scriptable desktop UI, is it possible?

[Chris G]

On Sat, Feb 07, 2009 at 12:34:12AM -0800, Xiong Jiang wrote:
> XFCE is my top desktop UI choice and it may be the best candidate for
> the following idea, which is my wish, not to be considered as feature requests.
> 
> I am tired of tweaking my desktop UI: whatever I tried, I want to try
> something new, and unable to save what I have tried except for saving
> a screen shot, and unable to easily use it again. So I am wondering if
> anyone would or have bothered to create a programmable UI through
> perl/python/ruby/java/bash/whatever script.
> 
> By using such script, you can save your UI setup easily, and pick it
> up again any time in future. You can set up your customization on a
> new installation easily, just by running the script, and you can
> create a menu to switch between different setup by just one click.
> 
It's called fvwm!  :-)

I used to use fvwm for this very reason, the configuration sits in a
(fairly) easily programmable 'script' which defines all of your window
layouts, which program to start of which windows, mouse actions,
menus, etc.

By specifying a different file when you run fvwm you can have
different desktop layouts.

The only real reason that I left is that xvwm has prettier looking
window frames etc. (sad eh?)  I still miss the easy 'programmability'
of fvwm.  I know I *could* import the xvwm 'pretties' into fvwm but
it's too much like hard work.

-- 
Chris Green