Make Your X11 Look Like The Text Console
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I don't especially like the graphical user interface.
Why ? Because I don't like the situation with lots of windows
scatteredd on the desktop, one covering another, when it's
virtually impossible to find the needed one. Many solutions
have been proposed, from multiple desktops in Fvwm/VUE/CDE
and to the always visible list of windows in MS Windows 95
and the X window managers modelled after it.  And I think that
they all are still missing something.

But then what do I like ? I really like the PC Unix console.
What's good about it ? First, I have multiple independent
logical screens. And this is absolutely not worse that
the so much praised multi-window capabiltities of the
graphics environment. Second, each logical screen has
the size of whole display. And, third, I can easily switch
to any of these screens at random using my keyboard.
I don't have to press <Alt>+<Tab> tremendous number of
times trying to guess, which of the same-looking icons do
I need. And I don't have to select the wanted application
with the mouse (that is slow, and the less I use the mouse
the less pain in the wrist I get). Or, in case of 
VUE/CDE environments I have not only to select the
desktop with mouse, but also set the keyboard focus on the
proper window after that. Fvwm screen pages are good, but
in the default configuration the pages can be accessed
only sequentially, by pressing <Alt>+<Arrow>, and it
forgets the keyboard focus just like VUE/CDE. 

So, after all, I have decided, what I want from the graphical
environment, be like the PC Unix console: 

- Have multiple desktops with independent keyboard focus. 
- One window (ideally) per desktop. 
- The desktops must be able to be switched from keyboard
  at random.

Fortunately, the Fvwm has the support for multiple desktops,
although in the standard distribution they are configured
somewhat weird (in my opinion). But it can be rather easily
reconfigured.

Here I describe how to do such a reconfiguration. We
start with copying /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fvwm/system.fvwmrc
to $HOME/.fvwmrc. Then this file needs a number of
changes.

Step one. Disable this annoying focus-follows-mouse policy
and switch to the dearly beloved click-to-focus policy. To do
that uncomment some lines and comment out other ones,
change:

	AutoRaise 500
to
	#AutoRaise 500

and
	#ClickToFocus
to
	ClickToFocus

to get the desired result. I also like to change

	# RandomPlacement
to
	RandomPlacement

and thus enable the auto-placement of new windows.

Step two. Increase the number of the virtual desktops.
Because we have 12 function keys on the keyboard that
can be used to switch between the desktops, it seems logical
to use a number somewhat related to that magical number of 
12. The most straightforward idea seems to just have 12
desktops. But I'm not sure yet whether that many desktops are
really neccessary, so I started with 6 desktops. That
was done by changing the startup parameters of the module
Pager, in the description of the popup "Module-Popup" from

	Module  "Pager"         FvwmPager 0 3
to
	Module  "Pager"         FvwmPager 0 5

I have left the default structure of a desktop as 4 pages
untouched.

So far so good. But now we have come to a problem: what modifiers
to use with the functional keys to switch the windows ? I'm 
really accustomed to the old convention, that, I guess goes from
SCO Xenix: use <Alt>+Fn. And I like it. But the window manager
is already using <Alt>+Fn for its own purposes. What to do ?
But let's notice also that the classic Fvwm also uses many other
combinations of <Alt> and <Control> with other keys, such as 
the arrow keys.  But there exist applications, such as Netscape 
or Doom, that also really want to use these combinations, and the 
classic fvwm conflicts with them. So let's just resolve this 
conflict and move the window manager functions to some other 
modifier key.

Here comes the step 3, modifications of the keyboard setup. 
Fortunately, X11 gives us plenty of [yet] free modifiers.
Let's use the modifier number 5 for our purpose. Now we
need to allocate some physical key. There are two options.
Fisrt, there are two Alt keys on the keyboard, so they may be
separated, using the left one for applications and desktop
switching, and the right one for the window manager. But, thanks
to Bill Gates, many keyboards nowadays have 3 additional Windows
keys, that are commonly unused under Unix and are just a nuisance. 
So we got the second option: make use of these keys. Personally
I prefer the second one. 

Here go the recipes to configure the keyboard maps for both of the 
cases. First, the case with splitting the <Alt> keys. To do it
on-line (you may want to add this command to your X start up script)
just execute:

	xmodmap -e "remove mod1 = Alt_R"
	xmodmap -e "add mod5 = Alt_R"

Now the case with using the otherwise unused Windows keys. It is
a bit more difficult but, I think, worth it. First we will give
some keysym names and codes to these keys. I prefer to see these 
names registered in the XKeysymDB file but it's not absolutely
neccessary. Editing XKeysymDB will need the root user privileges 
(may be there is some other way that does not need them but I don't 
know it yet). The changes are as following: open the file
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XKeysymDB (if you don't have it, create it)
and add the lines:

	!
	! Define some keysyms for Windows keys
	!

	Win_L       :20000001
	Win_R       :20000002
	WinMenu     :20000003

Here the left Windows key is defined as Win_L (we may read it as
"window manager, left"), the right one as Win_L, and the Menu
key as Win_Menu. The keysym codes were taken arbitrarily, just
to not conflict with anything else in this file.

