[dwm] visibility of focused windows

dear list,

consider the following scenario:

1. open at least two windows, e.g. xterms, in a previously
empty view. these appear in the standard tiling layout of
`dwm'.

2. maximize ('full screen') the window which currently has
the focus (main window or the other one).

3. set focus (mod1-j) to next window. here comes the first
annoying point: the second window now is focused but does
not come to the front, i.e. it remains hidden behind the
first one.

4. maximize the now focused second window. only now it is
brought to the front and becomes visible. undoing the
maximize again hides it behind the other one. as long as the
second (or further) window(s) remain in the maximized state,
changing focus with mod1-j brings the newly focused window
to the front, which is fine and as it should be.

question 1: should not the focused window be always brought
to the foreground irrespective of whether it is currently
maximized or not? it's even more irrating when you already
have a few maximized windows and then open another one: the
new window again will never be visible if you cycle the
focus with mod1-j as long as it is not maximized first.

my interest in this scenario is mainly driven by the attempt
of getting an approximation to tabbing (such as provided by
`ion'): changing focus between several maximized windows
achieves this to some extent but its not a very good
approximation (e.g. no status information except for focused
window).

question 2: is there a chance for real tabbing support (this
would seem more important than xinerama support to me)? or
at least a workspace (tag) specfic decision whether tiling
_or_ tabbing is used for arranging windows? and, if tabbing
is "on", some information in the status bar about _all_
windows in the current tab?

I previously have used `ion3' (which I still think is a very
nice wm, but the "license war" initiated by it's author and
the not-so-straightforward compile of the thing got on my
nerves). so what I noted when switching to `dwm' that I
usually need about 2 times more workspaces/tags (8 instead
of 4) simply because there is no tabbing available. I think
a strong argument for tabbing is the fact that at least on
small monitors, especially labtops, one usually needs all
the available space for a single window. the tiling-only
policy of `dwm' means that one either has to maximize even
the main window in order to work or one has to use `dwm'
more or less in "a one window per tag" approach. it's
different with some "cinemascope" monitor, of course.

question 3: a related point is whether the layout
(floating/tiling, partitioning between main window and
stacking area could not be changed on a per-tag basis?
currently these settings are global. (I think there are
patches around doing this but why not integrate it in the
main branch?)

just questions, no demands (and no proposed solution...)

all the best

joerg
Received on Tue Mar 04 2008 - 15:16:08 UTC