AFTERSTEP(0.98a)

NAME
afterstep - X11 window manager which emulates the look and feel of NEXTSTEP(tm) while adding useful features of its own.

SYNOPSIS
afterstep [-d dpy ] [-debug] [-f config_file ] [-s]

DESCRIPTION
AfterStep is a continuation of the BowMan window manager which was originally put together by Bo Yang. BowMan was based on the fvwm window manager, written by Robert Nation. Fvwm was based on code from twm. And so on... It is designed to emulate some of the look and feel of the NEXTSTEP user interface, while adding useful, requested, and neat features. The changes which comprise AfterStep's personality were originally part of BowMan development, but due to a desire to move past simple emulation and into a niche as its own valuable window manager, the current designers decided to change the project name and move on. BowMan development may continue, but we will no longer be a part of it. Some major changes from fvwm include:
    1. NEXTSTEP(tm)-alike title bar, title buttons, borders and corners.
    2. AfterStep Wharf is a much worked-out version of GoodStuff. To avoid copyright complications it is not called a "dock."
    3. NEXTSTEP(tm) style menu. However the menus are not controlled by applications, they are more of pop-up service lists on the root window.
    4. NEXTSTEP(tm) style icons. These styles are hard-coded in the program, which is good for the consistent look of the NEXTSTEP(tm) interface.
However, the flexibility of fvwm was not traded off. The initiation file, ~/.steprc , recognizes most of the fvwm(1.24r) commands. Virtual screen and pagers are still intact. Fvwm modules should work just fine. However, compatibility with fvwm-2 is not planned.

SPECIAL NOTE FOR XFREE86 USERS
XFree86 provides a virtual screen whose operation can be confusing when used in conjunction with this virtual window manager. With XFree86, windows which appear on the virtual screen actually get drawn into video memory, so the virtual screen size is limited by available video memory. With AfterStep's virtual desktop, windows which do not appear on the screen do not actually get drawn into video RAM. The size of the virtual desktop is limited to about 32,000 by 32,000 pixels. It is probably impractical to use a virtual desktop more than about 5 times the visible screen in each direction. Note that memory usage with the virtual desktop is a function of the number of windows which exist. The size of the desktop makes no difference. When becoming familiar with AfterStep , it is recommended that you disable XFree86's virtual screen, by setting the virtual screen size to the physical screen size. When familiar with AfterStep , you may want to re-enable XFree86's virtual screen.

COPYRIGHTS
AfterStep is based on BowMan and shares copyrights with it. BowMan is derived from Fvwm code, which is in turn derived from twm code, thus AfterStep shares copyrights with Bowman, Fvwm, and twm. AfterStep is copyright 1996 by Frank Fejes and Dan Weeks. All other modifications are copyright to their respective authors. Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. FRANK FEJES AND DAN WEEKS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT- ABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL EVANS & SUTHERLAND OR M.I.T. BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAM- AGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTUOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

ANATOMY OF A WINDOW
AfterStep puts a decorative border on the top and bottom of most windows. This border consists of a bar on the bottom that is divided into three sections. These sections are refered to as "handles". There is also a top bar called the title bar which is used to display the name of the window and two title-bar buttons. Unless the standard defaults files are modified, pressing mouse button 1 in the title or side-bars will begin a move operation on the window. Pressing button 1 in the handle pieces will begin a resize operation. Pressing button 2 anywhere in the border brings up an extensive list of window operations. The default configuration has a title-bar button on each side of the title-bar. The one on the left is used to iconify the window, regardless of which mouse button is used. The one on the right is used to close the window, regardless of which mouse button is used. See the section on "Mouse".

THE VIRTUAL DESKTOP
AfterStep provides multiple virtual desktops for users who wish to use them. The screen is a viewport onto a desktop which is larger than (or the same size as) the screen. Several distinct desktops can be accessed. Concept: one desktop for each project, or one desktop for each application, when view applications are distinct. Since each desktop can be larger than the physical screen, windows which are larger than the screen, or large groups of related windows, can easily be viewed. The size of the each virtual desktop must be specified at start-up (default: 2 times the physical size of the screen). All virtual desktops must be the same size. The total number of distinct desktops need not be specified, but is limited to approximately 4 billion total. All windows on the current desktop can be displayed in a Pager, or miniature view or the current desktop. Windows which are not on the current desktop can be listed, along with their geometries, in a window list, accessible as a pop-up menu. "Sticky" windows are windows which transcend the virtual desktop by "Sticking to the screen's glass." They always stay put on the screen. This is convenient for things like clocks and xbiff's, so you only need to run one such gadget, and it always stays with you. Window geometries are specified relative to the current viewport. That is xterm -geometry +0+0 will always show up in the upper-left hand corner of the visible portion of the screen. It is permissible to specify geometries which place windows on the virtual desktop, but off the screen. For example, if the visible screen is 1000 by 1000 pixels, and the desktop size is 3x3, and the current viewport is at the upper left hand corner of the desktop, then invoking xterm -geometry +1000+1000 will place the window just off of the lower right hand corner of the screen. It can be found by moving the mouse to the lower right hand corner of the screen, and waiting for it to scroll into view. There is currently no way to cause a window to map onto a desktop other than the currently active desk. A geometry specified as something like xterm -geometry -5-5 will generally place the windows lower right hand corner 5 pixels from the lower right hand corner of the visible portion of the screen. Not all applications support window geometries with negative offsets. Some applications, like xterm and xfontsel, allow the user to specify the start-up desk on the command line. xterm -xrm "*Desk:1" will start an xterm on desk number 1. Other applications do not understand this option.

INITIALIZATION
During initialization, afterstep will search for a configuration file which describes key and button bindings, and a few other things. The format of these files will be described later. First, afterstep will search for a file named .steprc in the users home directory. Failing that, it will look for /usr/lib/X11/afterstep/system.steprc for system-wide defaults. If that file is not found, afterstep will exit. AfterStep will set two environment variables which will be inherited by its children. These are $DISPLAY which describes the display on which afterstep is running. $DISPLAY may be unix:0.0 or :0.0, which doesn't work too well when passed through rsh to another machine, so $HOSTDISPLAY will also be set, and will use a network-ready description of the display. Unfortunately, $HOSTDISPLAY will use the tcp/ip transoport protocol, even for a local connection, so $DISPLAY should be used for local connections, as it may use unix-domain sockets, which are faster.