Now we can add them to the X keyboard map. I'm not sure, which Win
key is better to be used to control the window manager, I have used
WinMenu.  If the symbolic names are defined in XKeysymDB, it can be 
done as:

	xmodmap -e "keycode 115 = Win_L"
	xmodmap -e "keycode 116 = Win_R"
	xmodmap -e "keycode 117 = WinMenu"
	xmodmap -e "clear mod5"
	xmodmap -e "add mod5 = WinMenu"

If they are not, the digits can be used as well:

	xmodmap -e "keycode 115 = 0x20000001"
	xmodmap -e "keycode 116 = 0x20000002"
	xmodmap -e "keycode 117 = 0x20000003"
	xmodmap -e "clear mod5"
	xmodmap -e "add mod5 = 0x20000003"

Step four. Redefine the control characters of fvwm to use Mod5 instead
of Alt or Control. This is dome by changing the lines in the fvwm configuration
file:

	Key Left      A       C       Scroll -100 0
	Key Right     A       C       Scroll +100 +0
	Key Up        A       C       Scroll +0   -100
	Key Down      A       C       Scroll +0   +100
to
	Key Left      A       5       Scroll -100 0
	Key Right     A       5       Scroll +100 +0
	Key Up        A       5       Scroll +0   -100
	Key Down      A       5       Scroll +0   +100

and

	Key F1                A       M       Popup "Utilities"
	Key F1                A       M       Popup "Utilities"
	Key F2                A       M       Popup "Window Ops"
	Key F3                A       M       Module "WindowList" FvwmWinList 
	Key F4                A       M       Iconify
	Key F5                A       M       Move
	Key F6                A       M       Resize
	Key F7                A       M       CirculateUp
	Key F8                A       M       CirculateDown
to
	Key F1                A       5       Popup "Utilities"
	Key F2                A       5       Popup "Window Ops"
	Key F3                A       5       Module "WindowList" FvwmWinList 
	Key F4                A       5       Iconify
	Key F5                A       5       Move
	Key F6                A       5       Resize
	Key F7                A       5       CirculateUp
	Key F8                A       5       CirculateDown

	
Step five. Make <Alt>+Fn switch between the desktops. Because we have defined
only 6 desktops, but there are 12 functional keys, the remaining functional
keys may be used to move to the lower pages of the desktops. Before defining
the keys some utility functions must be defined:

	Function "Goto00"
	      Desk    "I"     0 0
	      GotoPage        "I"     0 0
	EndFunction
	Function "Goto10"
	      Desk    "I"     0 1
	      GotoPage        "I"     0 0
	EndFunction
	Function "Goto20"
	      Desk    "I"     0 2
	      GotoPage        "I"     0 0
	EndFunction
	Function "Goto30"
	      Desk    "I"     0 3
	      GotoPage        "I"     0 0
	EndFunction
	Function "Goto40"
	      Desk    "I"     0 4
	      GotoPage        "I"     0 0
	EndFunction
	Function "Goto50"
	      Desk    "I"     0 5
	      GotoPage        "I"     0 0
	EndFunction
	Function "Goto01"
	      Desk    "I"     0 0
	      GotoPage        "I"     0 1
	EndFunction
	Function "Goto11"
	      Desk    "I"     0 1
	      GotoPage        "I"     0 1
	EndFunction
	Function "Goto21"
	      Desk    "I"     0 2
	      GotoPage        "I"     0 1
	EndFunction
	Function "Goto31"
	      Desk    "I"     0 3
	      GotoPage        "I"     0 1
	EndFunction
	Function "Goto41"
	      Desk    "I"     0 4
	      GotoPage        "I"     0 1
	EndFunction
	Function "Goto51"
	      Desk    "I"     0 5
	      GotoPage        "I"     0 1
	EndFunction

And, finally, the definitions of the keys themselves:

	Key F1                A       M       Function "Goto00"
	Key F2                A       M       Function "Goto10"
	Key F3                A       M       Function "Goto20"
	Key F4                A       M       Function "Goto30"
	Key F5                A       M       Function "Goto40"
	Key F6                A       M       Function "Goto50"
	Key F7                A       M       Function "Goto01"
	Key F8                A       M       Function "Goto11"
	Key F9                A       M       Function "Goto21"
	Key F10               A       M       Function "Goto31"
	Key F11               A       M       Function "Goto41"
	Key F12               A       M       Function "Goto51"

Now everything should be working, just some more cosmetic changes. 
Because in this model the desktops are anonymous and not strongly
dedicated to any application, I prefers to give some neutral names
to them. So, the change of

	*FvwmPagerLabel 0 Misc
	*FvwmPagerLabel 1 Maker
	*FvwmPagerLabel 2 Mail
	*FvwmPagerLabel 3 Matlab
to
	*FvwmPagerLabel 0 One
	*FvwmPagerLabel 1 Two
	*FvwmPagerLabel 2 Three
	*FvwmPagerLabel 3 Four
	*FvwmPagerLabel 4 Five
	*FvwmPagerLabel 5 Six

does that.

Now the task is done, and the X desktops may be used just like the
console. I really, really like it this way.

But there are also some troubles. First, Fvwm was not designed with
this model of interaction in mind, and sometimes and actually rather
often it gets in troubles with managing the keyboard focus. In this
case iconizing and deiconizing the troubled window helps. Second,
I would like to get the new toplevel windows automatically started
on a free desktop. This does not seem to be possible without changes
to the internals of Fvwm. And third, the Fvwm menus are too rigid.
I think that making them dynamically loadable, like Windows or CDE
actions, must help a lot in making free Unices more user-friendly.
But this also needs changes to the Fvwm internals, and these changes
are a completely differentt story.