focus policy is explicit.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.kill	Terminates a client's connection to server.		X	X	X	X	X
f.lower	Lowers a window to bottom of stack.		X	X	X	X	X
f.maximize	Enlarges a window to its maximum size.		X	X	X	X	X
f.menu	Associates a menu with a selection or binding.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.minimize	Changes a window into an icon.			X	X	X	X
f.move	Enables the interactive moving of a window.		X	X	X	X	X
Name	Description	Root	Icon	Window	Button	Key	Menu
f.next_cmap	Installs the next colormap in the window with the colormap focus.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.next_key	Sets keyboard focus policy to the next window/icon in the stack.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.nop	Does no function.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.normalize	Displays a window in normal size.		X	X	X	X	X
f.pack_icons	Packs icons rows in the root window or icon box.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.pass_keys	Toggles between enabling and disabling processing of key bindings.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.post_wmenu	Posts the window menu	X	X	X	X	X
f.prev_cmap	Installs the previous color map in the window with the colormap focus.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.prev_key	Sets the keyboard input focus to the next window/icon in the stack.	X	X	X	X	X	X
Name	Description	Root	Icon	Window	Button	Key	Menu
f.quit_mwm	Terminates OSF/Motif Window Manager, but not X.	X			X	X	X
f.raise	Lifts a window to the top of the window stack.		X	X	X	X	X
f.raise_lower	Raises a partially concealed window; lowers an unconcealed window.		X	X	X	X	X
f.refresh	Redraws all windows.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.refresh_win	Redraws a client window.			X	X	X	X
f.resize	Enables you to interactively resize a window.			X	X	X	X
f.restart	Restarts the OSF/Motif Window Manager.	X			X	X	X
f.send_msg	Sends a client message.		X	X	X	X	X
f.separator	Draws a line between menu selections.	X	X	X			X
f.set_behavior	Restarts `mwm` with CXI or custom behavior.	X	X	X	X	X	X
f.title	Inserts a title into a menu at the specified position.	X	X	X			X

Changing the Menu Associated with the Window Menu Button

The windowMenu resource lets you change the menu displayed when you press button 1 on the window menu button.

For example, you would place the following line in your personal resource specifications to associate a menu named EditMenu with an hpterm window started as hpterm -name hp850.

   Mwm*hp850*windowMenu:   EditMenu

Managing Window Manager Menus

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