Xlupe is a screen magnifier that starts  magnifying the screen as soon as it is invoked and has a slider bar to easily change magnifications. Xlupe has two modes available. In mode one, it follows the mouse and displays everything that is under it. This is the default mode. In the other mode it displays a static area. You can enter this mode by clicking into the display window and dragging the appearing rectangle to the desired region. You stop/return to mode one by pressing the right mouse button. If you have a display with different visuals and want to zoom an area in a window not laying in the default visual, you will find the "jump" option very handy. Just press the button and click on the appropriate window.

Since xlupe is not packaged, we need to build it from source at least until maybe Head_on_a_Stick graciously packages it .

Install the needed build packages

As root, issue the following command.

apt-get install build-essential libx11-dev xutils-dev xaw3dg-dev libxaw7-dev

Get the source code

wget https://web.archive.org/web/20070518221826/http://core.de/~coto/projects/xlupe/xlupe-1.1.tar.gz

Extract the source code

tar -xvzf xlupe-1.1.tar.gz

Build the source code

cd xlupe-1.1

Modify the Imakefile to build with the nicer looking 3d Athena Widgets library instead of the basic Athena Widgets.

sed -i '7s/.*/LOCAL_LIBRARIES = -lXaw3d XawClientLibs -lXmu -lXpm -lm/' Imakefile

Generate the Makefile with the following command.

xmkmf

Compile and link xlupe by issuing the following command.

make

Install xlupe on your system

mv xlupe /usr/local/bin/

Add xlupe to your LXQt Desktop

The following was tested with a clean Devuan Beowulf installation with the LXQt desktop. In theory, this should work with XFCE as well. As root, use your favorite text editor to create text file /usr/share/applications/xlupe.desktop with the following contents.

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Screen Magnifier
Exec=xlupe
Icon=system-search
Categories=Utility;

You should now have an entry named Screen Magnifier in your Accessories menu.

Thanks to the author of xlupe, Thomas Runge whose archived home page is here

Ycalc is a light-weight programmable calculator for X based on the TI-58/59 which allows you to create keypress macros. An example of how to program ycalc is here. But what really sets ycalc apart is its binary mode. When you press the Bin key, a window appears with three rows of binary numbers where you can toggle bits, shift bits and perform logical operations such as Xor (exclusive or).

Since Ycalc is not packaged, we need to build it from source.

Install the needed build packages

As root, issue the following command.

apt-get install build-essential libx11-dev

Get the source code

wget http://pet.orbin.se/ycalc-mob-1.09.1-src.tar.gz 

Extract the source code

tar -xvzf ycalc-mob-1.09.1-src.tar.gz 

Build the source code

cd ycalc-mob-1.09.1-src

make

Run ycalc

./ycalc-mob

Change ycalc size

Ycalc was written at a time when high resolution displays were 640x480. As such, ycalc may appear too small for you. To make ycalc larger, issue the following commands.

sed -i '225s/.*/#define DEFAULTFONT   "9x15"/' main.c

make

Run ycalc again and ./ycalc-mob to see if you like the size better. If not, repeat the last two steps with a different fond size.

To get a list of possible fonts and font sizes, issue the following command.

xlsfonts | grep '^[6-9]x'

Install ycalc on your system

As root, issue the follow commands

cp ycalc-mob /usr/local/bin/ycalc

mkdir /usr/local/man/man1

gzip -c ycalc-mob.1 > /usr/local/man/man1/ycalc.1.gz

Add ycalc to your LXQt Desktop

The following was tested with a clean Devuan Beowulf installation with the LXQt desktop. In theory, this should work with XFCE as well. As root, use your favorite text editor to create text file /usr/share/applications/ycalc.desktop with the following contents.

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Calculator
Exec=ycalc
Icon=accessories-calculator
Categories=Utility;Calculator

You should now have an entry named Calculator in your Accesories menu.

I installed Devuan with LXQt after Fedora dropped i386 support. I opted for Fedora since it had the latest kernel with a bluetooth driver for my netbook. However, I found out to my dismay that my netbook Bluetooth doesn't support Low Energy which means I couldn't connect to my mouse which required  it.  I have now installed Devuan and am overjoyed with the over 2 times reduction in boot up time and snappier performance versus bloated Fedora, Thanks very much Devuan developers!