SHAPED WINDOWS
If you typically use shaped windows such as xeyes or oclock you have several options. You can make them all undecorated (Style "oclock" NoHandle,NoTitle , for example), or you can use the default configuration, and leave them decorated, in which case a decorative title and handels are shown along with a solid color background. Alternately, you can compile in the SHAPE extensions, by changing a flag in the Makefile, in which case you get the shaped window with no backdrop, and a title bar floats above the window. The shaped window extensions increase the window manager's memory consumption by about 60Kbytes when no shaped windows are present, but have little effect when shaped windows are present.

ICONS
The basic afterstep configuration uses monochrome bitmap icons, similar to Twm. If XPM extensions are compiled in, then color icons similar to NEXTSTEP(tm), ctwm, MS-DOS windows, or the Macintosh icons can be used. In order to use these options, you will need the XPM package, as described in the Make-file.noImake and the Imakefile.

MODULES
A module is a separate program, which runs as a separate unix process, but transmits commands to afterstep to execute. Future releases are expected to provide a means for these modules to extract window information from afterstep. Users can write their own modules to do any weird or bizarre manipulations, without affecting the integrity of afterstep itself.

Modules MUST be spawned by afterstep, so that it can set up two pipes for afterstep and the module to communicate with. The pipes will already be open for the module when it starts, and the file descriptors for the pipes are provided as command line arguments. Modules can be spawned during afterstep initialization via the Module option, or at any time during the X session by use of the Module built-in. Modules can exist for the duration of the X session, or can perform as single task and exit. If the module is still active when afterstep is told to quit, then afterstep will close down the communication pipes, and wait to receive a SIGCHLD from the module, indicating that it has detected the pipe closure, and has exited. If modules fail to detect the pipe closure, afterstep will exit after approximately 30 seconds anyway. The number of simultaneously executing modules is limited by the operating system's maximum number of simultaneously open files, usually between 60 and 256. Modules simply transmit text commands to the afterstep built-in command engine. Text commands are formatted just as in the case of a mouse binding in the .aftersteprc set up file. Certain auxiliary information is also transmitted, as in the sample module Wharf. The Wharf module is documented in its own man page.

ICCCM COMPLIANCE
AfterStep attempts to be ICCCM 1.1 compliant. As of this (0.98a) colormap handling is not completely ICCCM compliant. In addition, ICCCM states that it should be possible for applications to receive ANY keystroke, which is not consistent with the keyboard shortcut approach used in afterstep and most other window managers.

OPTIONS

-d displayname
    Manage the display called, "displayname", instead of the name obtained from the environment variable $DISPLAY.

-debug
    Puts X transactions in synchronous mode, which dramatically slows things down, but guarantees that afterstep's internal error messages are correct.

-f config_file
    Causes afterstep to use config_file instead of ~/.steprc as the window manager configuration file.

-s  Run afterstep on only the specified screen of a multi-screen display. Normally, afterstep will attempt to start up on all screens of a multi-screen display. The "specified screen" is the one provided in the DISPLAY environment variable, or provided through the -d option.

