Re: Emacspeak + sawfish + mplayer

[Tim Cross <tcross@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

What Linux distribution are you running? There is a bit of difference
in how the various distributions handle all of this. There are also a
lot of choices on how you do this. 

I'm running Debian Linux and have runlevel 5 configured as an X
runlevel. If I boot linux into runlevel 5, the system starts gdm
(Gnome Display Manager). All I then need to do is type my username and
password at the gdm screen and hit enter. I have a sound file which
plays once I'm logged in so that I know. I also use to have gdm
configured so that it played a sound file if I failed to login
(e.g. got the password wrong etc), but lost that in an upgrade and
have not bothered re-doing it. 

I've configured sawfish so that I have various hot-keys defined for
starting emacs, raising/lowering windows, maximising windows and
starting other apps I sometimes use. Raman has provided examples of
sawfish *.jl files in the sawfish directory - it uses rep, which is a
emacs lisp like version of lisp. Note that its important source the
sawfish defaults setup to have everything work correctly because once
you create your own .sawfishrc file in your home directory, sawfish
may not source its default setup files (this depends on your
distribution a bit). 

Its a bit hard to give any real details on what you need to do as this
varies a lot with distributions and individual needs. X is very much a
visual based working environment and a lot can depend on how much
vision you have. For example, I cannot read the screen at all, but I
can see windows if they are big enough and the contrast is high enough
to know they are there. My approach is to maximise everything I run so
that it is easier to make sure the app gets focus and to use virtual
desktops so that every app I run has its own window. I then have hot
keys (F11/F12) defined to move left and right through the windows and
hot-keys defined to move apps to the next/previous desktop window
(alt-F11/alt-F12). 

As X is primarily a visual based windowing environment, you may find
it very frustrating to get it working in a convenient and reliable way
- especially as many X applications rely heavily on the mouse. Some
things to keep in mind which may or may not help -

1. Sawfish is just a window manager - all it really does is handle
window operations like miximising, moving, sizing and providing nice
frame decorations, titles and buttons to bring up menus to perform
various operations.

2. You actually don't have to run a window manager. For example, you
couuld have your .xsession/xinitrc file just exec emacspeak instead of
sawfish. You would lose things like virtual desktops, but you would be
able to run X apps like mplayer. 

3. If you are going to run a window manager, then sawfish is a good
choice because it uses lisp and that is generally easier to get a
handle on for people use to emacs.

4. Sawfish comes with a command line configuration program which can
setup things like hotkeys, the number of virtual desktops, etc. If you
have a sighted friend who can help, it is very easy to use this tool
to configure sawfish without writing any configuration functions
etc. This could be a quick and easy way to get started. 

5. You don't have to do anything special to run emacspeak under X -
just start it as normal (from an xterm) or as part of your .sawfishrc
file (see Raman's examples i the sawfish directory) or as part of yor
.xsession/xinitrc file. 

6. Possibly the most difficult aspect of running X apps when you don't
have any sight is knowing which application has focus (X speak for
which application recieves input from the keyboard etc), knowing where
the mouse is (as this can affect focus) and locating applications
which have become hidden under other apps (referred to as raising and
lowering in X speak). Until you get things sorted out, it is very
useful to have a sighted person available to describe whats going on.

All of this is a bit vague. Probably the best approach is to just
trying doing it and then ask questions on this list when you find
problems you are having difficulty solving. 

Tim

>>>>> "Nath" == Nath  <nath.ml@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

 Nath> so, seeing that no responses are coming, I try to explain a
 Nath> little more that I hope to do : My wish is to be able to run a
 Nath> film stored on a dvd. so I need to have X connected in order to
 Nath> be able to display the video. and my question is : what steps
 Nath> to follow to launch X + emacspeak + sawfish + mplayer ?  If I
 Nath> install sawfish and run it by adding "exec sawfish" in my
 Nath> .xinitrc file and after that run startx, what to do after that
 Nath> to launch emacspeak under sawfish and to launch mplayer with
 Nath> the dvd ?

 Nath> Thanx.




 Nath> Nath <nath.ml@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

 >> Hello,
 >> 
 >> can someone explain me how to setup and use Emacspeak + sawfish +
 >> Mplayer ?  I installed mplayer and the X server is also
 >> installed. I plane to install sawfish but after that what to do in
 >> order to have mplayer runing with sawfish and emacspeak support ?
 >> what are the step to follow ? I can't find any documentation
 >> explaining that so all your help will be very appreciated.  Thanks
 >> in advance.
 >> 
 >> 
 >> -- 
 >> Nath
 >> 
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 >> 
 >> 

 Nath> -- Nath

 Nath> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 Nath> on the emacspeak list send mail to
 Nath> "emacspeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxx" with a subject of
 Nath> "unsubscribe" or "help"


-- 
Tim Cross
Senior Analyst/Programmer
Applications Group - Information Technology
University of New England
 Phone: +61 2 6773 3210
   Fax: +61 2 6773 3424
E-Mail: tcross@xxxxxxxxxxx
   Web: http://www.une.edu.au/itd/systems/systems.html
---
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"The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, 
is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. 
We cause accidents."                             -Nathaniel Borenstein


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