Re: [wmii] Column Layouts

On Sat, Apr 29, 2006 at 10:40:00PM -0400, David Arroyo wrote:
> +++ Anselm R. Garbe [28/04/06 10:22 +0200]:
> >Instead of throwing the different modes completely over board, I
> >found a way to generalize the behavior. The key idea is that all
> >columns are in stacking mode all the time, and that the 'mode'
> >file in the column namespace is replaced with a 'stack' file,
> >which takes following special syntax:
> >
> > 0: means no space for stacks, thus maximize all windows
> > n: n visible stacked clients (focused client defines the center
> > of the visible clients which is calculated through n/2).
> > All other clients only get a titlebar (fallback to 0 if too
> > many clients appear like in wmii-3)
> >100: make all clients visible (like current default), fallback
> > to 0 if too many clients appear)
> >
> >For n > 1 it is allowed to resize the heights of visible clients
> >(though unless the stacking is not *, this arrangement might
> >be changed on focus change).
>
> This certainly sounds interesting, and a lot more automatic than what I've
> suggested. However, though I hate to cite the past, this is a lot like the
> "capacity" file that reared its ugly head for a few weeks in February. I
> think we all can agree on what a farce that was.

Nah, capacity was different because it had effect on other
columns and wasn't predictable that much. That stack file in a
column is totally predictable because it actually represents the
zoomed clients pro time.

> So, I'm somewhat reluctant to put my full confidence in this idea. With
> this system, every column would have its own threshold, which can be
> different from all the others. I'm interested to know how one would set
> this value. All I can fathom is a wmiimenu-based approach, letting the
> user enter the column's threshold. What I don't like about this is that

Something like now: $MODKEY-s is writing 1 to it, $MODKEY-m is
writing 0 to it, $MODKEY-d is writing 100 to it. Beside these
efficient shortcuts, we might want to add a wmiimenu driven way.

> you must enter an absolute value, which can be cumbersome when you are
> trying to think of your work. You have to think, "I should set this column
> to 2 and this one to 3 clients", and increment that value if things change.
> This goes against consistency, in that not all columns behave the same.

They behave the same if you write /def/stack at the start of
wmii.

> Perhaps you have thought of a more elegant way to set the columns' threshold
> values, which I'd be interested in hearing. For right now, this proposal
> seems to remove one idea and introduce another, more cryptic one. I'm
> against
> columns being treated as anything other than what they are -- an arrangement
> of windows. Giving them stack files makes them more visible as entities
> separate from the clients themselves.

The point of this feature, as already pointed out in last mail,
is, that it is the window manager's job to arrange/manage your
windows, and not your job, - why should a user be bothered all
the time to arrange the heights as he needs of his windows all
the time? That is an annoying thing I found in acme, which is
far beyond wmii in its window management capabilities already.

> Either way, we won't know how well it works until its implemented, which
> still remains in the future. My only hope(request?) is that you think hard
> about it, and try to see it from outside yourself. I think anybody able to

Sure.

Regards,

-- 
 Anselm R. Garbe  ><><  www.ebrag.de  ><><  GPG key: 0D73F361