3 ms·

Window Manipulation Utilities

26 points by bloat 11y ago

dawnbreez 11y ago
A WM in a Bash script? Sounds like my kind of heaven.
isomorphic 11y ago
If anyone should wander into this thread looking for Mac OS X equivalents, I thought I would note: Apple provides window-manipulation APIs via its Open Scripting Architecture (OSA). Previously that meant you had to use AppleScript for best results--I won't comment on AppleScript except to say that as of Yosemite, Apple treats JavaScript as a first-class OSA citizen. This means, essentially, that one can write JavaScript window-manipulation scripts and run them with via shebang with "osascript". See here: https://github.com/dtinth/JXA-Cookbook https://github.com/dtinth/JXA-Cookbook One can query an application's windows, then directly manipulate their position, size, and so forth in JavaScript. I have some hacked-up stuff I use for my personal setup. I've found it works better for me than any of the other Mac OS X utilities for the purpose. Unfortunately I haven't extracted a common pattern for a general-purpose utility, but I can point people in the right direction if they want to roll-their-own.
- michaelsbradley 11y ago
  Have you tried Phoenix? https://github.com/kasper/phoenix https://github.com/kasper/phoenix I realize it's not aiming for command-line manipulation, but I've found it helpful for doing keyboard-driven resizing and grid layouts just the way I want.
- daurnimator 11y ago
  See also: Mjolnir: https://github.com/sdegutis/mjolnir https://github.com/sdegutis/mjolnir
  - rz2k 11y ago
    Hammerspoon is a fork that has enough community to keep the mailing list somewhat active. It sounded like Mjolnir might turn into the basis for a less low level, more polished commercial product, but there is little news. Anyway, both use Lua for configuring OS level controls of the environment and user interface.
- hobs 11y ago
  Yeah, I remember scripting most of my work with ruby, bash, and the Applescript libraries that were included in most OSX apps. My other favorite is that all the menu items also participate in this bridge and allow you to do a lot more than just move windows around.
- pjc50 11y ago
  Is there an MSWindows equivalent? (You can write your own window manager for the platform, and the existing one is highly extensible, but I've not seen this happen much apart from the occasional handy shell extension)
lmilcin 11y ago
I'm using i3 window manager which allows as much and even more than wmutils. For example, this simple script allows me for an instant assigning of workspaces to outputs on my dual monitor setup: i3-msg "move workspace to output VGA1; workspace $1" i3-msg "move workspace to output HDMI2" What it does, is it moves current workspace from primary to secondary output and then brings up requested workspace on primary output. The beauty is that by quickly requesting 2 workspaces I can immediately assign workspaces to both outputs. After some usage muscle memory kicks in and now I can instantly set up whatever I want on both of my monitors without even thinking or fumbling with mouse.
- AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
  I like your style. I have started an open source project [recently](https://github.com/SacredData/COMPUTER https://github.com/SacredData/COMPUTER) which allows users to execute such commands with voice commands. It's incredible that after all these years, window managers, even those as powerful as i3, still require users to think.
TurboHaskal 11y ago
Slightly off topic, but somewhat related as I happened to ack "i3" on this thread. I used to spend time configuring the hell out of xmonad and i3 until I realized that life is too short not to use a window manager with sane defaults while treating both the keyboard and the mouse as first class citizens. wmii (for single monitor setups), cwm and dwm are good examples of that. Most mainstream desktops are also good. Windows is excellent out of the box and the contextual file manager offers an unmatched experience across all operating systems. OSX needs third party tools.

26 points by bloat 11y ago

A WM in a Bash script? Sounds like my kind of heaven.

If anyone should wander into this thread looking for Mac OS X equivalents, I thought I would note: Apple provides window-manipulation APIs via its Open Scripting Architecture (OSA). Previously that meant you had to use AppleScript for best results--I won't comment on AppleScript except to say that as of Yosemite, Apple treats JavaScript as a first-class OSA citizen. This means, essentially, that one can write JavaScript window-manipulation scripts and run them with via shebang with "osascript". See here: https://github.com/dtinth/JXA-Cookbook https://github.com/dtinth/JXA-Cookbook One can query an application's windows, then directly manipulate their position, size, and so forth in JavaScript. I have some hacked-up stuff I use for my personal setup. I've found it works better for me than any of the other Mac OS X utilities for the purpose. Unfortunately I haven't extracted a common pattern for a general-purpose utility, but I can point people in the right direction if they want to roll-their-own.

michaelsbradley 11y ago
Have you tried Phoenix? https://github.com/kasper/phoenix https://github.com/kasper/phoenix I realize it's not aiming for command-line manipulation, but I've found it helpful for doing keyboard-driven resizing and grid layouts just the way I want.
daurnimator 11y ago
See also: Mjolnir: https://github.com/sdegutis/mjolnir https://github.com/sdegutis/mjolnir
- rz2k 11y ago
  Hammerspoon is a fork that has enough community to keep the mailing list somewhat active. It sounded like Mjolnir might turn into the basis for a less low level, more polished commercial product, but there is little news. Anyway, both use Lua for configuring OS level controls of the environment and user interface.
hobs 11y ago
Yeah, I remember scripting most of my work with ruby, bash, and the Applescript libraries that were included in most OSX apps. My other favorite is that all the menu items also participate in this bridge and allow you to do a lot more than just move windows around.
pjc50 11y ago
Is there an MSWindows equivalent? (You can write your own window manager for the platform, and the existing one is highly extensible, but I've not seen this happen much apart from the occasional handy shell extension)

lmilcin 11y ago

I'm using i3 window manager which allows as much and even more than wmutils. For example, this simple script allows me for an instant assigning of workspaces to outputs on my dual monitor setup: i3-msg "move workspace to output VGA1; workspace $1" i3-msg "move workspace to output HDMI2" What it does, is it moves current workspace from primary to secondary output and then brings up requested workspace on primary output. The beauty is that by quickly requesting 2 workspaces I can immediately assign workspaces to both outputs. After some usage muscle memory kicks in and now I can instantly set up whatever I want on both of my monitors without even thinking or fumbling with mouse.

AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
I like your style. I have started an open source project [recently](https://github.com/SacredData/COMPUTER https://github.com/SacredData/COMPUTER) which allows users to execute such commands with voice commands. It's incredible that after all these years, window managers, even those as powerful as i3, still require users to think.

TurboHaskal 11y ago

Slightly off topic, but somewhat related as I happened to ack "i3" on this thread. I used to spend time configuring the hell out of xmonad and i3 until I realized that life is too short not to use a window manager with sane defaults while treating both the keyboard and the mouse as first class citizens. wmii (for single monitor setups), cwm and dwm are good examples of that. Most mainstream desktops are also good. Windows is excellent out of the box and the contextual file manager offers an unmatched experience across all operating systems. OSX needs third party tools.