Guess is a software for starting and stopping different sets of programs – sessions – inside a GNOME (GTK) environment. It is able to load files stored in a session folder on startup and to place/resize/move the windows after they appeared on the desktop.

One can configure different programs with their positions, sizes and start/stop commands and put them together in different sessions. For easier configuration a wizard is implemented wich is a great support in figuring out settings and commands.

The program’s GUI is built mostly self-explaining – just hold your mouse above the text labels to get a more complex description of the options.

Why Guess?

My main reason for constructiong this piece of software was the lack of “production management” in Ubuntu-Studio. A complete setup for musicproduction needs a couple of programs running side by side, connected through jack. These may be ardour (digital recording), rosegarden (midi environment), hydrogen (drum sequencer), some softsynths like zynaddsubfx etc. All those tools need to be started at once, loading a file on startup and be placed on one of the desktops. After work you have to close them all manually. So to just listen in a production takes half an hour only fiddling with porgrams around. “Did I use hydrogen in this song?”

Guess is made for handling this kind of setup easily. Setup all your programs, manage them in “sessions” (in my case songs) and start/stop them with a single click. No more “open file…”, no more moving around on desktops…

Another scenario is starting a collection of desired programs with a single click or on startup on different desktops with fixed positions/sizes etc. For example a standard desktop setup: email fullscreen on desk 3, browser @ 1024×768 on 2, messenger right-aligned on desk 4, musicplayer left-aligned on desk 4 with standard playlist and so on.

Download and installation

The DEB Packet is available via repository. Please keep in mind to never trust external repositories! Even though I will never upload any shit to this repo I recomment the old scool way regardless: add the RSS to your favorite feed reader and fetch the package from the header of this website. The repository is signed (same goes for the packages, too) so you can be kind of “shure” that the stuff is what it is expected to be.

wget http://repository.mein-neues-blog.de:9000/PublicKey

sudo apt-key add PublicKey

rm PublicKey

echo "deb http://repository.mein-neues-blog.de:9000/ /" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install guess

Or get one of the packages below:

Download guess as DEB

Download guess as TAR.GZ

Download guess as RPM

Fundamental for the use is only the…

understanding of the concept:

1) Configure your programs first. The wizard and the implemented man-page reader will help you out. Do not consider the wizard is in godmode – proof your settings!

2) Click the configured programs together in sessions, select a session folder to store your session-related data in an save the session.
3) Start and stop your sessions.

4) You may save your settings so guess can remember your language settings for example.

That’s it, basically. Some useful…

Hints:

• If your programs have to store session-related files, store them in the chosen session folder. You can activate a commandline-option to load those files on startup. See the man-pages for more information about the options of your programs.
• for help with the cli call “guess -h” or “guess –help”. If the language doesn’t fit your brain add “-l en” or “–language=en” to the command. Actually available: “de” (german) and “en” (japanese. for shure.)
• Place an icon named like the sesion in the chosen session folder, /usr/share/icons, ~/.icons or the directory of this program (/usr/share/guess/pixmaps) to display as a session icon in the tree-view
• Sessions and Programs are selected and saved as one would expect: to copy an item simply change the name of the program/session and hit “save”. You will see the selection disappearing from the treeview while you change a name. If you type a name wich already exists, that one is selected in the tree-view automatically an will be overwritten if you hit save.

Okay, that’s it for the moment.

that’s it?

You may expect to read something like “please make a donation if you like this program” or something. But “please vote on elections” is the better concept i think.

Okay, “please send me your underwear once a week if you like my software” may sound a bit funnier and has a lot more flavour…

If you reallyreallyreally want to donate please visit those guys, can’t imagine that they can really challenge a life with the crap they’re selling.

Money sux. hardly.

Version history

This article was published Dienstag,, 4. November 2008 @ 07:56. You may want to subscribe to the comments via RSS 2.0 feed. Post a comment, or create a trackback on your page.