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allucid
Veteran
Joined: 02 Nov 2002
Posts: 1314
Location: atlanta
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 Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 1:53 pm Post subject: What's the fastest way to launch graphical applications? |
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What is the fastest way to launch programs in X (non-console programs) using only the keyboard (not including binding a hotkey to every program...)? Here's some ways that I can think of:
1) Standard menu with type-ahead support.
2) Circular menus where programs are mapped to specific keys on the keyboard based on their location relative to each other on the screen. (Hard to explain...)
3) A simple text-entry box. You start typing the name of a program and a dropdown list of all matches appears below automatically updating with each new character. When the enter key is pressed the highlighted application is launched.
Something like this?
This is for a project I might start in the future, just trying to brainstorm. |
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nightm4re
Guru
Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 519
Location: Providence, RI, USA
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| Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 2:22 pm Post subject: Re: What's the fastest way to launch graphical applications? |
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| allucid wrote: |
3) A simple text-entry box. You start typing the name of a program and a dropdown list of all matches appears below automatically updating with each new character. When the enter key is pressed the highlighted application is launched.
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I have something like this in gmrun. I bind a hotkey to SuperL+R, and that pops open a small run dialog, and then i start typing and press tab (shelllike) to match a program name.
It's not without its faults however, it won't display multiple items that it matches (it'll tell you Not Unique), and it does some funky thing where it repeats the command twice, so some apps try to load the name of the application as if it were a file, which is really annoying. I'd also like it to be a bordered window, but that's just nitpicking.
It has a history box though, which is also nice, cuz you can use up/down to whip through entries.
Sounds like a neat project. Do you want to do something like viewglob, but for programs? I'd definetly use it 
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shash
Apprentice
Joined: 18 Apr 2003
Posts: 220
Location: India
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| Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 5:12 pm Post subject: |
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Alt+F2, type program name...
What? Everyone uses KDE, right? :p |
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BlackEdder
Advocate
Joined: 26 Apr 2004
Posts: 2588
Location: Dutch enclave in Egham, UK
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| Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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Alt+e, begin type program name, it will show all the possible matches on the bottom bar, while you are typing. ->tab cycles through them (or you can continue typing)
(WMI  ) |
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GatoVolador
Apprentice
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 268
Location: California, USA
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| Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 5:39 pm Post subject: |
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| BlackEdder wrote: | | Alt+e, begin type program name, it will show all the possible matches on the bottom bar, while you are typing. ->tab cycles through them (or you can continue typing) |
I second this one. WMI has one of the best such facilities for launching apps. Can't wait for WMII.
Regards,
Jay |
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miscz
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 100
Location: Olsztyn, Poland
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| Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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| root menus found in most of the minimalistic WMs -bind a key to open root menu and navigate there with arrow keys |
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