WorkBar

Version 1.0a1, Febuary 1999
ZodSoft

About
Configuration
Bugs
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About

About

About

Workbar is a small utility application designed to replace the "Workspaces" application that ships with the BeOS.
The original Workspaces application is managed by the BeOS app_server, so some of the functionality it offers cannot be mimicked by WorkBar, but WorkBar offers some features that Workspaces doesn't.

Features include:

Takes up minimal space
Remembers its look and feel
Can launch applications into another workspace
Scriptable

The Workbar displays a small button for each of your current workspaces.
Clicking on one of these will switch to that workspace.
All buttons start of black. This is because I know of no way of getting the colour of any workspace other than the current one.
The current workspace has a little box-type-thing in it. It looks stupid, but it does the job.
If the workbar high enough, each workspace will have its number written in it.

You can launch apps in another workspace by dragging the application icon into the 'button' for that workspace. This also works for files, so you can drag an HTML file into workspace 6 to switch to workspace 6 and open the file in NetPositive. For some reason this doesn't work with folders.
Of course, using the ALT (or CTRL if you've set your preferences that way) and one of the 'F' keys will still take you to that workspace. (eg ALT-F1 takes you to workspace 1)

Configuration

Configuration

Configuration

I'm afraid there is no options menu (yet).
Workbar does save and remember its size, position, look, feel and orientation though, so you can use scripting (eg with hey) to set it up, and it will maintain that state next time you launch.

Orientation

Workbar can be either vertical or horizontal.
You can set this with the "Orientation" property on the Window. This takes an integer (int32), 1 for horizontal, 0 for vertical.
eg: hey WorkBar set Orientation of Window 0 to 1

Size and Position

Workbar responds well to being resized or moved . Infact, you may need to resize the window to get the numbers to show.
You can use the usual BeOS drag and resize methods to do this, either with the lower-right corner, (for BeOS window decor), or with scripting (by setting the Frame property of the Window).

Look

You can also set the look of the Workbar window via scripting. The most useful "Look" values are:

Regular 1
MiniTab 7
Tabless 3
Borderless 20

eg: hey WorkBar set Look of Window 0 to 3

More Scripting
The WorkBar application defines three properties.

Version: B_GET_PROPERTY
The high order 8 bits are the major version
The second set of 8 bits are the minor version
The third set are the status ('a'== alpha, 'b' == beta etc )
The bottom 8 are the release number
So 1.0.a1 returns 0x1006101

Workspace: B_GET_PROPERTY , B_SET_PROPERTY , B_COUNT_PROPERTY
Get will give the current workspace as a 1 based index. ( see also: current_workspace() )
Set will change the current workspace ( takes a 1 based index (int32). ) ( see also: activate_workspace() )
Count will returns the number of workspaces

WorkspaceCount: B_GET_PROPERTY , B_SET_PROPERTY
Get will give the number of workspaces. ( see also: count_workspaces() )
Set will change the number of workspaces ( takes an integer (int32). ) ( see also: set_workspace_count() )