19. Additional recommended software
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## 19. Additional recommended software

NsCDE is basically a collection of configurations, themes and tools around FVWM and is a kind od "hybrid" desktop environment as unofficial definition and attempt to define it, user must choose some favorite and default applications such as X terminal emulator file manager, and X editor, which will then be provided to him in occations where programs of that type must be called.

Apart from this, since system tray concept has been introduced on X11 and is here to stay, user will need some standalone tray application. For this purpose, a logical and really great stalonetray (Stand Alone Tray) is more than adequate. When NsCDE configuration for stalonetray `$FVWM_USERDIR/Stalonetray.conf` is used, it will have this defaults: grid 3x3 and it's place will be in the bottom right corner of the screen. Stalonetray is not integrated into Front Panel because it's size cannot be known in all times: is it one button size, two, ten? It is growing and shrinking depending on number of widgets or tray icons, and apart from that, this can significantly alter the precious CDE look of the Front Panel. A window with traditional mwm/dtwm borders and without title in corner of the screen is default in NsCDE. Alternative ideas are welcome.

There are some programs which needs to be run under escalated privileges. Usually as root. Some examples are firewall-applet(1) for managing firewalld on Linux systems, Wireshark etc ... For this purpose on Linux (and most probably BSD systems), so called PolicyKit or "polkitd" is used as a authenticator component, while on the client side, PolicyKit agent must be used. This will then prompt user for a password. Since there is no equivalent of this agent as standalone DE-indepentent program analogously to stalonetray(1) or dunst(1), probably the closest match and most often used is polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1 which is usually installed in `/usr/libexec` and relatively without huge dependencies on some desktop environment. It can be started from profile, for example from InitFunction in `$FVWM_USERDIR/Init.fvwmconf` or by using dex autostarter from this very file (default Init.fvwmconf has an example for this).

Small python program dex(1) can be installed and used from InitFunction in `$FVWM_USERDIR/Init.fvwmconf`. This program can be configured to read system autostart files in `/etc/xdg/autostart` and/or user's from `$HOME/.config/autostart`. From here, PolicyKit agent, NetworkManager applet, Nextcloud agent, Firewall agent, pnmixer and similar can be started. Programs such as stalonetray(1), dunst(1), xsettingsd(1), xscreensaver(1) are not candidates for this, since they are integrated directly with NsCDE and managed by it's configuration and autodetenction procedures.

If found, and if configured in `$FVWM_USERDIR/NsCDE.conf` with InfoStore variable `nscde_use_dunst` set to 1, NsCDE will make fresh copy of `$FVWM_USERDIR/Dunst.conf` if it doesn't already exist, and start dunst(1) notification daemon. This standalone notification daemon is highly configurable and is Window Manager and Desktop Environment agnostic. Usage of dunst(1) is highly recommended.

If found, and if configured in `$FVWM_USERDIR/NsCDE.conf` with InfoStore variable `nscde_use_picom` set to 1, NsCDE will make fresh copy of `$FVWM_USERDIR/Picom.conf` if it doesn't already exist, and start picom(1) X compositor. Picom is very configurable, and user can customize this file as per wishes and needs. Usage of picom(1) is not necessary, but it may fix some tearing issues or make many openings and moves on the desktop look more smooth. On the other hand, it may introduce bugs in rare cases, as invisible popdown menus poor screen refresh and some background artefacts. Bug conditions are depending on X server version, actual video driver, picom's own configuration and mix of this circumstances.

X Terminal program? Urxvt, xterm, mate-terminal, terminus ... user's choice as always. As a slight recommendation, mate-terminal from MATE DE can be set to look almost as Dtterm, but with richer menu and better UTF-8 handling, the bad thing is that configuration if not done via GUI or configuration file but is stored in binary DCONF registry, and registry editor like dconf-editor or or dconf gsettings must be used for non-interactive or CLI editing. Second (if not first) best choice is Urxvt, but since it does not have a menu nor a real tabs, tmux(1), screen(1) or possibly tabbed(1) can be used for the same functionality. Suggestions for more dtterm-like alternative are welcome.

File manager? Since author does not use them very much, there is no some strong suggestion. Maybe Krusader from KDE is a best choice because it has a lot of features and functions plus two pane mode for work. It looks like a total contrast to GNOME way of doing things, so it must be good, although it is not at all similar to CDE's original dtfile(1), but dtfile(1) is a bad and poor file manager anyway. Another reasonable choice can be pcmanfm or pcmanfm-qt. For something more original, Xplore file manager is written with Motif widget. It looks nice, but it is unfinished (lacks real actions for many things, and instead input dialogs are popped up for copy/paste ...) it is not maintained and developed, and if someone does not brings it up from the past it can serve only for overview of directories, simple actions and nice Motif decoration. Defined as `$[infostore.filemgr]` in NsCDE.

Editor? Gvim, Emacs, Xemacs, Nedit ... user's choice. Defined as `$[infostore.xeditor]` in NsCDE.

Another nice and useful app is Gkrellm for which NsCDE has a ready drop-in theme called (of course) NsCDE in `share/config_templates` and it can be put in user's `~/.gkrellm2/themes` and integrated with Color Style Manager with the `$NSCDE_DATADIR/config_templates/colormgr.addons` which is by default called from user's `$FVWM_USERDIR/libexec/colormgr.local`, or the whole code definition is in user's colormgr.local if NsCDE has been installed prior to version 2.1.

If standalone freedesktop autostarter dex (sometimes called "dex-autostart") is installed, it will be used by default `Init.fvwmconf` function `CommonInitFunction` in local mode: it will read and start ".desktop" files in the `$HOME/.config/autostart` directory.

X Compositor: if user likes visual effects with tinting, transparency, shadows, 3D, smooth changes and so on, compton(1), compton-ng(1) or picom(1) standalone compositors are excellent programs and tools for such users, who want to combine retro and modern style. In the time of writing this, it looks like picom(1) is the most maintained of this three X compositors. Personally, I feel it like some kind of lag, no matter how powerful GPU, CPU and RAM I have. I turn it on occasionally, more as an amusement of xsnow, xsanta or xeyes type, but when I have serious work to do, I simply turn it off in some moment. Maybe it can be better if it is configured more conservative than example. See `/opt/NsCDE/share/examples/compton-integration` for a starting point. Syntax of this file is largely compatible for all three above mentioned X compositors.

Notice: when X Compositor is active on X display, FVWM geometry indicator which is shown at the center of the screen during window move or resize actions will not be visible. Also, consider uncommenting `NSCDE_REDRAW_WORKAROUND` and set it to 1 in your `$FVWM_USERDIR/NsCDe.conf`.

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