[HN Gopher] Eww: ElKowars wacky widgets
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       Eww: ElKowars wacky widgets
        
       Author : e4e5
       Score  : 167 points
       Date   : 2023-04-25 14:27 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | danjoredd wrote:
       | Does this work with any desktop environment?
        
         | e4e5 wrote:
         | It does. It even works on macos iirc
        
         | ElKowar wrote:
         | Yes! It works both on X and on Wayland, and should support
         | basically any DE, WM and compositor out there. Note that there
         | are a few exceptions: As far as I'm aware, GNOME on wayland is
         | not going to work well, as GNOME doesn't implement the
         | necessary wayland extension protocols eww relies on to position
         | its windows
        
           | pie_flavor wrote:
           | I wonder if it'd be possible to transpile it to Rainmeter
           | configuration?
        
         | JLCarveth wrote:
         | > The key difference: It is independent of your window manager!
         | 
         | From the website[1]
         | 
         | [1] - https://elkowar.github.io/eww/
        
       | e4e5 wrote:
       | Something notable about eww is that it's configured in a lisp
       | language, as opposed to a more traditional XML and CSS:
       | https://elkowar.github.io/eww/configuration.html
        
         | ElKowar wrote:
         | Note that this is primarily a syntactical choice -- there isn't
         | _currently_ much in the configuration language that actually
         | resembles the functionality from regular lisp languages. I've
         | been thinking quite a bit about how I could make use of the
         | s-expression based syntax to turn yuck into a more feature-
         | rich, actual lisp language, without completely going out-of-
         | scope ^^
        
           | _dain_ wrote:
           | I've been following eww's development on the sidelines for a
           | while. I wondered if you considered making it callable as a
           | library, for some scripting language (e.g. python or lua or
           | something), rather than growing your own bespoke language? To
           | me it seems you risk people demanding more and more features
           | in the "configuration language", and it turns into a (bad)
           | fully Turing complete programming language before you notice.
           | Like in the configuration complexity clock[1].
           | 
           | [1] http://mikehadlow.blogspot.com/2012/05/configuration-
           | complex...
        
           | dceddia wrote:
           | I saw the Janet language mentioned a few times on HN recently
           | and it looks like a nice flavor of lisp that's also
           | embeddable. Maybe that would be useful for EWW?
           | 
           | I haven't used Janet much other than going through the
           | beginning of this book here, but here's the link to a good
           | book and the Rust bindings of you want to check it out.
           | 
           | A really good (and free!) book on Janet: https://janet.guide/
           | 
           | And the Rust bindings:
           | https://docs.rs/janetrs/latest/janetrs/
        
       | tupolef wrote:
       | After a long period with Polybar, I tried Eww for 3 months.
       | 
       | The features and the visual results are impressive. I wrote 400
       | lines of configuration and about ten scripts for it but in the
       | end the instability chilled me.
       | 
       | Sometimes tooltips refuse to display, windows open in duplicate
       | or refuse to close, the logs indicate json errors without any
       | apparent reasons or consequences.
       | 
       | I will come back to see the progress in a few months.
       | 
       | Since then I tried i3status-rust, there are less possibilities
       | visually but the same interactive features and its really fast
       | stable.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | Does it have a rich text editor field?
        
       | raybb wrote:
       | How is MacOS compatibility? Or is there something similar for
       | Mac?
        
         | SparkyMcUnicorn wrote:
         | I see references to MacOS in the code, but it looks like m1/m2
         | support isn't there yet.
         | 
         | https://github.com/elkowar/eww/issues/353
        
       | wayvey wrote:
       | Quite impressive visually. I think I'll give this a try.
        
       | petercooper wrote:
       | I saw this pop up yesterday on the unfortunately named
       | https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/ - a subreddit well worth
       | checking out if you want some inspiration around styling your
       | desktop. Lots of interesting tools pop up in the comments I'd
       | never heard of before.
       | 
       |  _(Edit: The reason I say it 's 'unfortunately' named is that not
       | everyone has the privilege to load pages containing terms like
       | 'porn' without the risk of trouble in their workplace, country,
       | or otherwise. I have no problem with the name personally, and
       | it's a fantastic sub and Discord.)_
        
         | jlg23 wrote:
         | From a "fortune -o" message my BSD threw at me a long time ago:
         | ~"It is a sad comment on society that this message is being
         | flagged as offensive just because it contains the word 'fuck'."
        
         | bheadmaster wrote:
         | Not everything in the world has to be Safe For Work. The world
         | is not a giant workplace (yet).
        
           | petercooper wrote:
           | I work for myself and own all of my own equipment, so believe
           | me, I am more than happy to load anything legal at work
           | without triggering a filter or getting a visit from a boss.
           | Sadly not everyone has this privilege.
        
           | oh_sigh wrote:
           | True, but nsfw isn't just about work, but also about people
           | with more conservative sensibilities.
           | 
           | You could call your project bacon soaked in milk but it might
           | needlessly deter Muslims and Jews.
        
             | bheadmaster wrote:
             | If we cater to everyone, nothing will be allowed.
             | 
             | If we cater to a specific set of people, it will be a
             | discrimination against all others.
             | 
             | I think the most tolerant solution is to let people control
             | their own bubbles of what they want to see.
        
           | Chris2048 wrote:
           | Double plus this. Peoples assumed right to "browse from
           | work", is the new "think of the children"; or "can't have a
           | steak just because a baby can't chew it".
        
         | LobsterJohnson wrote:
         | I think it's named suitably, even if it's not appropriate.
        
         | LanternLight83 wrote:
         | There's also the widespread use of the term ricing, which, yes,
         | I kniw has been debated and broadly accepted by the community
        
         | lfkdev wrote:
         | Nothing wrong with the name.
        
       | settrans wrote:
       | Disappointed this isn't related to `M-x eww`.
        
         | randomcarbloke wrote:
         | this is what I'm here for.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | sieste wrote:
       | Superficially, this looks quite similar to conky. Can anyone
       | comment on similarities/differences? (other than "written in
       | rust")
        
         | pseudostem wrote:
         | I tried an unsuccessful rice sometime ago from here [0] The
         | installation page has some dependency on conky-lua package. My
         | OS cranked up a few errors during compilation(?), hence
         | wouldn't know. But hopefully the link answers your question.
         | 
         | 0:
         | https://old.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/wlscxa/fvwm_an_es...
        
         | sophacles wrote:
         | This is more like dmenu (et al) + $various_bars than conky. It
         | allows you to do various overlay widgets and keybindings to
         | activate/act on them.
        
       | mcluck wrote:
       | Just picked this up the other day! So far it's been awesome. I've
       | assembled a basic pair of bars with the usual suspects and it's
       | been smooth sailing
        
       | bighoki2885000 wrote:
       | [dead]
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-25 23:00 UTC)