CONFIGURATION FILES
The configuration file, usually ~/.steprc , is used to describe mouse and button bindings, colors, the virtual display size, and related items. This section describes the configuration options. Lines within the configuration file beginning with '#' will be ignored by afterstep. Lines starting with '*' are expected to contain module configuration commands. StdForeColor colorname
    Sets the foreground color for menus and non-selected window titles to colorname. When using a monochrome screen, this option is ignored, and black is used.
StdBackColor colorname
    Sets the background color for menus, and non-selected windows to colorname. When using a monochrome screen, this option is ignored, and white is used.
StickyForeColor colorname
    Sets the foreground color for non-selected window sticky (Sticks-to-glass) titles to colorname. When using a monochrome screen, this option is ignored, and black is used.
StickyBackColor colorname
    Sets the background color for non-selected window sticky (Sticks-to-glass) windows to colorname. When using a monochrome screen, this option is ignored, and white is used.
HiForeColor colorname
    Sets the color for selected window's title to colorname. When using a monochrome screen, this option is ignored, and black is used.
HiBackColor colorname
    Sets the background color for the selected window to colorname. When using a monochrome screen, this option is ignored, and white is used.
MenuForeColor colorname
    Sets the menu foreground color. When using monochrome, this option is ignored.
MenuBackColor colorname
    Sets the menu background color. When using monochrome, this option is ignored.
MenuStippleColor colorname
    Sets the color for shaded out entries in menus (for functions which are not allowed on the currently selected window). When using monochrome, this option is ignored, and a stipple pattern is used.
PagerBackColor colorname
    Causes the pager background color to be colorname , instead of white. On a monochrome screen, this option is ignored. If the NO_PAGER option is set when building afterstep , this option is unavailable.
PagerForeColor colorname
    Causes the pager foreground color to be colorname , instead of black. This is the color used to high- light the current viewport in the pager window. On a monochrome screen, this option is ignored. If the NO_PAGER option is set when building afterstep , this option is unavailable.
Font fontname
    Makes afterstep use the font fontname instead of "fixed" for menus, the resize indicators, and icon labels (if IconFont is not specified).
WindowFont fontname
    Makes afterstep use the font fontname instead of "fixed" for the window title bar.
NoTitle windowname
    Keeps afterstep from putting a title-bar in the decorations for windows named windowname. This is handy for clocks and similar gadgets that you don't want to take up too much space. can be a window's name or its class. Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal unix filename matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and " characters in a window name can be entered by preceding the character with a "
NoBorder windowname
    Keeps afterstep from putting decorative borders on windows named windowname. This command has no effect on the title-bar. This is handy for clocks and similar gadgets that you don't want to take up too much space. windowname can be a window's name or its class. Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal unix filename matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and " characters in a window name can be entered by preceding the character with a " If you specify both NoBorder windowname and NoTitle windowname for the same window in your ~/.aftersteprc file, the window will be completely undecorated.
Sticky windowname
    Sticky windows "stick to the screen's glass." That is, they don't move the the viewport into the virtual desktop changes. windowname can be a window's name or its class. Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal unix file- name matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and " characters in a window name can be entered by pre- ceding the character with a "
StaysOnTop windowname
    These windows always try to stay on top of the other windows. This might be handy for clocks or mailboxes that you would always like to be visible. If the window is explicitly lowered, it will not try to force its way back to the top until it is explicitly raised. windowname can be a window's name or its class. Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal unix file- name matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and " characters in a window name can be entered by pre- ceding the character with a "
StartsOnDesk windowname desk-number
    This command causes windows whose name or class is windowname to be initially placed on desktop number desk-number. windowname should be enclosed in double quotes. If the window requires interactive placement, an outline will be displayed on the current desk, but the window will appear on the specified desk. Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal unix filename matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and " characters in a window name can be entered by preceding the character with a "
CirculateSkip windowname
    Causes windows with the indicated name to be skipped over when the circulate-up or circulate-down functions are invoked. windowname can be a window's name or its class. Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal unix file- name matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and " characters in a window name can be entered by pre- ceding the character with a "
CirculateSkipIcons
    Causes circulate and warp operations to skip over iconified windows.
WindowListSkip windowname
    Causes windows with the indicated name to be left out of the window list. Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal unix file- name matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and " characters in a window name can be entered by pre- ceding the character with a "
NoFocus windowname
    Causes windows with the indicated name to not take the focus when the pointer moves over them. Currently this feature works only with SloppyFocus, ClickToFocus support is in the works. Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match window names in the normal unix file- name matching manner. Actual "*", "?", and " characters in a window name can be entered by pre- ceding the character with a "
Style windowname options
    This command is intended to replace the commands NoFocus, NoBorder, NoTitle, StartsOnDesk, Sticky, StaysOnTop, Icon, WindowListSkip, CirculateSkip, SuppressIcons, BoundaryWidth, NoBoundaryWidth, StdForeColor, and StdBackColor with a single flexible and comprehensive command. This command is used to set attributes of a window to values other than the default, or to set the window-manager default styles. windowname can be a window's name, class or resource string. It can contain the wildcards "*" and/or "?", which are matched in the usual unix filename manner. options is a comma separated list containing all or some of the keywords BorderWidth, HandleWidth, NoFocus, Icon/NoIcon, NoTitle/Title, NoHandles/Handles, WindowListSkip/WindowListHit, CirculateSkip/CirculateHit, StaysOnTop/StaysPut, Sticky/Slippery, StartIconic/StartNormal, Color, ForeColor, BackColor, StartsOnDesk/StartsAnyWhere, and IconTitle/NoIconTitle. In the above list, some options are listed as style-option/opposite-style-option. The opposite-style-option for entries that have them describes the default behavior, and can be used if you want to change the default behavior. Icon takes an (optional) unquoted string argument which is the icon bitmap or pixmap to use. StartsOnDesk takes a numeric argument which is the desktop number on which the window should be initially placed. BorderWidth takes a numeric argument which is the width of the border to place the window if it does not have resize-handles. HandleWidth takes a numeric argument which is the width of the border to place the window if it does have resize handles. Color takes two arguments. The first is the windowlabel text color, and the second is the window decoration's normal background color. The two colors are separated with a slash. If the use of a slash causes problems, then the seperate ForeColor and BackColor options can be used. An example:
    # Change default afterstep behavior to no titlebars on windows!
    # Also, define a default icon.
    Style "*" NoTitle,Icon unknown1.xpm,BorderWidth 4,HandleWidth 5
    # now, window specific changes:
    Style "Fvwm*"      NoHandles,Sticky,WindowListSkip
    Style "FvwmPager"  StaysOnTop
    # the above 2 are for those that use Fvwm
    # moduels with AfterStep
    Style "*clock"     NoHandles,Sticky,StaysOnTop,WindowListSkip
    Style "xbiff"      Sticky,WindowListSkip
    Style "Wharf"      NoHandles,Sticky,WindowListSkip
    Style "sxpm"       NoHandles
    # Put title-bars back on xterms only!
    Style "xterm"      Title, Color black/grey
    Style "rxvt"       Icon term.xpm
    Style "xterm"      Icon rterm.xpm
    Style "xcalc"      Icon xcalc.xpm
    Style "xbiff"      Icon mail1.xpm
    Style "xmh"        Icon mail1.xpm, StartsOnDesk 2
    Style "xman"       Icon xman.xpm
    Style "matlab"     Icon math4.xpm, StartsOnDesk 3
