OK folks, since I prefer to use programs that are still "alive" (developed)...


I started using bbLean yesterday, and I must say that it kicks ass (though I don't need/like the context menu feature), and well, the thing is that I see that there are many additional options, various settings etc. (compare to bb4win), that I yet need to understand. But especially, there are two particular things I just need to ask.


1. I see that compare to bb4win, the bbLean's toolbar and systembar are somehow "merged" together into one row (there are not to separate/different things), while in bb4win there are most commonly one above another (if set to "link to toolbar"), but my confusion is - what is the difference then between the "toolbar" section in blackbox.rc and "general" section in bbLeanBar.rc configuration files ?? I mean you can set for instance .placement and .widthPercent lines to some different values, but still, the toolbar and systembar seems to be "merged" tight together in one "object". So what's with the two different settings for toolbar and systembar, what's their purpose ??


2. Totally un-important thing, but I really have no clue. What is that clickable little circle just left to the program-icons and right to the tasks in the tray, what does it change if you "toogle" between the two variants of circle (painted and empty) ??


Thanks for any reply, satyr

First check in your menu: ---> Configuration---> Misc. - Does "Enable Toolbar" have an indicator next to it? If not the toolbar is disabled and you will only see the bbLeanBar.

These are 2 seperate bars they are not merged.

The settings in blackbox.rc govern only the integrated toolbar (the one in the menu I spoke about above). These settings have no effect on the systembar and vice-versa.

bbLeanBar is a plugin obviously and you can actually unload it and run another systembar of your choice. I've never tried it but, I see no reason why you couldn't use the systembar from BB4Win - I use SystembarEx instead of the bbLeanBar.

The little button on the bbLeanBar toggles whether all running tasks are shown or just the tasks of the current workspace.

Thank you very much for a quick reply, crowmag !!


Though I didn't yet check the "Enable Toolbar", I remember setting the session.screen0.toolbar.enabled: from false to true manually with editing the blackbox.rc file...


P.S., I guess this is not possible, but I will ask it anyway - is maybe there an option to toogle contex menu in the main bbLean right-click menu off ?? This would be more than PERFECT for me.


best regards, satyr

um... No you can't turn it off but, I don't understand, if you don't want to use it, why is not right-clicking a problem

Hum, I must confess that still don't get it - see in the bbLeanBar's readme.txt file, it says:
bbLeanBar is a configurable taskbar with tray and clock for Blackbox for Windows.


Also I guess I wasn't clear enough in expressing my confusion in the original post...


- In bb4win, there was one "row" (a toolbar), which contained: 1. Workspace name, 2. The task with focus on, 3. Date and time... and the second "row" (a systembar), which contained all the tasks and the tray.

- But in bbLean's case, there is only one "row", nomather which settings I change in .rc files. And it contains: 1. Workspace name, 2. All the tasks, 3. The tray, 4. The date and time... and there is no second "row" - so that's why I wrote that it seems to me that systembar and toolbar are "merged" together.


Also if I click the "toogle plugins" command (or with Settings--Config--Plugins: Load/Unload bbLeanBar), then the whole "thing" disappears, and there is no toolbar (the core) that would stay visible below the bbLeanBar (or wherever), and as I already wrote in the original post - I have tried various combinations, like changing: session.screen0.toolbar.placement: to TopRight and bbLeanBar.placement: to BottomRight etc., but as mentioned - there was only one compact "one-row" bar visible, i.e. and not one at the top and the other at the bottom as I would expect.


Oh, and btw. I am also confused as to why there are two places (in bbLeanBar.rc and in blackbox.rc), where you can choose the time/date-format, if AFAIK only one of them should display it (i.e. toolbar or systembar) ??


P.S., I am also wondering how come that bb4win executable is 237 KB in lenght, while bbLean's, with all the extra features is only 112 KB ??


greetings, satyr

Yes, I know that crowmag ...


It is just that I prefer to simply disable some feature (if possible of course), rather than not using it and knowing that it's still there... It's just my obsession with minimalism !!


/EDIT: Oh maybe one good news (I need to investigate it a bit further), after observing the bbLean's behaviour a bit - I think I discovered that it consumes less average CPU than bb4win. For instance, if bb4win was 1-5 % most of the time, bbLean is 1-2 % and very rarely above 2 % of CPU !!


satyr

Dunno whether it's a help or not, but the leanbar can be configured to have two rows instead of just the one.

This:


Gives me the dual row leanbar as seen in the attached screenshot.

Holy crap , that surely did the trick !!


I guess it was the bbleanbar.item: NewLine line, right ?? But anyway - my confusion is still not solved. Let me ask it another way - if all that is visible is "one row" or "two row" bbLeanBar plugin, wher is then the Toolbar (the core) ?? Or I am right, and the concept is totally different compare to bb4win, the original branch ??!


Thank you sooo much Reverend...


satyr

Crowmag already answered this:



The Toolbar is indeed built into the core of BBLean. But the BBLeanBar plugin emulates the Toolbar's functionality, and also has features of the System Bar plugin. Thus, the Toolbar is rendered redundant, and as such, there's an option to disable it, as Crowmag pointed out.

OK thanks, I think I got it now...


It was only when I un-commented the bbLeanBar line in plugins.rc file, then the core (Toolbar) showed up. I guess my confusion was because toogling plugins and Unloading the bbLeanBar (but not completely disabling it, i.e. un-commenting it) didn't do anything in meaning of that the core (Toolbar) would finally show up...


cheers, satyr