Cute little bar for Linux written in Python

One can debate if it's useful for others. But here's the code anywhere.

Screenshot:

.. image:: https://raw.github.com/sahib/par.py/master/screenshot.png

Full Screenshot (in bspwm):

.. image:: http://i.imgur.com/ExoS5xG.png

Dependencies

Arch-Package name in (Paranthesis), Purpose in [Brackets].

- Gtk [*Window for the Bar*] (**extra/gtk3**)
- Cairo [*Drawing all the stuff*] (**extra/cairo**)
- Pango [*Providing perfect Font Rendering*] (**extra/pango**)
- Python [*Language used*] (**extra/python**)
- pygobject [*GObject Bindings for Python*] (**extra/python-gobject**)
- Optional stalonetray

One could argue it's not that lightweight, but hey, it updates only once in a second here, or on any external event.

Most people will have those dependencies installed anyway.

Design

There are two Python scripts:

• par.py: Render and place the Bar.
• par_writer.py: Provide the information to render. You edit this script.

At top of par_writer.py you'll find a large string with placeholders. This template will be filled and printed to stdout every second or on any new input.

par.py wil read from the path you pass as first argument. This is in my setup a FIFO previously created with mkfifo at /tmp/par-fifo. par_writer.py can now print it's output in this:

.. code-block:: bash

$ mkfifo /tmp/par-fifo
$ python par.py /tmp/par-fifo & 
$ python bar_writer.py > /tmp/par-fifo

Example startup script

.. code-block:: bash

#!/bin/sh
BAR_FIFO='/tmp/par-fifo'

if [ -e "$BAR_FIFO" ] 
then 
    rm "$BAR_FIFO"
fi

mkfifo "$BAR_FIFO"

# Start the scripts
(python par.py "$BAR_FIFO") &
(python -u par_writer.py > "$BAR_FIFO") & 

# Fill initial desktop configuration
bspc control --put-status

# Load the tray after the bar
stalonetray --geometry 4x1-1+1 --icon-gravity E --grow-gravity E  -bg "#e08787" -i 18 -d all &

Bugs

Lots of. This was written for my own usage, but I was asked for the setup, not all properties are configurable. Like the placement of the panel. I'd have e.g. no idea how to place it at the bottom.

Known:

• After startup no desktops are rendered (only ???)
• MPD status will not appear until first client-event. (just )
• Desktops will only work with bspwm and only if the FIFO is named
  /tmp/panel-fifo. Did I mention it is a little hacky? :-)
• Desktop names are even clickable, but won't work very nicely currently.

Some of those will be fixed once I feel annoyed enough to do so. Just relax with some tea in the meantime. :-)