Use emacs as a widget

Previously I used yakuake or tilda as a terminal -- press F12 to call or switch back from them. Then an idea comes: why not using emacs for this purpose, and a lot more?

Here is what I have now: press f12 to switch from a pre-configured full screen emacs window and the current window. I can run terminal commands, open frequently used files, take notes and do mathematical calculation (maxima) in emacs. Press f12 again brings me back to the previous application I was using.

The idea is as follows:

(1) Use emacsclient to build up the above window. I didn't find an intuitive way. Thus I use commands like

emacsclient -e '(split-window-horizontally)'

to modify the emacsclient window frame.

(2) Use wmctrl, a command-line tool to get window information as well as change window size and focus, to bring emacs to front or to send it back.

(3) Finally, bind the script to a hotkey f12 using system settings.

The scripts are attached

(a) the script to toggle emacs state (get focus or not), should assign a hotkey

 #!/bin/bash  
 TMPFN=/tmp/toggle_emacsorg_state  
 LOGFN=/tmp/toggle_emacsorg_log  
 CUR_WIN=$(wmctrl -v -r :ACTIVE: -e dummy 2>/dev/stdout|grep Using|sed 's/Using window: //')  
 if [ "$(wmctrl -l | grep $CUR_WIN | grep work_in_emacs)" == "" ]; then  
   echo "not in work_in_emacs frame, goto work_in_emacs" >> $LOGFN  
   # save current frame number to $TMPFN  
   echo $CUR_WIN > $TMPFN  
   # start work_in_emacs, and / or switch to that  
   if [ "$(wmctrl -l|grep work_in_emacs)" == "" ]; then  
      echo "start emacsorg.sh"  
      /home/wangyi/Dropbox/local/bin/emacsorg.sh;  
   else  
      echo "switch to emacsorg.sh" >> $LOGFN  
      wmctrl -a 'work_in_emacs'; # or using -R to bring to current desktop  
   fi  
 else  
   echo "in work_in_emacs frame, goto the previous frame $TMPFN" >> $LOGFN  
   if [ -a $TMPFN ]; then  
      wmctrl -i -a $(cat $TMPFN)  
   fi  
 fi  

(b) the script to create emacs frame

 #!/bin/bash  
 PRFX=~/Dropbox/elite/links  
 # emacs  
 if [ "$(ps aux |grep 'emacs --daemon'|grep -v grep)" == "" ]; then  
   LC_CTYPE=zh_CN.utf8 emacs --daemon;  
 fi  
 # window 1  
 emacsclient -c -n $PRFX/unclassified_notes.org  
 emacsclient -e '(set-frame-name "work_in_emacs")'  
 # window 2  
 emacsclient -e '(split-window-horizontally)'  
 #emacsclient -e '(shell)'  
 emacsclient -e '(term "/bin/bash")'  
 # window 3  
 emacsclient -e '(split-window-vertically)'  
 emacsclient -n $PRFX/favorates.org  
 # window 4  
 emacsclient -e '(split-window-horizontally)'  
 emacsclient -n $PRFX/todo.org  
 # emacsclient -e '(org-agenda-file-to-front)'  
 # window 5  
 emacsclient -e '(other-window 3)'  
 emacsclient -e '(split-window-vertically)'  
 emacsclient -n $PRFX/work.org  
 # window 6  
 emacsclient -e '(other-window 1)'  
 emacsclient -e '(split-window-vertically)'  
 emacsclient -e '(other-window 1)'  
 emacsclient -e '(maxima)'  
 # switch to terminal  
 emacsclient -e '(other-window 3)'  
 # maximize window  
 wmctrl -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz -r "work_in_emacs"  
 # wmctrl -b add,fullscreen -r "work_in_emacs"