3 ms·

What's the connection between M4 and a window manager?

oblio 5y ago
FVWM has a complex configuration format and back in the day (maybe even now?) some people would use macro processors to generate the configuration file. In 2021, I wouldn't bother.
- Brian_K_White 5y ago
  I thought the m4 files simply were the config files. This was something like redhad 3.x or 4.x? It was all m4 files to define the start menu contents and the dock and everything else. I was new enough at the time that I guess those could have just been a front end to the actual config files without understanding that. I just remember spending a lot of time fiddling with m4 files to get my fvwm and fvwm95 desktop just the way I wanted it. It's nothing I chose, it's just the way it was already in the distribution. edit... out of curiosity I've now googled "fvwm m4" and confirmed my memory. I was sort of mostly or half right. m4 is not strictly "the" config format, but it is a compile-time built-in feature that is generally always used, and old redhat in particular had a confusing setup.
  - fvwmuser 5y ago
    Yes -- same with CPP as well. Fvwm2 allowed you to use the language features of M4/CPP to hold variables and to perform loops on different data, so you could generate complex config files that way, without needing to build that into the core config syntax itself. However, in fvwm3, I've removed both those modules.
Brian_K_White 5y ago
The entire purpose of the comment was to remark that there is one, ovbviously. I didn't say "window manager", I named a specific piece of software by name, in a particular context. It's a reasonable assumption that there is a significant connection of some sort between m4 and this window manager, or at least that my intention was to declare as much. And what more should I have to say in this context than "fvwm uses it too"? Do you actually care about the details of exactly how fvwm uses m4? If you did, then googling "fvwm m4" gives you all that.

FVWM has a complex configuration format and back in the day (maybe even now?) some people would use macro processors to generate the configuration file. In 2021, I wouldn't bother.

Brian_K_White 5y ago
I thought the m4 files simply were the config files. This was something like redhad 3.x or 4.x? It was all m4 files to define the start menu contents and the dock and everything else. I was new enough at the time that I guess those could have just been a front end to the actual config files without understanding that. I just remember spending a lot of time fiddling with m4 files to get my fvwm and fvwm95 desktop just the way I wanted it. It's nothing I chose, it's just the way it was already in the distribution. edit... out of curiosity I've now googled "fvwm m4" and confirmed my memory. I was sort of mostly or half right. m4 is not strictly "the" config format, but it is a compile-time built-in feature that is generally always used, and old redhat in particular had a confusing setup.
- fvwmuser 5y ago
  Yes -- same with CPP as well. Fvwm2 allowed you to use the language features of M4/CPP to hold variables and to perform loops on different data, so you could generate complex config files that way, without needing to build that into the core config syntax itself. However, in fvwm3, I've removed both those modules.

Brian_K_White 5y ago

The entire purpose of the comment was to remark that there is one, ovbviously. I didn't say "window manager", I named a specific piece of software by name, in a particular context. It's a reasonable assumption that there is a significant connection of some sort between m4 and this window manager, or at least that my intention was to declare as much. And what more should I have to say in this context than "fvwm uses it too"? Do you actually care about the details of exactly how fvwm uses m4? If you did, then googling "fvwm m4" gives you all that.