[dev] cloned screen setup broken

From: Jan Christoph Ebersbach <jceb_AT_e-jc.de>
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2012 12:26:45 +0200

Hi,

Thanks to hwiorn_AT_gmail.com I discovered an interesting, I'd say broken,
behavior when using dwm in a cloned screen setup, i.e. connect a laptop
to a beamer. In the archives I only found this lengthy thread
(http://lists.suckless.org/dwm/0812/7109.html) regarding the dual head
setup but it doesn't focus on the cloned setup.

The problem becomes evident when one of the two screen operates on a
higher resolution than the other. In the following picture S1 is the
beamer, S2 the laptop.

+------+-------+
|S1 |S2 |
| | |
+------+ |
| |
+--------------+

First of all, the bar is drawn on both screens although just one bar
needed to be drawn. This causes the visual effect of a truncated
information area (where the selected window's title is drawn) on S2.

The more annoying problems start when new windows are spawned on both
screen. Because both screens have their own list of clients but share
the same visible tag, the windows are drawn on top of each other. When
the focus is on screen S1 it is also not possible to focus a
window from the other screen S2, although it's also visible on S1.


I guess it could be difficult to solve the issue within dwm, therefore I
suggest the following guidelines for this setup:
- use the same resolution on both screens (I guess this is a good
  idea in general)
- never spawn windows on the other screen
- and hide the bar on the other screen

Jan Christoph

Received on Sat Aug 18 2012 - 12:26:45 CEST