Goats

Goats gives you post-it notes on your Gnome desktop!

Compiling Goats
Running Goats
Using Goats
Known bugs and limitations
Author
License

Compiling Goats

From a source file, e.g. goats-0.6.tar.gz, type the following:

gunzip goats-0.6.tar.gz
tar -xvf goats-0.6.tar

This uncompresses the source code and creates a directory goats-0.6containing the source code. You can now delete the file goats-0.6.tar . Enter the source directory using cd goats-0.6 and type:

./configure
make

This compiles the package. To install the package you must be root. Type:

make install

By default, Goats installs files in /usr/. This should be correct for most Gnome installations. If you want Goats installed in /usr/local/ use ./configure --prefix=/usr/localin place of ./configure in the above instructions.

Problems compiling

Old versions of gnome don't support different panel sizes. If you get an error message about applet_widget_get_panel_pixel_size , type:

make clean
./configure --disable-panel-size
make

If you don't want to use the panel at all, you can compile the program without support for it. Type:

make clean
./configure --disable-panel
make

If you still can't get it to work, read the INSTALL file contained in the distribution.

Running Goats

You should be able to add Goats to the panel by right clicking on the panel and selecting:

add applet->Utility->Goats

from the menu. If you can't find Goats in the menu, the file goats.desktophas been installed in the wrong place. Try copying it to /usr/share/applets/Utility/or /usr/local/share/applets/Utility/

You can also run goats from the command line - just type goats

If the applet fails to appear, a common problem is the file goats.gnorba . Normally it should be in the directory /etc/CORBA/servers/ It may have been put in /usr/etc/CORBA/servers/ or /usr/local/etc/CORBA/servers/ Find out where it is and try copying it to the other locations.

If you want to run Goats without the Gnome panel, type goats --without-panel.

Using Goats

Most of the options are fairly self explanatory. This is a brief description of what you can do with Goats.

The Applet

Click with the left button to get a new goat with default settings. Click with the right button for the following options:

About - Shows a little information about the program
Help - Displays this file...
Preferences - Change default settings for goats
My Goats - Gives a menu of things you can do to your herd of goats:

Show Summary - Show a summary of all your goats. Left click on a row to select a goat, and right click for a menu to raise, hide, delete, cancel alarms etc.

Raise all - Bring all your goats to the front of the desktop.
Lower all - Send all your goats to the back of the desktop.
Show all - Makes any hidden goats reappear.
Hide all - Makes all the goats disappear, but doesn't delete them.
Shade all - Hide the text boxes, leaving just the title bar.
Unshade all - Show any hidden text boxes.
Delete all - Delete all your goats permanently.

Preferences

Defaults:

Default size - Changes the default size of goats in pixels.
Default colour - Choice of three colours or random. Click the 'Customize' button to change the colours offered..
Default font - The default font for goats. Note that calendars are not displayed correctly unless you use a fixed width font.
Default alarm sound - If you want your alarms to play a sound by default, click this button and select the sound file you want to play.
Sticky by default - If selected, new goats are sticky (appear on every desktop).
Floating by default - If selected, new goats float above other windows.
Text colour - The colour of the text on the goats, click on the button to change it.

Options:

Raise note... - When dragbar is clicked means the goat will behave like a normal window, and clicking on the dragbar at the top brings it to the front. Only when button is held means that once the goat has been lowered to the bottom, it only comes forward when you hold the button down - when you release the button it snaps back to the bottom.
When popping up note - You can choose to be notified of an alarm by popping up the note you set it on. The note can either just come to the front on whatever desktop you left it on, or it can jump to your current desktop. Here you can select which you prefer.
When setting alarm... - Select if you prefer the 24 hr clock in your alarm dialog.
Delete button - The button at the top right of a goat can be made to delete or hide the goat. The icon will change from a cross (delete) to a something-disappearing (hide)
Autosave goats on focus out - if selected, whenever you alter a goat and then move the pointer away from it your goats will be saved. This may be useful if you experience frequent crashes, but should not be necessary otherwise.

Helpers:

Print command - Command executed by the 'Print text' option. %s is replaced by the title of the goat. This command acts on a file containing the text of the goat. The default command is 'a2ps', a utility for printing text to a PostScript printer available from ftp://ftp.enst.fr/pub/unix/a2ps/.
Mail command - Command executed by the 'Mail text' option. This command takes the text from standard input. The first %s is replaced by the subject of the mail, the second is the address.
Other programs - if ticked, other programs can create notes by altering the file ~/,gnome/goats_new. This option exists because a friend of mine was generating a REX synchronisation package that wanted to create notes from its 'memo' feature. It is possible (unlikely though) that someone else may take advantage of this as well. If you are a programmer and want to do this here is some information . Otherwise it doesn't make much difference.

The Goat

Click with the left button in the text area to start typing. Click with the left on the title bar to raise the note, and to drag it around. Click with the left button on the resize icon (top left) and drag to resize the note (it will remain square). Click on the cross to delete/hide the goat (see preferences ). Double click in the title bar to change the title. Middle click in the title bar to shade/unshade the note . Click anywhere with the right button to get a menu.

The Menu.

New goat - Creates a new default goat. Same as clicking on the panel applet.
Text... - Fit size makes your goat just the right size to fit the text you've typed. Clear just deletes the text . Print prints the text of the note to a printer, Mail sends it as an email. (See preferences ). IP Message lets you send the text as an instant message using the "IP messanger" program (see http://gipmsg.sourceforge.net/#intro )
Set... Title gives your note a title which is displayed in the top bar. You can also set the title by double clicking in the title bar. Alarm allows you to set an alarm for the goat, or view the currently set alarm.
Insert... - Inserts the current time and date, a calendar, or a random piece of wisdom into your goat.
Properties - Colour lets you change the colour of the note, Font changes the font the text is displayed in, Sticky means the note always appears no matter what desktop you are on. Floating means the goat is always in front of the other windows. Shaded means the text box is hidden leaving only the title bar. You can also shade a goat be clicking in the title bar with the middle button.
Raise - Brings the goat to the front of all the other windows.
Lower - Puts the goat behind all the other windows.
Hide - makes the goat disappear without deleting it. You can make it visible by selecting show all from the applet menu
Delete - Permanently delete the goat.

Set an alarm

Alarm on - toggles whether the alarm is on or not.
Remind me at... - Select the date and time you want the alarm to go off. If you want the alarm to repeat at fixed intervals, select the repeat from the menu to the right of the time selector.
Display a message - Pops up a message box containing the given message when the alarm goes off.
Pop up the note - The note itself comes to the front when the alarm goes off (see preferences ).
Play sound - Selects whether to play a sound when the alarm goes off. You can type the sound file you want played in the text entry, or click on select file to choose a sound. The default is a goat's bleat...

Saving goats

Goats are automatically saved when you logout, remove the applet from the panel, or kill it using the kill command. You don't need to save them manually.

Known Bugs and Limitations

Notes that aren't moved from their initial position are saved at co-ords 0,0. This is because gdk_window_get_origin doesn't seem to work....

Saved notes don't pop up on their original desktop. This is because I don't know how to get/set the desktop.

Memory leak when creating the set alarm dialog. I think this is a problem with the gnome_date_edit widget.

Some problems with raise/lower not working which causes problems when dragging & resizing.

Author

M.Craig <martin@menudo.freeserve.co.uk>
Goats home page: http://www.menudo.freeserve.co.uk/goats.html

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA