Hackedbox provides configurable window decorations,and a root menu to launch applications. There is also a workspace menu to add or remove workspaces.

Hackedbox features a special kind of icon handling: When you minimize a window, no icon appears; instead, you can view all minimized applications in the `Icons' submenu of the workspace menu. Your desktop will never get cluttered with icons. As an alternative to icons, shaded windows are provided: A double click on the titlebar of a window will shade it (i.e. the window will on the titlebar of a window will shade it (i.e. the window will disappear; only the titlebar stays visible). By using style files, disappear; only the titlebar stays visible). By using style files, you can determine at a great level how your desktop looks.

-help

Display command line options and compiled-in features, then exit.

-version

Display version info and exit.

-rc rcfile

Use another rcfile than the default ~/.hackedboxrc .

-display display

Start Hackedbox on the specified display. Programs started by Hackedbox will have the DISPLAY environment variable set to this value, too.

When started, Hackedbox will try to find a default menu file in ~/.hackedbox/menu . You can provide a system-wide menu for your users here.

On exit or restart, Hackedbox will save user defaults in the file ~/.hackedbox/rc in the user's home directory. Some resources in this file can be edited by hand.

Left clicking (button 1) on an application in the Workspaces menu will bring you to that workspace and raise/focus that application; middle clicking (button 2) will warp the application to the current workspace.

Send To...

Send window to another workspace. When you select the workspace with the middle button, Hackedbox will send you, along with the application, to the selected workspace.

Shade

Shade window (display titlebar only).

Shade window (display titlebar only).

Iconify

Iconify window. The `icon' can be found in the `Icons' submenu of the workspace menu. It will *NOT* appear on screen otherwise.

Maximize

(Un)Maximize window. When you click the middle button on this item, the window will maximize only vertically.

Raise

Raise window.

Lower

Lower window.

Stick

(Un)Stick window. A stuck window will always be displayed in the current workspace.

Kill Client

Kill (-SIGKILL) owner of window. Only use this if the client refuses to close.

Close

Close the application cleanly.

When you double click on the titlebar of a window, it will

When you double click on the titlebar of a window, it will `shade', so that only the titlebar stays visible. Another double `shade', so that only the titlebar stays visible. Another double click will redisplay the window contents.

[begin] (label for root menu)

This tells Hackedbox to start parsing the menu file. This tag is required for Hackedbox to parse your menu file. If it cannot find it, the system default menu is used instead.

[end]

This tells Hackedbox that it is at the end of a menu. This can either be a submenu or the main root menu. There must be at least one of these tags in your menu to correspond to the required [begin] tag.

[exec] (label for command) {shell command}

Inserts a command item into the menu. When you select the menu item from the menu, Hackedbox runs `shell command.'

[exit] (label for exit)

Inserts an item that shuts down and exits Hackedbox. Any running programs are not closed.

[include] (filename)

Parses the file specified by filename and includes it with the current menu. The filename can be the full path to a file, or it can begin with ~/ , which will be expanded into your home directory (e.g. [include] (~/hackedbox/stylesmenu) will include /home/bhughes/hackedbox/stylesmenu in my menu).

[nop] (label - optional)

Insert a non-operational item into the current menu. This can be used to help format the menu into blocks or sections if so desired. [nop] does accept a label, but it is not required, and a blank item will be used if none is supplied.

[style] (label) {filename}

This tells Hackedbox to insert an item that, when selected, reads the style file named filename and applies the new textures, colors, and fonts to the current running session.

[stylesdir] (directory name)

Reads all filenames (directories are ignored) from the specified directory and creates menu items in the current menu for every filename. Hackedbox assumes that each file is a valid style file. When selected by the user, Hackedbox applies the selected style file to the current session. The labels that are created in the menu are the filenames of the style files.

[stylesmenu] (label) {directory name}

Creates a submenu entry with label (that is also the title of the new submenu), and inserts in that submenu all title of the new submenu), and inserts in that submenu all filenames in the specified directory, in the same way as the [stylesdir] command does.

Both [stylesdir] and [stylesmenu] commands make it possible to install style files without editing your menu file.

[submenu] (label) {title for menu - optional}

[submenu] (label) {title for menu - optional}

This tells Hackedbox to create and parse a new menu. This menu is inserted as a submenu into the parent menu. These menus are parsed recursively, so there is no limit to the number of levels or nested submenus you can have. The title for the new menu is nested submenus you can have. The title for the new menu is optional; if none is supplied, the new menu's title is the same as optional; if none is supplied, the new menu's title is the same as the item label. An [end] tag is required to end the submenu.

[reconfig] (label)

When selected, this item rereads the current style and menu files and applies any changes. This is useful for creating a new style or theme, as you don't have to constantly restart Hackedbox every time you save your style. However, Hackedbox automagically rereads the menu whenever it changes.

[restart] (label) {shell command - optional}

This tells Hackedbox to restart. If `shell command' is supplied, it shuts down and runs the command (which is commonly the name of another window manager). If the command is omitted, Hackedbox restarts itself.

[config] (label)

Inserts a Hackedbox generated submenu item containing numerous configuration options concerning window placement, focus style, window moving style, etc.

