i3situation - alternative to i3status

[harveyhunt]

^^ we try to keep low-key. popularity attracts idiots ;)

Certainly sounds like a good idea. :)

...

I have found out the problem, the python config parser sees % as a special symbol. Use %% instead of a single % to escpape it. I will update the docs for it later. :)

[kiiroitori]

^ Thanks harveyhunt!

Using %% instead of % prevents the error from showing up but the time format does not change according to the configuration file, looks like the variable gets ignored. Will be wating patiently for a fix! Thanks again for your work!

[harveyhunt]

^ Thanks harveyhunt!

Using %% instead of % prevents the error from showing up but the time format does not change according to the configuration file, looks like the variable gets ignored. Will be wating patiently for a fix! Thanks again for your work!

Hmmm, how strange. I just tried this and it works fine for me.

Try:

time_zone = UTC

and then:

time_zone = EST

There should be quite a difference between those two. :)

[kiiroitori]

Sorry I forgot to mention that time zone changes were working in my previous post.

The problem is when I change the short_format parameter. For example,

Code: Select all

shot_format = %%H

should display the hour digits only, am I right? Whatever I specificy I only get the default display, that is the date DD-MM-YYYY followed by the time in HH:MM:SS format. The log file remains empty.
harveyhunt, when you say that it works for you, do you mean you can display only the hour digits if you use my example above? Is there something obvious I am missing or a misunderstanding about what the short_format parameter?
Thank you for your time!

[harveyhunt]

Sorry I forgot to mention that time zone changes were working in my previous post.

The problem is when I change the short_format parameter. For example,

Code: Select all

shot_format = %%H

should display the hour digits only, am I right? Whatever I specificy I only get the default display, that is the date DD-MM-YYYY followed by the time in HH:MM:SS format. The log file remains empty.
harveyhunt, when you say that it works for you, do you mean you can display only the hour digits if you use my example above? Is there something obvious I am missing or a misunderstanding about what the short_format parameter?
Thank you for your time!

Ah, I get it now. Short_format is used by i3bar when it runs out of space on the bar (it doesn't calculate this very well though- I just included it for completeness).

Set long_format to %%foobar and it'll work.

At least we're finding problems in my docs :-)

[kiiroitori]

^ Aaah! But of course!

Fantastic, it works beautifully! Thanks for all the swift replies. I realize that if I had read the docs more carefully I should have had figured this out by myself...

[harveyhunt]

^ Aaah! But of course!

Fantastic, it works beautifully! Thanks for all the swift replies. I realize that if I had read the docs more carefully I should have had figured this out by myself...

Not to worry, I like helping people. :)

Do you think that I should change the docs slightly, or did you just miss that part? I am trying to make sure the docs work well for everyone. :)

[kiiroitori]

I guess changing the docs a little bit may require a little less intellectual efforts on attention-lacking readers like me. Let me tell you what confused me:

Having a large monitor, it did not occured to me that some people would want a shorter format for the date/time when the bar gets crowded so they can get a few character space back. I realize now that if you are on a 11-inch display you may not want to display the date, seconds and such unless you have spare space in your bar. So I misunderstood what was meant by "short_time" and "long_time" and stupidly assumed it was a different way of parsing the %date %time variables. Since I wanted to display the time as %H%M only and no date, the "long_format" sounded like what I didn't want!

This, and the fact that you provide two examples in separate code boxes. If I had to write the docs for myself, it would read something like that:
"The date/time format follows the strftime nomenclature (link to it), e.g.:

Code: Select all

long_format=%d-%m-%Y %H:%M:%S
short_format=%H:%M:%S

i3situation will switch to the short_format when i3bar runs out of space etc"

I guess having both long and short formats in the same code example section would have cleared the confusion. Please note that I am not saying that you should have or should alter the docs the way I am saying, I just wanted to explain why I misunderstood the documentation. The above would have worked better for me, maybe not for others!