Re: [dev] dwm: XComposite patch

On 12:34 Thu 04 Jun , Jeremy Jay wrote:
> On Thu 04 Jun 2009 - 03:55PM, thomasspurden_AT_gmail.com wrote:
> > On 16:07 Thu 04 Jun , pancake wrote:
> > > isn't meta-0 the exposee you are looking for? didnt check your patch but
> > > I prefer not to depend on composite or gl extensions that never work fine
> >
> > Thanks, but meta-0 is not what I am looking for; when I have a cluttered
> > X session:
> > 1) I can't actually see much of the individual windows
> > 2) Any floating windows (gimp etc.) occlude the windows underneath
> > 3) Selecting and jumping to one of the windows is a pain
>
> I must be missing something here.... You're using dwm, but you're using
> the tags as virtual screens instead of tags? The whole point of tiling
> window managers like dwm is that you don't have to do window management
> (ie expose-like features)... If you have too many windows on your tags,
> add more tags! If you can't find a window then you're doing it wrong.
>
> I suggest kicking your virtual-screen habits and using it as it was
> intended, you'll save yourself a lot of time and effort.
>
> Jeremy

I think the main problem is that dwm cannot dynamically adjust the
number/name of tags. I find it very hard to keep track of the
number->application/task mapping in my head. I could change the names
of the tags to meaningful names, but then I would end up with task(s)
that have no corresponding tag - and I'm back to confusion. I have
therefore implemented a patch to allow tags names to be changed
dynamically. It basically allows commands to be sent to dwm by setting
the DWM_COMMAND Property on the root window (in the same way that the
status text works), the first letter of the string is the command.
Currently only N is recognised, and changes the name of all the selected
tags to n(<str>) where n is the tag number, and str is the remainder of
the command string. I could not find a small shell program that could
change a named property of the root window, so wrote my own (also
attached). Example usage:

xsetatom DWM_COMMAND NWork-dwm

with tag 2 selected would cause tag two's name to become '2(Work-dwm)'.
Setting the command to just N will cause the names of the selected tags
to revert to just numbers. I have a nice little dmenu script so I can
type in new tag names, and find it very useful.

This patch allows other commands to be easily added (see runcommand()).

Tom

-- 
Thomas Spurden