[workspaces] (label)

This tells Hackedbox to insert a link to the workspaces menu directly into your menu. This is handy for those users who can't access the workspace menu directly (e.g. if you don't have a 3 button mouse).

Any line that starts with a `#' is considered a comment and ignored by Hackedbox. Also, in the labels/commands/filenames fields, you can escape any character like so: [exec] (\(my cool\) \{XTERM\}) {xterm -T \"cool XTERM\"} Using `\\' inserts a literal back-slash into the label/command/filename field.

# Hackedbox menu file
[begin] (Hackedbox @version@)
  [exec] (rxvt) {rxvt -ls}
  [exec] (Mozilla) {mozilla}
  [exec] (The GIMP) {gimp}
  [submenu] (Window Manager)
    [exec] (Edit Menus) {nedit .hackedbox/Menu}
    [submenu] (Style) {Which Style?}
      [stylesdir] (~/.hackedbox/styles)
      [stylesmenu] (Hackedbox Styles) {@pkgdatadir@/styles}
    [end]
    [config] (Config Options)
    [reconfig] (Reconfigure)
    [restart] (Restart)
  [end]
  [exit] (Log Out)
[end]
# end of menu file

The default installation of Hackedbox provides some of these style files. Usually they are put in @pkgdatadir@/styles . You can study or edit these files to grasp how the Hackedbox style mechanism works. You can use the [style], [stylesdir] and [stylesmenu] menu commands in your menu file to be able to select and change between styles on the fly.

You can also create a directory in your home directory (usually named ~/.hackedbox/styles) and put your own style files there. Of course, you may choose any name for this directory, but many downloadable themes will rely on the name styles (following the bb.themes.org naming scheme).

To understand how the style mechanism works, you should have a little knowledge of how X resources work.

X resources consist of a key and a value. The key is constructed of several smaller keys (sometimes referred to as children), delimited by a period (`.'). Keys may also contain a star (`*') to serve as a wildcard, which means that one line of typed text will match several keys. This is useful for styles that are based on one or two colors.

Hackedbox allows you to configure its four main components: the menus, and the window decorations.

The little window that shows the x-y position while dragging windows borrows its style from the window's titlebar. windows borrows its style from the window's titlebar.

Here are some quick examples: toolbar.clock.color: green This sets the color resource of the toolbar clock to `green'. Another example: menu*color: rgb:3/4/5 This sets the color resource of the menu and all of its `children' to `rgb:3/4/5'. (For a description of color names, see X(1).) So this one also applies to menu.title.color and menu.frame.color . one also applies to menu.title.color and menu.frame.color . And with *font: -b&h-lucida-medium-r-normal-*-*-140-* you set the font resource for all keys to this font name all at once. (For information about the fonts installed on your system, you can use a program like xfontsel (1), gtkfontsel , or xlsfonts (1).)

Now what makes Hackedbox just so spectacular is its ability to render textures on the fly. Texture descriptions are specified in a similar way to the colors shown above e.g.: toolbar.clock: Raised Gradient Diagonal Bevel1 toolbar.clock.color: rgb:8/6/4 toolbar.clock.colorTo: rgb:4/3/2 Don't worry; we will explain right now! A texture description consists of up to five fields, which are as follows:

Flat / Raised / Sunken

gives the component either a flat, raised, or sunken appearance.

Gradient / Solid

tells Hackedbox to draw either a solid color or a texture with gradient.

Horizontal / Vertical / Diagonal / Crossdiagonal / Pipecross / Elliptic / Rectangle / Pyramid

Select one of these texture types. They only work when Gradient is also specified!

Interlaced

tells Hackedbox to interlace the texture (darken every other line). This option is most commonly used with gradiented textures, but, from Hackedbox version 0.60.3 on, it also works in solid textures.

Bevel1 / Bevel2

tells Hackedbox which type of bevel to use. Bevel1 is the default bevel. The shading is placed on the edge of the image. Bevel2 is an alternative. The shading is placed one pixel in from the edge of the image.

Instead of a texture description, the option ParentRelative is also available, which makes the component appear as a part of its parent, i.e. totally transparent.

All gradient textures are composed of two color values: the color and colorTo resources. color represents the initial color, colorTo represents the final color of the gradient. When Interlaced is used in Solid mode, the colorTo resource is used to specify the interlacing color.

Well, here is the complete component list; also, all components together with which kind of value they can contain. Comments are preceded with an exclamation sign (!), which is also used for comments in Hackedbox style c.q. X resource files.

