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tkgoodstuff: Availability and Installation

Get the source for the current version here: tkgoodstuff4.1.tgz or at ftp://merv.philosophy.lsa.umich.edu/pub/. Older, and sometimes more stable, versions are available at the latter location as well.

A binary distribution for linux ELF is available here: tkgoodstuff4.1-linux-ELF.tgz. It assumes you have tcl7.5/tk4.1 shared libraries, as you do if you got your binaries here: tcl7.5+tk4.1-bin-linux-ELF.tgz. (To install the binary distributions, simply unpack them as root in your root directory (/). If you install the tcl/tk distribution, also (i) be sure you make the files world-readable, e.g., by using the 'p' switch to tar, and (ii) run "ldconfig" as root, so that your system knows where the shared libraries are.)

To run this utility, you need tcl7.5 and tk4.1 (get the source at ftp://ftp.smli.com/pub/tcl ).

Once you have the tkgoodstuff distribution

  1. Unpack it in a directory somewhere (say, /tmp). One way (suppose you have the distribution in /tmp/):
  2.     cd /tmp
        zcat tkgoodstuff4.1.tgz | tar xpf -
              
  3. cd to the source directory:
  4.     cd /tmp/tkgoodstuff4.1
              

    Then type

        ./configure

    If all goes well, you can type

        make
              

    and if all is still well, type

        make install
              

    This process will compile C code needed by tkgoodstuff, and install tkgoodstuff's files in the appropriate places.

    Once you are finished, you can remove the source directory if you like (all the needed files will have been copied to a library directory.

  5. If you have a standard unix spool setup, simply running tkgoodstuff should give you a working setup. Enter the Preferences manager via the tkgoodstuff menu to customize your setup.
  6. You probably will want to tell your window manager not to put a border, handles, or a title on tkgoodstuff, and perhaps to leave it always on top of other windows, and perhaps to make it "stick" in the same spot on the screen when you move about a virtual desktop. You may also want it not to be in the circulate list (the list of windows you go to by hitting alt-TAB or some key sequence). To do all of this in fvwm add the following lines to your .fvwmrc (or .fvwm2rc):
  7. Style "tkgoodstuff" NoTitle, NoHandles, Sticky, WindowListSkip, StaysOnTop
    Style "tkgoodstuff" BorderWidth 0,CirculateSkipIcon,CirculateSkip
              

    HOWEVER, if you use tkgoodstuff as an fvwm module, you needn't do this, as tkgoodstuff will do it automatically. If you use some other window manager, read its documentation---almost certainly you can achieve most of the same effects.

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