Re: [wmii] wmiirc snippet: tag comments

[07-09-17 12:21 -0400, Bill Puschmann]
> IIRC the original intent was to have tags with words rather than numbers.
> Using numbers encourages a "workspace" mentality rather than the "keyword"
> concept. Work with words rather than numbers for a bit and it should become
> much more clear. Otherwise the whole idea of "removing workspaces" becomes
> pointless. Because you're still thinking of them as workspaces. If I have
> a mail application open - I don't want to think of it tagged with "1" and
> "2"... it should be tagged "work" and "net" because that's what it is.

I've said on this list before that the default way to use tags is
reducing the idea to mere workspace.

As others, I have tried to develop a way a working which is compromises
between usability and using tags in other ways that as
workspaces. My current setup is a small variant of the default setup:

- Tag rules add many tags to the applications. e.g. My torrent download
  window is tagged "download+torrent+net", my main mail window
  "mail+inbox", etc.

  I don't try to keep the number down to cope with the fact that tags
  don't fit on the bar. We should use tags as they are supposed to be
  used (as a classification system for applications),
  and change the behavior of the bar if it is inadequate.

- tags should not change: if something is associated with mail,
  then it stays associated with mail all the time, unless there is a
  real change in the application that makes it not mail-related anymore.
  This implies it makes no sense to move applications between tags. Tags
  are added or removed but never removed.

- The compromise: use number tags 1 ... 9 as "workspace tags" that can
  be added or removed temporary to application I'm heavily working with
  at one point to get faster navigation and to bring together two
  application I want to see side-by-side for some reason.
  
  To get this, I modify the "alt-n" and "alt-shift-n" shortcuts to
  respectively add and remove the tag n to the current client. This is
  as simple as adding a "+" and a "-" to the default script.

A small example:

mutt -> inbox+mail+net
firefox -> web+net
editor -> text+editor

At some point I want to write a mail to someone, but I need to look at a
web page and some piece of text I'm editing to write the mail? A just do
"alt-1" on the three applications to add the tag "1" to each of them.
All other tags will stay in place, so I still can view application
related to "net" or "text" if I which.

This way of working have encouraged me to use text tags a lot more, and
to think of them as categories instead of workspaces.

The problem of the bar: since there are usually too many tags on the
bar, I plan to modify the script to display only number tags and the tags of
the current application. I also want to try to assign a key to cycle
thought all the tags assigned to the current client.

-- 
Yannick Delbecque - http://yannick.delbecque.org