    Style "xmag"       Icon magnifying_glass2.xpm
    Style "xgraph"     Icon graphs.xpm
    Style "Maker"      StartsOnDesk 1
    Style "signal"     StartsOnDesk 3
    Note that all properties for a window will be read together. In the above example "Pager" gets the property StaysOnTop via an exact window name match, but also gets NoHandles,Sticky, and WindowListSkip by a match to "AfterStep*". It will get NoTitle by virtue of a match to "*". If conflicting styles are specified for a window, then the last style specified will be used. If the NoIcon attribute is set, then the specified window will simply disappear when it is iconified. The window can be recovered throught the windowlist. If Icon is set without an argument, then the NoIcon attribute is cleared, but no icon is specified. An example which allows only the Pager module icon to exist:
    Style "*" NoIcon
    Style "Pager" Icon
CenterOnCirculate
    When circulating, the desktop page containing the window which the pointer is moving to is automatically selected. If CenterOnCirculate is selected, then afterstep will do its best to center the target window in the desktop viewport, rather than just lining up to the closest page.
DeskTopSize HorizontalxVertical
    Defines the virtual desktop size in units of the physical screen size.
DeskTopScale Scale
    Defines the virtual desktop scale with respect to the screen.
BoundaryWidth Width
    Changes the boundary width on decorated windows to the specified value. The default is 6.
NoBoundaryWidth Width
    Changes the width of the decorations for windows with no titles and no borders. The default is 1. Any positive or zero value is acceptable. Decorations for these undecorated windows have the same context as the side-bars on normally decorated windows.
XORvalue number
    Changes the value with which bits are XOR'ed when doing rubber-band window moving or resizing. Setting this value is a trial-and-error process.
EdgeScroll horizontal vertical
    Specifies the percentage of a page to scroll when the cursor hits the edge of a page. If you don't want any paging or scrolling when you hit the edge of a page, include EdgeScroll 0 0 in your .steprc file. If you want whole pages, use EdgeScroll 100 100. Both horizontal and vertical should be positive numbers. If the horizontal and vertical percentages are multiplied by 1000, then scrolling will wrap around at the edge of the desktop. If "EdgeScroll 100000 100000" is used, afterstep will scroll by whole pages, wrapping around at the edge of the desktop.
PagingDefault pagingdefaultvalue
    Tells afterstep if it should start up with paging enabled or disabled. "PagingDefault 0" will start afterstep with paging disabled, "PagingDefault 1" will start afterstep with paging enabled by default.
EdgeResistance scrolling moving
    Tells how hard it should be to change the desktop viewport by moving the mouse over the edge of the screen, and how hard it should be to move a window over the edge of the screen. The first parameter tells how milliseconds the pointer must spend on the screen edge before afterstep will move the viewport. This is intended for people who use EdgeScroll 100 100, but find themselves accidentally flipping pages when they don't want to. The second parameter tells how many pixels over the edge of the screen a window's edge must move before it actually moves partially off the screen. Note that, with EdgeScroll 0 0, it is still possible to move or resize windows across the edge of the current screen. By making the first parameter to EdgeResistance 10000, this type of motion is impossible. With EdgeResistances less than 10000, but greater than 0, moving over pages becomes dif- ficult but not impossible.
OpaqueMove percentage
    Tells afterstep the maximum size window with which opaque window movement should be used. The percentage is percent of the total screen area. With OpaqueMove 0, all windows will be moved using the traditional rubber-band outline. With OpaqueMove 100, all windows will be move as solid windows. The default is OpaqueMove 5 which allows small windows to be moved in an opaque manner, but large windows to be moved as rubber-bands.
ClickToFocus
    Normally keyboard input goes to the window the mouse pointer is in. If this option is set, the keyboard input stays with one window until a new window is clicked on.
SloppyFocus
    This focusing mode is like focus-follows-mouse (the AfterStep default), except that the focus will not be removed from a window until your mouse enters a new window. Exiting a window to enter the root window will leave the focus unchanged.
OpaqueResize
    Causes resize operations to be done with the window itself, instead of an outline.
DontMoveOff
    Prevents windows from being moved off or initially placed off of the desktop. A few programs will not work correctly if you use this option. This only keeps windows from being completely lost off the edge of the desktop. It insists on keeping 16 pixels on the desktop, but doesn't care a bit about keeping the whole window on the desk. See EdgeResistance if you don't like having windows partially off the screen.
AutoRaise
    This built-in was replaced by the module Auto(1).
Pager X_Location Y_Location
    NOTE, THIS IS STILL BUILT-IN TO AFTERSTEP, HOWEVER THE MODULE FvwmPager(1) OR AN AFTERSTEP EQUIVALENT, SHOULD BE USED. Enables a paging style of moving across the desktop. A Pager window will appear at ( X_Location, Y_Location ) (not a pop-up). Miniature versions of all the windows on the virtual desktop are shown in the pager. The color of the miniature version is the same as the color of the full-size window's border. In the Pager window, pressing mouse button 1 will move the desktop viewport to the selected page (in click-to-focus mode, it will also move the keyboard focus to the window whose miniature you click on). Pressing button 2 on a window in the pager will begin a window move, using the miniature to quickly move the window anywhere on the desktop. Pressing button 3 will move the top-left corner of the viewport to the location of the button press, even if it does not line up with a page. Dragging button 3 will cause the selected viewport to scroll as you move the pointer. The Pager is automatically sticky, but does not automatically StayOnTop.
Mouse Button Context Modifiers Function
    Defines a mouse binding. Button is the mouse button number. If Button is zero, then any button will perform the specified function. Context describes in what context the binding applies. Valid contexts are R for the root window, W for an application window, T for a window title bar, S for a window side, top, or bottom bar, F for a window frame (the corners), I for an Icon window, or any combination of these letters. 1 is for the left title-bar button and 2 is for the title-bar button A is for any context except for title-bar buttons. For instance, a context of FST will apply when the mouse is anywhere in a window's border, except the title-bar buttons. Modifiers is any combination of N for no modifiers, C for control, S for shift, M for Meta, or A for any modifier. For example, a modifier of CM will apply when both the Meta and shift keys are down. Function is one of the following: Afterstep's built in functions, a Pop-up menu, or a user-defined function.
Key keyname Context Modifiers Function
    Binds a keyboard key to a specified afterstep built in function. Definition is the same as for a mouse binding, except that the mouse button number is replaced with a key name. The keyname is one of the entries from /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h, with the leading XK_ omitted. The Context and Modifiers fields are defined as in the mouse binding. Function is one of the following: Afterstep's built in functions, a Pop-up menu, or an exec call to a program. Binding a key to a title-bar button will not cause that button to appear unless a mouse binding also exists.
IconBox left top right bottom
    Defines regions of the screen in which to place icons. Up to four icon boxes can be defined. If an IconBox line is provided, the icons will automatically be placed in them, if possible. Each time a window is iconified, a new place is found for it. Icon boxes are searched for space going left to right, then top to bottom. Icons will not be automatically placed on top of other icons, but they may be placed underneath application windows. If left or right is negative, then afterstep will add the screen width to it. If top or bottom is negative, then afterstep will add the screen height to it. NOTE: -0 is not parsed as the right or bottom pixel on the screen. You have to use -1 instead. If no IconBox line is provided, or all icon boxes are full, then afterstep will place icons near the current pointer location.
StubbornIconPlacement
    When used with IconBoxes, causes icons to avoid placing themselves underneath existing windows.
StubbornIcons
    Changes de-iconification behavior a bit. Instead of having windows always de-Iconify themselves on the current page, the de-iconify into their original position.
SuppressIcons Prevents icon windows from being created or drawn. When used with the window-list, this provides a sort of icon manager.
StickyIcons
    Causes icons to always stick to the screen's glass. That is, icons always follow you around the desktop. When a window is de-iconified, it gets unstuck. Some people find this a useful way of moving windows around.

