Switching between opened applications.

[peterhey]

Hi.
Is any simple method to switch between applications, which are in background?
I know how to create a script to manage a "Home button". It checks if some of defined applications are running, adds them to the carousel, shows running apps and chooses app which we want on foreground. Somewhat like alt+tab in many OS. If none of defined apps are running, "Home" acts generally. However I don't know how to put app on foreground. I suppose there are some system events but which? Or is it at all possible?

Thanks in advance.

[NiLuJe]

Hmm, wrong forum?

You mentioned a carousel, which sounds suspiciously like a Kindle Fire thing... .

(We only deal with the eInk models here, you want the Fire subforum for the tablets ).

[peterhey]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Hmm, wrong forum?

You mentioned a carousel, which sounds suspiciously like a Kindle Fire thing... .

(We only deal with the eInk models here, you want the Fire subforum for the tablets ).

K5 Touch.
I'll write carousel, but I don't know how to put on foreground some app.

[NiLuJe]

What do you mean by 'apps'?

[peterhey]

Midori, kterm, dictionary.mobi (booklet, reader or wua), leafpad - this mainly - and other defined by name in conf file by user.

[Aeris]

You could make a javascript/html thing to switch between running apps. Don't know if there are better ways, but you could use xdotool from twobob to simply hide/show apps windows:

Download link

Usage samples

For a custom dialog sample, quite similar to the one you are going to make, give a glance to KindleTask app in Kindle Menu package (even if it only allows to terminates/kills process, not to switch between them).

This is what you should do in my opinion, step by step:
- make a list of the executables you want to be shown in your switcher
- check which ones are currently running (with "ls" command, for example)
- build a custom dialog (html page) with a link for each of them
- associate to each link an onclick event, that through nativeBridge maximizes/minimizes the corresponding window, using xdotool
- launch the custom dialog

Ah, as you can see, the app switcher thingy was already between Kindle Menu TODOs... even if I didn't make it yet because I don't find it so necessary, to me at least.

[NiLuJe]

Do remember that the device has almost no free RAM for fun stuff, so backgrounding multiple stuff isn't really a great idea/actually feasible. It's already giving us nightmares for getting a single modest application to run, so if you want to multitask on top of that, brrr!

[knc1]

But setting up a swap file is easy, and even a small one makes a big difference.
Multiple examples given in twobob's posts.

Some of the applications he has ported are so big, that they **require** a swap file running to just run a single instance of the application.

And he and Aires had a discussion of the subject in a recent thread.

[Aeris]

Yes, anyway I still agree with Niluje that take care also of multitasking would be quite annoying... and, above all, pretty useless in my opinion (for the app bundle currently available).

But, if peterhey needs it and wants to play with it, it is totally doable as I suggested

[hawhill]

I doubt that. They do not necessarily have means to share resources yet and are not prepared for being preempted. Without at least some modification, I would consider such an approach as being pretty futile.

[peterhey]

Works fine with midori, kterm, leafpad.

Two things makes it useless for me:

1. Some apps are in background. During start off dictionary.mobi the device stops and no response. The "/usr/bin/wua -l com.lab126.acxwua -s com.lab126.acxManager" (*.mobi) starts only after I close through ssh all apps in background.

2. Ctrl+c crtl+v doesn't work between apps. No clipboard on OS. I would have to additionally create something similar but I've no idea how without interference in apps.

Maybe I'll use this information in a different way. For something usable.
Thanks.

[hawhill]

Oh, i didn't see that this is just about X applications. i think awesome WM is standards compatible and should support EMWH. And may be itself configurable enough using Lua to implement everything that's needed.

[peterhey]

Instead of xdotool I used gestures engine.
Related to https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=166080

Two files.
"./gesturetail" file to run
"gesture" defines which applications you want to run

The combination of ctrl+c, ctrl+v also works between some apps.

[peterhey]

It's simple switcher. I use it with gesture engine and it's what I need. It operates with applications on the application layer, omitting some excluded. To fine finish, it needs some instructions for "home button" in "rc.lua" file. Thanks for your tips.

switcher:

#!/bin/sh

list=`/mnt/us/bin/wmctrl -l | grep L:A_N: |  grep -v blankBackground | grep -v titleBar | grep -v lab126.booklet.home | awk '{print $4" "$1}'`
hm=`echo $list | awk 'BEGIN {i=0} {while ($i!="") i++} END {print (i-1)/2}'`

if [ $hm -gt 1 ]; then
	WHICHAPP=`cat /tmp/WHICHAPP`
	if [ "$WHICHAPP" == "" ]; then WHICHAPP=1 ; fi

	if [ "$1" == "next" ]; then 
		if [ $WHICHAPP -lt $hm ]; then WHICHAPP=$((WHICHAPP+1))
		else WHICHAPP=1
		fi
	fi
	if [ "$1" == "prev" ]; then 
		if [ $WHICHAPP -gt 1 ]; then WHICHAPP=$((WHICHAPP-1))
		else WHICHAPP=$hm
		fi
	fi
	idapp=`echo $list | awk -v i=$WHICHAPP 'BEGIN {i=i*2} {print $i}'`
	layerA=`echo $list | awk -v i=$WHICHAPP 'BEGIN {i=i*2-1} {print $i}'`
	layerD=`echo $layerA | awk 'BEGIN {i=3; printf "L:D_N" ; } FS=":" {while ($i!="") { printf ":"$i ;i++ ;}}'`
	/mnt/us/bin/xdotool set_window --name $layerD $idapp
	/mnt/us/bin/xdotool set_window --name $layerA $idapp
fi
#export $WHICHAPP
echo $WHICHAPP > /tmp/WHICHAPP

gesture:

case "$run" in

...
	# -  pinch + left
	3)
	$ext/gestures/bin/switcher next &;;
	
	# -  pinch + right
	4)
	$ext/gestures/bin/switcher prev &;;

...