slider: Documentation

Table of Contents

What is it?

Let's ask wordnet:

slide

flat rectangular plate (a piece of glass) on which specimens can be mounted for microscopic study

slide

move smoothly along a surface

slider a universal, configurable application launch bar. It looks like a slide, and can slide.

slider is still in development, and there will be many new, exciting features soon.

slider is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL.

How does it look like?

The current default slider theme, dubbed blue, looks like this, if its open: An alternate slider theme, dubbed brushed, looks like this, if its open:	Since version 0.4, slider also can be used vertically:
That's the way blue looks if its closed: And that's the way brushed looks if its closed:

All these buttons are PNGs, so you have full control over the look.

Where can I get it?

You can get via my home page, the deep link is http://www.kronavita.de/chris/slider.html

How do I install it?

slider has currently these requirements:

• Ruby 1.8+ (compiled with Yaml support)
• ruby-gtk2-0.6.0

Installation is still in flux.
Just copy slider to /usr/local/bin, and adjust the themedir in ~/.sliderc.

How do I use it?

Just run it.

Click on toggle buttons to open/close slider (if fluid is set, it will slide).

Double-click on exec buttons to run their respective programs.

Move the slide by dragging a main button. You may exit slider by right-clicking a main button, and selecting "Quit".

Configuring slider

Slider gets configured via a Yaml file, ~/.sliderrc. This file looks essentially like this:

# This is sliderrc, the slider configuration file.
# The three dash signal the start of the Yaml document.
# Everything after # are comments.
--- 
- 
  title: Configuration    # The section with title 'Configuration'
                          #   is special.  It defines global settings.
  bgcolor: "#1177DD"      # bgcolor is the background-color of the
                          #   window which is shown if the window slides.
  fluid: true             # If true, slide the window on open/close
  auto: false		  # Automatically open/close the window when
                          #   focused.  May conflict with fluid
  vertical: false         # Show the slider horizontally
- 
  title: Slider           # A new button with title Slider
  icon: blue_title.png    # Use the icon blue_title.png
  visible: true           # It is visible when closed
  action: main            # It is the main button, used for moving and exiting
- 
  icon: blue_left2.png    # A new button without title
  visible: true           # Visible when closed
  action: toggle          # It is a toggle button, opening/closing the slide on click
- 
  title: Aterm            # A button with title Aterm
  icon: blue_aterm.png
  visible: false          # This button is invisible when closed
  action: run             # It's purpose is to run programs
  command: aterm          # It will execute aterm on click

## Many more buttons, see sliderrc included in the distribution for more details ##

I found a bug in slider

First, go sure the bug is really in slider and not in your configuration file, ruby-gtk2 or ruby itself.

Then mail a (helpful) bugreport (maybe even with patch) to <chneukirchen@yahoo.de>.