IconPath path
    Specifies the full path name of a directory where bitmap (monochrome) icons can be found. The path should start with a slash. Multiple directories may be specified in a colon separated list, just like the PATH environment variable.
PixmapPath path
    Specifies the full path name of a directory where pixmap (color) icons can be found. The path should start with a slash. Multiple directories may be specified in a colon separated list, just like the PATH environment variable.
Icon windowname bitmap-file
    Specifies the bitmap to be used for a window when it is iconified. The windowname can be an applications window name or class name, and must be enclosed in quotes. The bitmap-file is either the full path name to a standard X11 bitmap file, or a file in the IconPath or PixmapPath. The specified bitmap/pixmap is used in preference to any icon supplied by the window itself. If afterstep is compiled with XPM support for color icons, then can be an XPM pixmap file. windowname should be enclosed in double quotes, but bitmap-file should not. No environmental variables should be used in the bitmap-file specification. If windowname is an empty string, then the specified file is the default icon, and will be used if no other icon bitmap or pixmap can be found: Icon "" my-favorite-icon
DecorateTransients
    Causes transient windows, which are normally left undecorated, to be given the usual afterstep decorations. Note that some pop-up windows, such as the xterm menus, are not managed by the window manager, and still do not receive decorations.
ClickAndHold
    Causes afterstep to use old style menus that the user must first "click" the mouse and then "hold" it down for it to stay visible. Without this option the menus use the "Click-and-Stick" method.
RandomPlacement
    Causes windows which would normally require user placement to be automatically placed in ever-so-slightly random locations.
SmartPlacement
    Causes windows which would normally require user placement to be automatically placed in a smart location - a location in which they do not overlap any other windows on the screen. If no such position can be found, user-placement or random placement will be used as a fall-back method. For the best of all possible worlds, use both random placement and SmartPlacement.
StubbornPlacement
    When using SmartPlacement, causes new windows to avoid placing themselves over icons.
NoPPosition
    Instructs afterstep to ignore the PPosition field when adding new windows. Adherence to the PPosition field is required for some applications, but if you don't have one of those, its a real headache.
ClickTime
    delay Specifies the maximum delay (in milli-seconds) between a button press and a button release for the Function builtin to consider the action a mouse click. The default delay is 150 milli-seconds.
ModulePath
    Specifies a path for afterstep to search when looking for a module to load. The path is a colon separated list, just like the usual unix PATH environment variable. Individual directories do not need trailing slashes.
Module ModuleName
    Specifies a module which should be spawned during initialization. At the current time, the only modules are Wharf, Auto, and Audio. Fvwm modules like FvwmPager, FvwmBanner, FvwmWinList, FvwmClean, FvwnIdent, FvwmSave, FvwmScroll, and FvwmDebug can also be used by afterstep. These modules have their own man pages. Module can also be used as a builtin. Modules can be short lived transient programs, or, like Wharf, can be intended to remain for the duration of the X session. Modules called by Module will be terminated by the window-manager prior to restarts and quits, if possible. See the introductory section on modules.
Cursor cursor_num cursor_type
    This provides a very awkward way of changing cursor styles. Cursor num tells which cursor you are changing, and is a number between 0 and 12, as follows:
    0 POSITION      - used when initially placing windows
    1 TITLE         - used in a window title-bar
    2 DEFAULT       - used in windows that don't bother to set
                      their cursor
    3 SYS           - used in one of the title-bar buttons
    4 MOVE          - used when moving or resizing windows.
    5 WAIT          - used during an EXEC builtin command.
    6 MENU          - used in a menus.
    7 SELECT        - used for various builtin commands such as
                      iconify.
    8 DESTROY       - used for DESTROY and DELETE built-ins.
    9 TOP           - used in the top side-bar of a window
    10 RIGHT        - used in the right side-bar of a window
    11 BOTTOM       - used in the bottom side-bar of a window
    12 LEFT         - used in the left side-bar of a window.
    13 TOP_LEFT     - used in the top left corner
    14 TOP_RIGHT    - used in the top right corner
    15 BOTTOM_LEFT  - used in the bottom left corner
    16 BOTTOM_RIGHT - used in the bottom right corner
    The cursor_type argument is a number which tells the cursor shape to use. The available numbers can be found in /usr/include/X11/cursorfont.h, and are currently even numbers between 0 and 152. At the current time, the following cursor types are available.
    0   X_cursor              2   arrow
    4   based_arrow_down      6   based_arrow_up
    8   boat                  10  bogosity
    12  bottom_left_corner    14  bottom_right_corner
    16  bottom_side           18  bottom_tee
    20  box_spiral            22  center_ptr
    24  circle                26  clock
    28  coffee_mug            30  cross
    32  cross_reverse         34  crosshair
    36  diamond_cross         38  dot
    40  dotbox                42  double_arrow
    44  draft_large           46  draft_small
    48  draped_box            50  exchange
    52  fleur                 54  gobbler
    56  gumby                 58  hand1
    60  hand2                 62  heart
    64  icon                  66  iron_cross
    68  left_ptr              70  left_side
    72  left_tee              74  leftbutton
    76  ll_angle              78  lr_angle
    80  man                   82  middlebutton
    84  mouse                 86  pencil
    88  pirate                90  plus
    92  question_arrow        94  right_ptr
    96  right_side            98  right_tee
    100 rightbutton           102 rtl_logo
    104 sailboat              106 sb_down_arrow
    108 sb_h_double_arrow     110 sb_left_arrow
    112 sb_right_arrow        114 sb_up_arrow
    116 sb_v_double_arrow     118 shuttle
    120 sizing                122 spider
    124 spraycan              126 star
    128 target                130 tcross
    132 top_left_arrow        134 top_left_corner
    136 top_right_corner      138 top_side
    140 top_tee               142 trek
    144 ul_angle              146 umbrella
    148 ur_angle              150 watch
    152 xterm
AppsBackingStore
    Causes application windows to request backing store. Specifying this option causes the window manager to fail to be ICCCM compliant. While this option can speed things up in an X-terminal, where re-draws of windows is expensive, it may not help much on regular workstations.
SaveUnders
    Causes the afterstep decoration frames to request saveunders. This will cause afterstep to save those portions of windows that are not visible to memory (not video memory). This can significantly improve the performance during opaque moves, but it causes a significant increase in memory usage.
BackingStore
    Causes afterstep decorations to request backing store. See the discussion for AppsBackingStore.
Popup PopupName
    Starts the definition of a pop-up menu which will later be bound to a mouse button or key. PopupName must be enclosed in quotes. Menu entries are included on lines following the Popup keyword. The menu definition ends with the key word EndPopup. Menu entries are specified as shown in the following example. The first word on each line is the built-in function which will be performed, followed by the caption (enclosed in quotes) which will be shown in the menu, followed by any additional arguments needed by the built-in function. Sub-menus can be specified by using the Popup built-in, as long as the sub-menu was defined earlier in the configuration file.
    Popup "Window Ops"
           Title   "Window Ops"
           Move    "Move"
           Resize  "Resize"
           Raise   "Raise"
           Lower   "Lower"
           Iconify "(De)Iconify"
           Nop     " "
           Destroy "Destroy"
           Title   "HARDCOPY"
           Exec    "Hardcopy"  exec xdpr &
           Exec    "Hardcopy RV"  exec xdpr -rv &
    EndPopup
    Note that if a tab character is embedded in the caption of a menu entry, then the text following the tab will be entered into a second column in the menu, and the entire menu will be left-adjusted. This is intended for shortcut labeling. The tab character must really be a tab. If it is expanded into spaces it will not work! For example
    Popup "Window Ops"
           Title   "Window Ops    Alt-F1"
    Is the start of a left adjusted menu. Alt-F1 will be placed toward the right side of the menu. Shortcut keys may be specified in the menu definition by preceding the character with an ampersand. The ampersand will not be displayed, but the character after it will be displayed at the right side of the same entry, and if the user presses the corresponding key, then that item will be activated as if the user had clicked on it with the mouse. Only alphabetic and numeric characters may be used as shortcut keys. The shift state of the keyboard is ignored when testing shortcut characters. For example:-
    Popup "Window Ops"
           Maximize "Ma&ximise" 100 100
    EndMenu

