4.9 Virtual desktop managers 

Several free programs of this type exist. VirtuaWin and JS Pager have been included in the distribution, as a trial measure. If one doesn't suit your needs or if it is incompatible with some programs that you use, you can replace it by the other and retry. VirtuaWin is of a cruder aspect than JS Pager, but it didn't present any incompatibility with the programs with which it has been tested. JS Pager on the other hand posed some problems: it inhibits, after some manipulations, the function of insertion of commands of assistant Rosetta, and it can block the launching of some programs (it is the case of Serif Photo Plus). No incompatibility has been noted however with the programs of the CD-ROM, except assistant Rosetta.

4.9.1 VirtuaWin 

VirtuaWin is the program virtuawin.exe of the directory ROSETTA\utils\Vdesktop\Virtuawin. It can be launched by clicking on the button Virtuawin of the toolbar of the assistant (Fig. 7.1), or on the icon VirtuaWin of the Rosetta folder (Fig. 2.2).

Configuration 

The default configuration of VirtuaWin is not very well suited to the study and comparison of CAS. We propose here a configuration more adapted:

1.  Click on the button Virtuawin of the assistant's toolbar . The icon of Virtuawin appears in the taskbar.
2.  Click on this icon with the right button of the mouse, and select the option Setup. This opens a dialog box entitled Virtuawin - Properties, with five tabs (Keys, Mouse, Modules, Misc. and About).
3.  Select the tab Mouse and tick the options No mouse move and Taskbar warp. With the option No mouse move, the change of desktop is done by <<bumping>> the cursor of the mouse against one of the sides of the screen. This option minimizes the amplitude of the movements of the mouse.

   The option Taskbar warp permits to displace windows of applications from one desktop to another by drag and drop (cf. example below).

4.  Select the tab Misc., then select 2 by 1 in the frame Number of desktops. The option 2 by 1 limits the number of desktops to two¹ , arranged horizontally² one next to the other. With this option, the icon of Virtuawin turns into a black rectangle containing the number of the desktop 1 or 2 in green ( or ).

Study of a CAS 

Let's examine, with the help of an example, how VirtuaWin can facilitate the study of a CAS:

1.  Launch assistant Rosetta, then Virtuawin from the toolbar (Alg\Calfor01).
2.  Open the toolbar Alg\Cocoa, by clicking on the button of the group of toolbars Alg-1 of the assistant.
3.  Open the tutorial of CoCoA with the help of the button Tutoriel of the toolbar.
4.  Click on the right part of the titlebar of the tutorial, close to the button of reduction, and move the window of the tutorial toward the right while maintaining the button of the mouse pressed, until the icon of VirtuaWin transforms from to . Bring back the tutorial toward the left to center it.
5.  Come back to the desktop by bumping the cursor of the mouse against the left side of the screen.
6.  Launch CoCoA in a shell of Emacs by clicking on the buttons EMACS/ast then Ecocoa .

With this configuration, one has a first desktop containing the assistant, the toolbar Alg\Cocoa and CoCoA itself running in the window of Emacs, and a second desktop containing the tutorial. In this way, one passes from the program to the tutorial by bumping the cursor of the mouse against the right side of the screen, and vice versa from the tutorial to the program by bumping the cursor against the left side of the screen. Make some tests to become familiar with this behavior.

Comparing two CAS 

Let's continue with the previous example, to see how VirtuaWin can facilitate the comparison of two CASS (here, CoCoA and Macaulay³ )  :

1.  Go into desktop 2 and close the tutorial of CoCoA.
2.  Click with the left button of the mouse on the icon of VirtuaWin ( ) in the taskbar and select the option Assistant AsTeX: the assistant now appears in the desktop .
3.  Touch the left side of the screen with the mouse to go into desktop 1, and note that the assistant now appears in each of the desktops. Then touch the right side of the screen to come back into desktop 2. The assistant's window is said to be "sticky" for VirtuaWin.
4.  While being still in desktop , click on the button to open the toolbar Alg\Macaulay, then click on the buttons EMACS/ast and Emacaulay to execute Macaulay in the window of Emacs.
5.  Perform the common tests of Macaulay by clicking on the buttons 1+2 , 2*3 etc.
6.  Go into the first desktop and perform the common tests of CoCoA.

