Linux.Desktop.Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 38. Start Applications in Weird and Wonderful Ways

Start your applications in customized ways to
make your programs run exactly how you want them to.

With modern desktop environments,
starting applications is a
straightforward conceptyou either click an application icon or
you type in the name of a program. Simple. But if you look under the
hood of this simplicity, you'll find a number of
tricks and techniques for starting applications in clever and
interesting ways. This hack shows you how to make an application
start on a particular virtual desktop, load into a particular mode,
always appear on top of other applications, or load in full-screen
mode.

5.5.1. Starting Programs in KDE

An interesting facility
in KDE
is a tool called kstart. This simple
command-line program is used to customize how programs start and
display on your screen. kstart provides several
options that enable you to choose which virtual desktop it appears
on, if it starts as a maximized/minimized window, if it has focus and
other uses.

As kstart is a command-line tool, you
can
experiment with it from a command-line terminal, such as a konsole,
xterm, or gnome terminal. To use
kstart, specify the options that determine how
the application is started, and then specify the program name.

To begin with, you can experiment with how you can start applications
on different virtual desktops. As an example, if you wanted to start
Konqueror on virtual desktop 2, you could use this:

foo@bar:~$ kstart --desktop 2 konqueror

This command uses the --desktop option in
kstart with the parameter 2
to specify the virtual desktop on which to start the application. To
make Konqueror start on all the virtual desktops (particularly useful
for applications that should be visible in all parts of the desktop),
use the -alldesktops option:

foo@bar:~$ kstart --alldesktops konqueror

To extend this functionality a little further, combine the
--alldesktops option and the
--ontop option to ensure that a specific
application always remains visible on every desktop. This is handy
for media players such as noatun when you want to control the player
at all times:

foo@bar:~$ kstart --alldesktops --ontop noatun

Another useful modification is to not display the application on the
taskbar (the part of the panel that shows which programs are
running). You can use the --skiptaskbar option to
give the effect of a floating application that is always on top:

foo@bar:~$ kstart --alldesktops --ontop --skiptaskbar noatun

A final useful switch is the --fullscreen option.
This is particularly handy when running an application that should
appear like a kiosk [Hack #43] .
The benefit of this mode is that you can restrict users from using
other applications in kiosk mode. You can run Konqueror in
full-screen mode so that it gives you a full-screen kiosk web
browser:

foo@bar:~$ kstart --fullscreen konqueror

5.5.2. Adding Application Options

In addition to the facilities
available in
kstart, you can also combine the options and
switches from the program you are running. Each Linux program has
accessible options similar to the ones you used in
kstart, and you can view them in the application
manpage. Many programs also have a --help option
that will list the different options available:

foo@bar:~$ kstart --help

As an example of combining these options, you can load Konqueror full
screen in web-browsing mode to look at the O'Reilly
web site:

foo@bar:~$ kstart --fullscreen konqueror --profile webbrowsing http://www.oreilly.com/

In this example you use the --profile option in
Konqueror to set the mode of the application to
webbrowsing. You also specify the URL of the
O'Reilly web site as the site to be loaded into
Konqueror when the application starts. It is important to note that
the kstart options
(--fullscreen) are to the right of the
kstart command and the Konqueror options
(--profile webbrowsing
http://www.oreilly.com/) are to
the right of the konqueror command.

5.5.3. Starting Programs Conveniently

Although you have been typing your
kstart commands into a terminal, you can
actually use a desktop icon to run the commands. To do this, add a
shortcut by right-clicking the desktop and selecting New Shortcut. In
the command box, add the full kstart command.
Click OK and your shortcut is complete.

Another useful feature in KDE is that you can automatically start
applications when the desktop loads. This feature is useful if you
use the same programs day in day out and you want them started
whenever you load the desktop. If you want to load KMail, Mozilla,
the Gimp, Bluefish, and Kopete when you start KDE, this feature saves
you from having to click all the program icons each time the
environment starts and move the application windows to your preferred
desktops.

To do this, use the Autostart
directory in ~/.kde. You can access the
directory in Konqueror and create normal application shortcut icons
inside it by dragging the programs to run into the directory. If you
combine the features of kstart with the
Autostart directory, you can enable your desktop
to start up exactly how you want it to with the right applications
running in the right part of the desktop.