    When this menu is popped up, the entry will appear as "Maximize x", and pressing the x key will cause the current window to be maximized. Shortcut keys are not operative unless MENU_HOTKEYS was defined when building afterstep. If WINDOWLIST_HOTKETS was also defined, then hot keys are automatically added to the WindowList when it is displayed.
Function FunctionName
    Starts the definition of a complex function, composed of the afterstep built-in functions, which will later be bound to a mouse button or key. FunctionName must be enclosed in quotes. Function entries are included on lines following the Function keyword. The definition ends with the key word EndFunction. Function entries are specified as shown in the following example. The first word on each line is the built-in function which will be per- formed, followed the type of event which should trigger the action (enclosed in quotes), followed by any additional arguments needed by the built-in function. Menus can be specified by using the Popup built-in, as long as the menu was defined earlier in the configuration file. The trigger actions which are recognized are Immediate, Motion, Click, DoubleClick and TripleClick. Immediate actions are executed as soon as the function is activated, even if a window has not been selected. If there are actions other than immediate ones, afterstep will wait to see if the user is clicking, double-clicking, triple-clicking or dragging the mouse. After the decision is made afterstep will execute only the builtins from the function definition whose trigger action matches the action performed by the user. If the following example were bound to button 1 in a window title-bar, then, when button 1 is pressed, afterstep would wait 150 msec to see if the button is released. If the button is not released, afterstep will start a move operation. When the move operation is complete, a raise operation will be performed. If a button release is detected, then afterstep will wait another 150 msec for a second click. If only one click is detected, then the window will be raised. If two clicks are detected, the window will be alternately raised and lowered. If three clicks are detected the window will be Shaded or un-Shaded, depending on the prior state of the window. The 150 msec wait duration can be altered using the ClickTime option.
    Function "Move-or-Raise"
           Move         "Motion"
           Raise        "Motion"
           Raise        "Click"
           RaiseLower   "DoubleClick"
           Shade        "TripleClick"
    EndFunction
    The clicking, double-clicking and triple-clicking concepts do not carry through to using keyboard shortcuts. Two special functions exist: InitFunction and RestartFunction. The InitFunction will be called when afterstep is started for the first time in any X session, and can be used to start modules, set background patterns, and begin programs. The restart function will be called when afterstep is restarted. It can be used to start modules and set background patterns, but probably should not be used to start programs.

