Tuesday, December 27, 2011

HOWTO: Setup Comp-Scale under Enlightenment

What is Comp-Scale?

Comp-Scale is an Enlightenment module that uses compositing features to allow you to switch between active windows and your current virtual workspace in a fancy method.

Installing Comp-Scale:

If you are using Bodhi Linux comp-scale is installed by default on your system. If you are using a different base system I advise building the latest comp-scale module from the E SVN.

Loading Comp-Scale:

If you installed the module correctly you can now go to Settings->Modules->Look and load Comp-Scale:


Setting Up Comp-Scale:

There are two different methods of settings up Comp-Scale. First you can simply add click-able gadgets (Settings->Gadgets) to your desktop or shelf:


Or you can setup key bindings:


What does Comp-Scale Look Like?

The first gadget - Scale Windows - gives you a composited view of all the windows on your active work space:


The second gadget - Scale all Windows - displays all open applications running across all your work spaces:


Finally, the third gadget - Scale Pager - triggers an overview of all your virtual work spaces:


Closing:

Short Enlightenment tutorials are something I hope to start doing on a regular basis. The Enlightenment desktop is extremely flexible and there are a great number of things you can do with it. Personally I learned everything I did about the desktop largely by following the IT flow chart and I advise everyone else interested in learning the desktop to do the same. The Bodhi Guide to Enlightenment is also a great resource for learning the E17 desktop.

If there is something you are interested in learning how to do, drop a comment below and hopefully I can address it in a future post

~Jeff Hoogland

11 comments:

  1. its one of those wow effects that gets em every time and it make navigating windows insanely fast I second that Awesome!

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  2. IT flowchart is also very useful ;)

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  3. Looks like it's time for me to set up an e17 desktop and give it another try...

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  4. Awesome - as soon as I have updated to 1.3 I am going to install this!

    What I would love to see is an Idiots Guide to Getting your Asus N13 (linux compatible) wireless USB to work with Bodhi...

    I have a few web pages open, but none of them explain it in the terms a simpleton would understand (e.g. start terminal, type sudo make etc etc, unpack files to this directory etc etc).

    :)

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  5. Send me the hardware in the mail and I'll write the easy howto for it ;)

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  6. Great, now how to I get my 17inch multi touch N-Trig to convert gestures to key commands? :) I guess the real question is will Bodhi 2 include utouch, geis, grail, and ginn support without Ubuntu's bass-akwards default gestures? And before you ask I will not be shipping my favorite laptop to your house for 'testing purposes'.

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  7. smallblack - check out easystroke for converting gestures to key commands.

    As for utouch - adding all of that requires a giant backporting. With Bodhi 2.0.0 being based on 12.04 only 6 months away, users are just going to have to wait for that release to gain utouch.

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  8. I love the scale windows module! Takes me back to compiz but without the Unity and other stuff. It even works on my 8-9 year old desktop!
    The tutorials is a good idea, I think so hopefully it works out well.

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  9. Yet another nice guideline :)
    Thanks Jeff.

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