! The menu titlebar.
! The menu titlebar.
menu.title:                     Texture
menu.title:                     Texture
menu.title.color:               Color
menu.title.color:               Color
menu.title.colorTo:             Color
menu.title.colorTo:             Color
menu.title.textColor:           Color
menu.title.textColor:           Color
menu.title.font:                Font
menu.title.font:                Font
menu.title.justify:             center, left, or right
menu.title.justify:             center, left, or right

! The menu frame.
menu.frame:                     Texture
menu.frame.color:               Color
menu.frame.colorTo:             Color
menu.frame.textColor:           Color
menu.frame.disableColor:        Color
menu.frame.font:                Font
menu.frame.justify:             center, left, or right

! Bullets for submenu items.
menu.bullet:                    empty, triangle, square, or diamond
menu.bullet.position:           right or left

! The highlighted menu item.
menu.hilite:                    Texture (e.g. Raised)
menu.hilite.color:              Color
menu.hilite.colorTo:            Color
menu.hilite.textColor:          Color

! A focused window.
window.title.focus:             Texture
window.title.focus:             Texture
window.title.focus.color:       Color
window.title.focus.color:       Color
window.title.focus.colorTo:     Color
window.title.focus.colorTo:     Color

! An unfocused window.
window.title.unfocus:           Texture
window.title.unfocus:           Texture
window.title.unfocus.color:     Color
window.title.unfocus.color:     Color
window.title.unfocus.colorTo:   Color
window.title.unfocus.colorTo:   Color

! Window label.
window.label.focus:             Texture or ParentRelative
window.label.focus.color:       Color
window.label.focus.colorTo:     Color
window.label.focus.textColor:   Color

window.label.unfocus:           Texture or ParentRelative
window.label.unfocus.color:     Color
window.label.unfocus.colorTo:   Color
window.label.unfocus.textColor: Color

! Handlebar.
window.handle.focus:            Texture
window.handle.focus.color:      Color
window.handle.focus.colorTo:    Color

window.handle.unfocus:          Texture
window.handle.unfocus.color:    Color
window.handle.unfocus.colorTo:  Color

! Resize grips.
window.grip.focus:              Texture
window.grip.focus.color:        Color
window.grip.focus.colorTo:      Color

window.grip.unfocus:            Texture
window.grip.unfocus.color:      Color
window.grip.unfocus.colorTo:    Color

! Window buttons.
window.button.focus:            Texture or ParentRelative
window.button.focus.color:      Color
window.button.focus.colorTo:    Color
window.button.focus.picColor:   Color

window.button.unfocus:          Texture or ParentRelative
window.button.unfocus.color:    Color
window.button.unfocus.colorTo:  Color
window.button.unfocus.picColor: Color

window.button.pressed:          Texture (e.g. Sunken)
window.button.pressed.color:    Color
window.button.pressed.colorTo:  Color

! Frame around window.
window.frame.focusColor:        Color
window.frame.unfocusColor:      Color

! Font and justification for window labels.
window.font:                    Font
window.justify:                 center, left, or right

! Miscellaneous resources.

! A border can be drawn around all components.
borderWidth:                    a number of pixels, e.g. 1
borderColor:                    Color

bevelWidth:                     a number of pixels > 0
handleWidth:                    a number of pixels > 0

! Width of the window frame (from version 0.61 on).
! When not specified, frameWidth defaults to the value of bevelWidth.
frameWidth:                     a number of pixels >= 0

! This command is executed whenever this style is selected.
! Typically it sets the root window to a nice picture.
rootCommand:                    Shell command, e.g. bsetroot -mod 4 4 -fg rgb:5/6/6 -bg grey20

! Some of the bbtools read these old 0.51 resources.
menuFont:                       Font
titleFont:                      Font
titleFont:                      Font

Now, this seems a long list, but, remember, when you create your own style, you can easily set lots of keys with a single command, e.g. *color: slategrey *colorTo: darkslategrey *unfocus.color: darkslategrey *unfocus.colorTo: black *textColor: white *unfocus.textColor: lightgrey *font: lucidasans-10 This sets already nice defaults for many components.

session.menuFile:

This tells Hackedbox where to look for its menu file.

session.autoRaiseDelay:

This adjusts the delay (in ms) before focused windows will raise when using the Auto Raise option. Default value is: R 250 .

session.doubleClickInterval:

This adjusts the delay (in ms) between mouse clicks for Hackedbox to consider a double click. Default value is: R 250 .

session.screen0.edgeSnapThreshold:

When moving a window across your screen, Hackedbox is able to have it `snap' to the edges of the screen for easy placement. This variable tells Hackedbox the distance (in pixels) at which the window will jump to the edge. Default value is: R 0 .

session.cacheMax:

This tells Hackedbox how much memory (in Kb) it may use to store cached pixmaps on the X server. If your machine runs short of memory, you may lower this value. Default value is: R 200 .

session.cacheLife:

This tells Hackedbox how long (in minutes) unused pixmaps may stay in the X server's memory. Default value is: R 5 .

session.colorsPerChannel:

This tells Hackedbox how many colors to take from the X server on pseudocolor displays. A channel would be red, green, or blue. Hackedbox will allocate this variable ^ 3 colors and make them always available. This value must be between 2 and 6. When you run Hackedbox on an 8-bit display, you must set this resource to 4. Default value is: R 4.

When running Hackedbox in a multiple desktop environment, the screen0 key can also be screen1, 2 etc. for any appropriate desktop.

HOME

Hackedbox uses $HOME to find its .hackedbox/rc file, and to resolve style file and directory names.

DISPLAY

When no other display was given on the command line, Hackedbox will start on the display specified by this variable.

The official Hackedbox website:

epist(1)