BUILT IN FUNCTIONS
AfterStep supports a small set of built in functions which can be bound to keyboard or mouse buttons.

Nop Does nothing. This is used to insert a blank line or separator in a menu. If the menu item specifica- tion is Nop " ", then a blank line is inserted. If it looks like Nop "", then nothing is inserted.

Title
    Does nothing. This is used to insert a title line in a popup or menu.

Beep
    Makes the computer beep.

Quit
    Exits afterstep , generally causing X to exit too.

Restart
    name WindowManagerName
    Causes afterstep to re-read itself if WindowManagerName = afterstep, or to switch to an alternate window manager if WindowManagerName != afterstep. If the window manager is not in your default search path, then you should use the full path name for WindowManagerName. WindowManagerName is not quoted, but name is. name is the name that appears in a menu, if that is where the function is called from. name is required even if the function is not called from a menu, for ease of parsing. This command should not have a trailing ampersand or any command line arguments, and should not make use of any environmental variables. Of the following examples, the first three are sure losers, but the fourth is OK:
    Key F1 R N Restart " " afterstep &
    Key F1 R N Restart " " $(HOME)/bin/afterstep
    Key F1 R N Restart " " twm -f .mystartupfile
    Key F1 R N Restart " " /usr/local/bin/afterstep

Refresh
    Causes all windows on the screen to re-draw themselves.

Move
    Allows the user to move a window. If called from somewhere in a window or its border, then that window will be moved. If called from the root window, then the user will be allowed to select the target window

Resize
    Allows the user to resize a window.

Raise
    Allows the user to raise a window.

Lower
    Allows the user to lower a window.

RaiseLower
    Alternately raises and lowers a window.

Shade
    Emulates the MacOS WindowShade feature. Once activated the window will become a title-bar, handles (if any), and a one pixel thick window only.

Delete
    Sends a message to a window asking that it remove itself, frequently causing the application to exit.

Destroy
    Destroys a window. Guaranteed to get rid of the window, but is a fairly violent way to terminate an application.

Close
    If the window accepts the delete window protocol, a message is sent to the window asking it to grace- fully remove itself. If the window does not under- stand the delete window protocol, then the window is destroyed.

Iconify
    [value]
    Iconifies a window if it is not already iconified, or de-iconifies it if it is already iconified. If the optional argument value is positive, the only iconification will be allowed, and de-iconification will be inhibited. It the optional argument is negative, only de-iconification will be allowed.
Maximize [ horizontal vertical]
    Without its optional arguments, Maximize causes the window to alternately switch from a full-screen size to its normal size. With the optional arguments horizontal and vertical, which are expressed as percentage of a full screen, the user can control the new size of the window. If horizontal >0, then the horizontal dimension of the window will be set to horizon- tal*screen_width/100. The vertical resizing is similar. For example, the following will switch a window to the full vertical size of the screen: Maximize 0 100 The following causes windows to be stretched to the full width: Maximize 100 0 This makes a window that is half the screen size in each direction: Maximize 50 50 Values larger than 100 can be used with caution.

Stick
    Makes a window sticky if it is not already sticky, or non-sticky if it is already sticky.

Scroll
    horizonal vertical
    Scrolls the virtual desktop's viewport by horizontal pages in the x-direction, and vertical pages in the y-direction. Either or both entries may be negative. Both horizontal and vertical values are expressed in percent of pages, so Scroll 100 100 means to scroll down and left by one full page. Scroll 50 25 means to scroll left half a page and down a quarter of a page. The scroll function should not be called from pop-up menus. Normally, scrolling stops at the edge of the desktop. If the horizontal and vertical percentages are mul- tiplied by 1000, then scrolling will wrap around at the edge of the desktop. If "Scroll 100000 0" is executed over and over, afterstep will move to the next desktop page on each execution, and will wrap around at the edge of the desktop, so that every page is hit in turn.

TogglePage
    Temporarily disables edge scrolling. Edge scrolling can be re-enabled by calling this again.

CursorMove
    horizonal vertical
    Moves the mouse pointer by horizontal pages in the x-direction, and vertical pages in the y-direction. Either or both entries may be negative. Both horizontal and vertical values are expressed in percent of pages, so CursorMove 100 100 means to move down and left by one full page. CursorMove 50 25 means to move left half a page and down a quarter of a page. The CursorMove function should not be called from pop-up menus.
CirculateUp [name window_name]
    Causes the pointer to move to the previous window in the list of windows for which CirculateSkip has not not been specified as CirculateSkip. If the optional arguments are supplied, then the focus will move to the first window whose name (or icon name or class) matches window_name. The optional argument name is required if window_name is supplied, and is enclosed in quotes. This argument is the name which appears in menus if the function is called from a menu, but serves no purpose if the function is not called from a menu Here's an example that move the focus to an xterm window when Alt-F1 is pressed: Key F1 A M CirculateUp "whatever" xterm
CirculateDown [name window_name]
    Causes the pointer to move to the next window in the list of windows for which CirculateSkip has not not been specified as CirculateSkip. If the optional arguments are supplied, then the focus will move to the first window whose name (or icon name or class) matches window_name. The optional argument name is required if window_name is supplied, and is enclosed in quotes. This argument is the name which appears in menus if the function is called from a menu, but serves no purpose if the function is not called from a menu
Warp [name window_name]
    Same as CirculateDown, but De-Iconifies any iconified windows as it focuses on them.
Wait name
    This built-in is intended to be used in afterstep functions only. It causes execution of a function to pause until a new window named name appears. AfterStep remains fully functional during a wait. This is particularly useful in the InitFunction, if you are trying to start windows on specific desktops:
    Function "InitFunction"
           Exec "I"  exec xterm -geometry 80x64+0+0
           Wait "I"  xterm
           Desk "I"  0 2
           Exec "I"  exec xmh -font fixed -geometry 507x750+0+0 &
           Wait "I"  xmh
           Desk "I"  0 0
    EndFunction
    The above function starts an xterm on the current desk, waits for it to map itself, then switches to desk 2, and starts an xmh. After the xmh window appears, control moves to desk 0.

