# Feature: Right-to-Left behavior on execbar, execibar with A) new option or B) modified input value allowed

Feature: Right-to-Left behavior on execbar, execibar with A) new option or B) modified input value allowed

Description (edited)

This additional behavior might triggered by A) a '-x' like the graphs or B) perhaps simply a negative input value range (0 .. -100).

The behavior would be the opposite of the current behavior, and would have the bar increasing from the right to the left as the input magnitude (absolute value) increases from 0 to 100.

Approach 'B', a modified input range, seems reasonable (and would work well with values returned based on conditions in a script), unless someone makes a stronger case for approach 'A'.

Impact (edited)

Approach 'A' would not impact existing scripts, and would work for hard-coding the bar to work in the reverse direction. Approach 'B' could impact existing scripts that do not filter the input value to prevent negative values in the range -100 <= n < 0. The impact would be the appearance of a reversed bar where there was previously an empty bar. This approach would work better to handle dynamic cases based on the value coming from the script (see example below).

Reason

In certain contexts, the direction of the bar can be used to convey information apart from just the magnitude. For example, a Conky script that uses execbar to illustrate the progress of the Sun, Moon and planets from East to West across the sky (as seen from the North looking South in this case), based on the Azimuth values (and positive Altitude values), could also represent progress from West to East while those bodies are below the horizon (negative Altitude values.) Although all this could be illustrated with a gauge instead, the bar is both compact and sufficient for East-to-West progress, and could be for the reverse.

No doubt there are other use cases as well.

https://gitlab.com/sjsepan/sjsepan-conky-minimalis/-/raw/master/Screenshot-linux-1k-orb.png?ref_type=heads https://gitlab.com/sjsepan/sjsepan-conky-minimalis/-/blob/master/Screenshot-linux-1k-orb.png?ref_type=heads

Originally posted by @sjsepan3 in https://github.com/brndnmtthws/conky/discussions/2415