Re: [dwm] Layers

2009/1/22 Matthias-Christian Ott <ott_AT_mirix.org>:
> Dwm has by default a floating and a tiled layer that can have a different
> layout. Tiling or maximisation works fine for most clients (by the way,
> is there are reason why windows are called clients in dwm jargon?), some
> dialogs, popups or short-living windows require to be floating. Therefore
> dwm keeps these windows on an upper layer.

It's called client because it's a client of the window manager -- the
terminology has been in use for ages in different WMs and been adopted
by dwm for this legacy reason in order to increase the understanding
by the reader (who might compare the code base with different WMs).

> While this makes sense for most applications, there are some (Gimp is
> as famous example for this) that are build around this WIMP concept and
> thus have to be floating in order to usable. But sometimes it makes sense
> to quickly hide them to access information hidden by them (for example
> I use the dictionary programme Ding when writing E-Mails in English).
>
> A common approach would be to dedicate a tag to them and switch
> via ALT+TAB back and forth. In my opinion this a bit cumbersome and
> non-intuitive. I rather expect to rotate the two layers like I can do
> with windows in monocle layout.

Well, apart from the floating mode, I bind gimp to the dedicated tag
"7" where I only assign broken apps with. Since all gimp windows are
floating by the same rule, toggleview()'ing 1<<6 will do the trick
without switching the layout.

Kind regards,
--Anselm
Received on Mon Jan 26 2009 - 10:06:50 UTC