Re: [wmii] "Rows" of columns? (feature/behaviour suggestion)

Should we change wmii next so it works well in cellphones too?

If your screen is too small to run all your apps, put them in different views.

We had rows once already and it *SUCKED*, you can't have a wm(or any
piece of software) that does *EVERYTHING* without sucking at doing
everything. Common things should be easy, rare things should be
possible, the managed layer makes common things easy, the floating
layer makes rare things possible.

Or do you suggest that everyone should sacrifice the sanity their wm
just because some people can come up with some absurdly obscure corner
case where a completely different window management model might be
more convenient, and they can't be bothered to spend 3 seconds(tops)
to do it in a float layer. yes, window movement and resizal still
sucks badly both in managed and floating modes, and that is what
*MUST* be fixed, and that is something *EVERYONE* will benefit from.

uriel

On 2/13/07, Andy Gimblett <wmii_AT_gimbo.org.uk> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 13, 2007 at 04:46:30PM +0100, Anselm R. Garbe wrote:
>
> > I don't understand why people ask for such mixture-layouts (in dwm
> > we had the same discussion already). Actually, I think you only need
> > such mixture layouts, if your screen is too small. So, the real
> > solution for the problem in my eyes is: wether use a floating setup,
> > or buy a bigger screen.
>
> How do I buy a bigger screen for my laptop?
>
> I can't, so I have to use a floating setup when I want to mix a wide
> window with two narrow ones? That doesn't suck less: it sucks more.
>
> > Apart from that, I believe that windows in rows scale poorly
> > compared to windows in columns, because in my observation the
> > width of a window is of much more importance than its height.
> > And there's also a reason for this observation - it is text. In
> > western civilizations we usually read line-based (regardless if
> > from left-to-right or vice versa), but text expands into the
> > width. Hence you can easily handle more than 20 windows in a
> > column, but you can hardly handle more than 5 columns at all
> > (this makes windows nearly unusable).
>
> The issue is is not scalability.
>
> None of my "mere mortal" friends (including myself) ever have 20
> windows in a column, or even, frankly, 5 in a row. We're not talking
> about managing tens of windows here (or at least I'm not). We're
> talking about flexible (but nicely managed) layout options for a few
> windows.
>
> It is a _genuine_ use case to want one wide window and several (or
> maybe even just two!) on a small screen (eg a laptop screen). Audio
> editing is one example but there are others.
>
> > Or you just adapt your usage patterns to column layout (which is
> > doable) and maybe you want to buy a better screen.
>
> Column layout doesn't work well with windows which want to be wide.
> Buying a better screen is not an option in many circumstances. Using
> the floating (or managed, or whatever you call it) layer defeats a
> large part of the purpose of using a window manager like wmii in the
> first place.
>
> -Andy
>
> --
> Andy Gimblett
> Computer Science Department
> University of Wales Swansea
> http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/~csandy/
>
>
Received on Tue Feb 13 2007 - 20:31:30 UTC