Desktop icons new layout

After an eternity, I am building a pup-derivative with a new layout of icons on the screen.

The partition icons are still there, above the tray.

The others are now just one line across the top of the screen, and those less-required are removed.

As SFS files are important in Easy, this is a new icon, labeled "sfsget". This is alongside what was named "install" but is now going to be either "pkgset" or "petget".

The renaming of "install" will remove confusion, due to the different meanings of that word.

I will also have radky's PupControl, which will launch via the "setup" icon. radky has just released a new version, that is Easy-compatible.

Tags: linux

SFSget rewritten

I have rewritten /usr/sbin/sfsget, the SFS downloader app.

This was not in Quirky, as Quirky is for full installations, though that changed somewhat later on.

Easy OS, however, is exclusively based on a layered filesystem, using aufs or overlay, and SFS files are making a big comeback.

Easy though, is very different from Puppy, and I had to rewrite SFSget from scratch.

Done, and it works real nice.

Tags: linux

Markdown to HTML

I wrote about redesigning the local help files in Easy:
http://bkhome.org/news/201708/easy-help-overhauled.html

Now I am thinking of dumping all of that.

Various reasons, one of which is that HelpSurfer is too unstable. Also too slow.

jamesbond's mdview is soooo fast, and help files in Fatdog are now based on markdown. Wrote about mdview here:
http://bkhome.org/news/201707/mdview-markdown-viewer.html

L18L wrote a custom converter to convert one of the Fatdog md files to html:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=895313#895313

I wondered what is out there, to convert md to html. There are many converters that require an Internet connection, but I want one that works offline.

Found these:
Written in C:
http://www.pell.portland.or.us/~orc/Code/discount/
Javascript:
https://github.com/chjj/marked

Read more...

Mele PCG35 Apo ordered

I wrote about this mini-PC recently:
http://bkhome.org/news/201708/mele-pcg35-apo-minipc.html

Decided to buy it. Another system is needed for testing. Unfortunately, the Alpha Litebook has fatal problems with using Flash drives, so not using it. I posted about it here:
http://bkhome.org/news/201707/alpha-litebook-laptop.html

Also, a system with Windows 10 will be useful for testing dual installations with Easy OS.

Like the passive cooling too!

Tags: linux

Easy Help overhauled

In Quirky, and all pups, there is a "Help" entry in the menu, clicking on which launches the web browser and brings up a local web page, /usr/share/doc/index.html

I have overhauled the help mechanism. index.html has javascript in it, which HelpSurfer cannot handle.

help.sh
index.html is now removed, and clicking "Help" in the menu runs /usr/share/doc/easy/help.sh, which launches a language-translated file 'help.htm' in HelpSurfer.
This has to work without being online, so there are translations of major languages for help.htm, in /usr/share/doc/easy.

welcome.sh
This replaces 'welcome1stboot' and launches a translated 'welcome.htm'. Again, has to work offline.

doc-launcher.sh
index.html had pull-down menus to select a package, application or utility, and launch local or online help. That uses javascript, so there is now a script, /usr/sbin/doc-launcher.sh.
help.htm has a link to launch doc-launcher.

There has been a major cleanup of /usr/share/doc, old help files thrown out. Much of it is better suited to be online.

Read more...

HelpSurfer 0.3

I posted about HelpSurfer 0.2 a few days ago:
http://bkhome.org/news/201708/helpsurfer-02.html

There was something else that I wanted HelpSurfer to be able to do: execute local executables.
This is not a web browser, it is a local help viewer, so I can justify doing things that would be unacceptable in a browser.
Although it is not legitimate html, HelpSurfer 0.3 supports hyperlinks to

"exec:<executable>[ <parameters>]"

For example:

<a href="exec:leafpad /usr/share/doc/home.htm">EXECUTE LEAFPAD</a>

I have a requirement for this feature.

Announced on the Puppy Forum, with source and PET links:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=963385#963385

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New welcome window

With Quirky, at first bootup, QuickSetup displays, followed by 'welcome1stboot'. The latter is a window with some introductory information, such as about the desktop icons and tray applets, and links to further help.

In woof-CE, that welcome1stboot is a web page, in Quirky it is a binary executable (written in BaCon).

For Easy, I have created /usr/share/doc/easy/welcome.htm, and this now replaces welcome1stboot.
As easy has the lovely new HelpSurfer html viewer enhanced by SFR, this is used to view welcome.htm

Technical note: welcome.htm is launched from /usr/sbin/delayedrun, which in turn is launched from /root/.xinitrc when X starts up.

I used Google Translate to create welcome_de.htm, etc.. After the user has chosen a language in QuickSetup, delayedrun will look for a matching welcome_*.htm and if exists will launch it.

Tags: linux

SeaMonkey heavy writes to drive

Forum member tallboy posted about this, for Firefox:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=111233

SeaMonkey does the same thing, updates the session information every 15 seconds. This is only useful in case of a crash. Setting it to 15 seconds causes Flash memory to be pounded.

tallboy posted a link, with a fix. It can also be done by editing /root/.mozilla/*/seamonkey/prefs.js, this line will set it to 30 minutes update:

user_pref("browser.sessionstore.interval", 1800000);

I reckon that I will modify my SM PET with this.

Tags: linux