Focus
    Moves the viewport or window as needed to make the selected window visible. Sets the keyboard focus to the selected window. Raises the window if needed to make it visible. Warps the pointer into the selected window in focus-follows-mouse mode. Does not de-iconify. This function is primarily handy when used with a module such as the FvwmWinList. Desk arg1 arg2
    Changes to another desktop (workspace, room). If arg1 is non zero, then the next desktop number will be the current desktop number plus arg1. Desktop numbers, like arg1 can be negative. If arg1 is zero, then the new desktop number will be arg2. The number of active desktops is determined dynamically. Only desktops which contain windows or are currently being displayed are active. Desktop numbers must be between 2147483647 and -2147483648 (is that enough?).
WindowsDesk new_desk
    Moves the selected window to the desktop specified as new_desk.
GotoPage x y
    Moves the desktop viewport to page (x,y). The upper left page is (0,0), the upper right is (N,0), where N is one less than the current number of horizontal pages specified in the DeskTopSize command. The lower left page is (0,M), and the lower right page is (N,M), where M is the desktop's vertical size as specified in the DeskTopSize command. The GotoPage function should not be used in a pop-up menu.
WindowList arg1 arg2
    Generates a pop-up menu (and pops it up) in which the title and geometry of each of the windows cur- rently on the desk top are shown. The geometry of iconified windows is shown in brackets. Selecting an item from the window list pop-up menu will cause that window to be moved onto the desktop if it is currently not on it, will move the desktop viewport to the page containing the upper left hand corner of the window, will de-iconify the window if it is iconified, and will raise the window. If arg1 is an even number, then the windows will be listed using the window name (the name that shows up in the title-bar). If it is odd, then the win- dow's icon name is used. If arg1 is less than 2, then all windows on all desktops (except those listed in WindowListSkip directives), will be show. If arg1 is 2 or 3, then only windows on the current desktop will be shown. If arg1 is 4 or 5, then only windows on desktop number arg2 will be shown.
Exec name command
    Executes command. command is not quoted, but name is. name is the name that appears in a menu, if that is where the function is called from. name is required even if the function is not called from a menu, for ease of parsing. The following example binds function key F1 in the root window, with no modifiers, to the exec function. The program rxvt(1) will be started, with an assortment of options. Key F1 R N Exec "rxvt" exec rxvt -fg yellow -bg blue -e /bin/tcsh &

Popup
    NOTE: This built-in takes a slightly different form when used to bind a sub-menu into a menu than it does when binding the main menu to a key or mouse button. The form described here is for binding a main menu to a key or mouse button. Used to bind a previously defined pop-up menu to a key or mouse button. The following example binds mouse buttons 2 and 3 to a pop-up called "Window Ops", whose definition was provided as an example earlier in this man page. The menu will pop-up if the buttons 2 or 3 are pressed in the window frame, side-bar, or title-bar, with no modifiers (none of shift, control, or meta).
    Mouse 2   FST  N    Popup "Window Ops"
    Mouse 3   FST  N    Popup "Window Ops"
    Pop-ups can be bound to keys through the use of the key modifier. Pop-ups can be operated without using the mouse by binding to keys, and operating via the up arrow, down arrow, and enter keys. The following example defines a sub menu, "Quit-Verify" and binds it into a main menu, called "Utilities".
    Popup "Quit-Verify"
           Title   "Really Quit AfterStep?"
           Quit    "Yes, Really Quit"
           Restart "Restart AfterStep" afterstep
           Nop     "No, Don't Quit"
    EndPopup
    Popup "Utilities"
           Title   "Utilities"
           Exec    "Xterm"      exec xterm &
           Exec    "Rxvt"       exec rxvt &
           Exec    "Top"        exec rxvt -T Top -n Top -e top &
           Exec    "Calculator" exec xcalc &
           Exec    "Xman"       exec xman &
           Exec    "Xmag"       exec xmag &
           Popup   "Exit AfterStep"     Quit-Verify
    EndPopup
    Sub-menus must be defined prior to the main menu in which they are bound. Sub-menu nesting can be arbitrarily deep.

Function
    Used to bind a previously defined function to a key or mouse button. The following example binds mouse button 1 to a function called "Move-or-Raise", whose definition was provided as an example earlier in this man page. After performing this binding, afterstep will execute to move-or-raise function whenever button 1 is pressed in a window title-bar. Mouse 1 T A Function "Move-or-Raise"

Module
    ModuleName
    Specifies a module which should be spawned. At the current time, the only included modules are Wharf and Pager. Wharf will normally be spawned during initialization instead of in response to a mouse binding or menu action. Modules can be short lived transient programs, or, like Wharf, can be intended to remain for the duration of the X session. Module will be terminated by the window manager prior to restarts and quits, if possible.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
All window-manager operations can be performed from the keyboard, so mouse-less operation should not be difficult. In addition to scrolling around the virtual desktop by binding the Scroll built-in to appropriate keys, Pop-ups, move, resize and most other built-ins can be bound to keys. Once a built-in function is started, the pointer is moved by using the up, down, left, and right arrows, and the action is terminated by pressing return. Holding down the shift key will cause the pointer movement to go in larger steps, and holding down the control key will cause the cursor movement to go in smaller steps. Standard emacs and vi cursor movement controls (^n, ^p, ^f, ^b, and ^j, ^k, ^h, ^l) can be used instead of the arrow keys.

SUPPLIED CONFIGURATION
A sample configuration file, sample.steprc was supplied with the AfterStep distribution. It is well commented and can be used as a source of examples for afterstep configuration.

USE ON MULTI-SCREEN DISPLAYS
AfterStep does work on multi-screen displays. If the -s command line argument is not given to afterstep , it will automatically start up on every screen on the specified display. After afterstep starts, each screen is treated independently. Re-starts of afterstep need to be performed separately on each screen. The use of EdgeScroll 0 0 is strongly recommended for multi-screen displays. You may need to quit on each screen to quit from the X session completely, I'm not sure. Multi-screen support is only available if you use -DMULTIPLE_SCREENS

BUGS
NOTHING TOO SERIOUS, YET! Since AfterStep is still in development bugs are continuously being removed and new ones are introduced.

SEE ALSO
Wharf(1),Audio(1),Auto(1)

AUTHORS
Frank Fejes (frank@nina.dorknet.com) - continued feature development, upgrades, and modifications Dan Weeks (dan@mango.sfasu.edu) - slight modifications and man pages