The barbarella buttonbar
This buttonbar applet was created by an elderly lady who has found great difficulty in launching applications by double-clicking on icons. If you have the same problem, read on!
Desktop environments like gnome use the file manager to manage the desktop, which usually means that users have the choice between single- and double-clicking to activate icons. This choice is not always available in the simpler type of Linux GUI; indeed some provide no desktop icons at all. Where a buttonbar is provided (as for example in fvwm) it is usually specific to that window manager.
In spite of this, many people still prefer to use a window manager rather than a desktop environment because of its speed and simplicity.
Barbarella was created for people who:
- Want or need single-click access to applications without having to wade through menus;
- Are using a GUI which either does not provide desktop launcher icons or provides them only with double-click access;
- Want the option of having several different bars running simultaneously, perhaps on different workspaces;
- Want to be able to continue using the same bar if they change their window manager;
- Are prepared to configure their buttons by hand.
Why Barbarella? Well, originally it was to be called Cinderella because, in UK pantomimes, Cinderella usually has a sidekick called Buttons. Also, the type of GUI in which this program might prove most useful has itself become a kind of Cinderella option - with gnome and KDE possibly functioning as the two obese ugly sisters! However the name Cinderella is already in use for an interactive geometrical program so a friend suggested Barbarella.
Barbarella uses the gtk widget set so, at a pinch, it can be used with gnome too.
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