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Smartbar 0.3

Note: I wrote this page in the old 1995, and left it alone for years. When I re-discovered my old personal website I decided to keep it also on the new one. The program was a little Tcl/Tk script for UNIX environments with file/job/user management capabilities, and it had a discreet success and interesting reviews on some magazines, especially in Germany.
What follows is exactly what I wrote several years ago.

Download
Click here to download version 0.3 (12 Kb, .gz format)
Click here to download version 0.3 (12 Kb, .zip format)

Overview

Smartbar is my first serious attempt to create something useful with the Tcl/Tk scripting Language. This document can be considered the official documentation of the program, even if neither the program nor this documentation is really finished.

Smartbar was born as a self-made utility to execute comfortably some common tasks (and as an experiment to learn Tcl/Tk): I'm now trying to make something more interesting and powerful of it; but for this I need also users' suggestions.
Version 0.3 has a new printer manager, a new user manager, an improved filesystem navigator and a better look. Now 'wish' can be in any directory specified in the path. Now you can operate on buttons even if the application is not the top window.


Features


It allows mounting of floppies (both in msdos and ext2 file systems) and cdroms. When not in use the program appears as a small window like the one on the left; but as you move the mouse pointer over the window, it enlarges and displays the available options (look at the picture on the right). Notice that unuseful options are not displayed: for example if the CDROM is already mounted, the 'Mount CD-ROM' button disappears and the 'Unmount CD-ROM' button appears. Of course when the mouse pointer moves away from the window, it comes small again.

The 'Processes' button opens the 'Process Manager' window. So far the only available action towards a process is the 'kill'. The 'Process Manager' window displays the list of all the currently running processes also the ones not belonging to the current user. Of course suggestions to enhance and increase the features of this panel are welcome.

The 'System information' window displays a subset of the available system and software information. This information is taken in real time from the proc filesystem and other sources.

But the most powerful and versatile feature of this program is unquestionably the filesystem navigator, that appears like the picture.
It is somehow structured like an Amiga utility called 'Directory Opus' and it also behaves like it in some ways. The window is divided horizontally and the two halves display the content of two directories. In particular in the left panels are shown the subdirectories of the current one, whereas in the right ones are displayed files (normal and special ones). It is possible to select one directory only in the right panels, whereas you can select as many files as you want in the right panels. Of course the buttons on the top of the two halves operate on the selection and if you move the mouse over one of them you can see in the status line a brief description of every task and whether it operates on files, dirs, or both.


You can easily take a look at the status of the printers and also kill the unwanted print jobs with the new printer manager.


Some simple but useful user management options are provided by the user management panel. Notice that the 'Delete user' command doesn't delete the user home directory nor his mail spool file.


The last program feature is the cancellable shutdown: pressing the last button in the main bar (the one in red), you activate the shutdown & reboot process that begins exactly one minute after your click. A window like this is displayed (you must have the font adobe-helvetica-bold-o-normal--34-240-100-100-p-182-iso8859-1 installed; usually this is true if you have installed all the 100dpi Slackware or Red Hat fonts; if you don't have this font you can change it in the profile script). And you have a minute to cancel the shutdown.

Installation

Smartbar has been successfully tested under Red Hat 4.1. The Tcl/Tk package must have been correctly installed in order to make the program work, and 'wish' must be available in the path. If it is in another position you simply have to modify the first line of the script according to the real path of 'wish'. The System Information Window in addition requires the procfs feature enabled in the kernel. And, yes, it runs only under X-Windows.

The first time the program is launched it creates a profile file usually called .smartbar.profile in your home directory. Remember to take a look at this file and modify it according to your system configuration and your needs as indicated in that file, otherwise the program may not work correctly. The profile script format has changed since the previous versions. Remember to delete or rename the old one.

Notice

Smartbar is shareware.
  • You can use and copy it freely but if you find it useful and want to continue using it you have to send me a postcard with your greeting and a view of your country (the address is below) ;-)
  • Look at the copyright notice at the end of this document.

To-Do List

In the next version I'll (perhaps) add:
  • some cofiguration dialogs in order to make superfluous the profile modifications
  • a graphic representation of the average cpu load
  • something useful on the user management
  • an automatic log processor
  • what you'll ask me... :-)

Copyright Notice

This License Agreement permits you to make and use an unlimited number of copies of Smartbar for your use provided that:
  • the Smartbar program is not modified in any way and
  • you maintain the copyright notice on all copies of the program
Smartbar is owned by Daniele Paolo Scarpazza and is protected by United States copyright laws and international treaty provisions. You may not rent, lease, or sell Smartbar, but you may give it away freely.

NO WARRANTIES. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, DANIELE PAOLO SCARPAZZA DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. DANIELE PAOLO SCARPAZZA SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, LOST PROFITS OR INFORMATION, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, OR OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS, EVEN IF HE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

MajaMaja is powered by the Tcl Language. [jump to top of page]

The above document was last modified on 2004-04-16 16:43:45; page last updated on 2010-07-02 at 21:22:34.
Document size: 8009 bytes, plus related data up to 421 kbytes.

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smartbar.gz File : smartbar.gz 12.1 kbytes 2000-10-18
 
smartbar.zip File : smartbar.zip 15.2 kbytes 2000-10-18

MajaMaja is powered by the Tcl Language. [jump to top of page]
This page was last updated on 2010-07-02 at 21:22:35.
This site was automagically generated by MajaMaja version 0.298, a simple and easy to use web content manager written in Tcl by scarpaz <scarpaz@scarpaz.com>.