There remains two possibilities of VirtuaWin to present:

1.  Double click on the icon of VirtuaWin in the taskbar: this transforms the icon of VirtuaWin (the number of the current desktop) in and lock VirtuaWin in on the current desktop. To verify it, try to change desktop by moving the cursor toward the left side of the screen then toward the right side. Double click on to unlock VirtuaWin.
2.  Go into the second desktop (if you are not there already), click with the left button of the mouse on the icon of VirtuaWin in the taskbar. The list of all open programs appears. Select the option Assistant AsTeX. This transforms back the status of the window of the assistant from "sticky" to ordinary. To check it, come back to the first desktop: the assistant's strip is not present there any more. On that occasion, it can be noted that the notion of sticky window provides a second manner to move a window from one desktop to another.

When the study of this section is finished, leave the CoCoA and Macaulay programs by clicking on the buttons Quitter of their respective toolbars, close Emacs with the option File / Exit Emacs, close the toolbars of CoCoA and Macaulay and quit Virtuawin. If you work under Windows 9x, it is very important to leave the CAS launched in a shell of Emacs by using their normal quit commands before closing Emacs. Otherwise, you risk to block your machine completely. If you forgot to do it and that you left Emacs directly, refer to section 4.11.2 to kill the Winoldap processes remained open, before going further.

4.9.2 Jspager 

JS Pager permits to use a larger number of virtual desktops than Virtuawin, thanks to its system of miniature windows representing the open programs, and thanks to the display on the taskbar of all open programs, whatever the virtual desktop where they are. One can know thus at a glance which programs are open, on which desktops they are and which desktops are empty.

To launch JS Pager, you can click on the button Jspager of the toolbar of the assistant, or on the icon Jspager of the Rosetta folder (Fig. 2.2).

The default configuration can be modified by clicking with the right button of the mouse on the icon of JS Pager in the taskbar, and by selecting the option Options. The configuration recommended for JS Pager is to define two or four virtual desktops by default instead of the nine by default (X=2 and Y=1, or X=2 and Y=2 in the frame Desktop size) and to untick the option Wrap cursor in the tab General options. This option is the equivalent of the option No mouse move of Virtuawin. If you want to have the same behavior more or less than with VirtuaWin, set the cursor of the scroll bar Mouse scroll delay time to the second graduation. This gives a delay of 200 ms before changing desktop, when one brings the cursor of the mouse against a side of the screen. A window can be declared sticky with the help of the option Set sticky windows of the menu of JS Pager.

To see how JS Pager can facilitate the study of a CAS, perform the same operations that you did for the example 1 of VirtuaWin (sec. 4.9.1), while launching JS Pager instead of VirtuaWin. More precisely, launch assistant Rosetta, then JS Pager, open the toolbar Alg\Cocoa and launch CoCoA in a window of Emacs, finally launch the tutorial of CoCoA. You should have then on your desktop, the assistant Rosetta, the toolbar Alg\Cocoa, a window of Emacs in which CoCoA is running, the window of the tutorial of CoCoA, the virtual desktop monitor (sec. 3.5.2) of JS Pager in the upper left corner of the screen and the icon of JS Pager in the lower right corner.

A miniature window representing the tutorial appears in the virtual desktop monitor. The tutorial can be changed of desktop by drag and drop, by clicking with the right button of the mouse on its miniature window in the virtual desktop monitor, and moving this miniature in the monitor to the second virtual desktop. One can then switch from the program to the tutorial by bumping the cursor of the mouse against a side of the screen, as with Virtuawin, by clicking on the miniature desktop that contains the element (program or tutorial) that one wants to use.

To see how JS Pager can facilitate the comparison of two CAS, perform the same operations you did for the example 2 of VirtuaWin (sec. 4.9.1), and install CoCoA and Macaulay in two distinct virtual desktops.

The test buttons of assistant Rosetta can become inoperative after some manipulations⁴ , when JS Pager is in use. If this happens (message of the type Le programme emacs@ n'est pas ouvert - The program emacs@ is not opened), try to regroup on one desktop the assistant, the toolbar and the target software (Emacs), and retry. If the problem persists, close JS Pager then restart it.