3 ms·

I've been using i3 (within the larger Regolith package) for a few years now and its hard for me to non-tiling WMs now. However I do think there would be a lot

I've been using i3 (within the larger Regolith package) for a few years now and its hard for me to non-tiling WMs now. However I do think there would be a lot of improvements, especially with large desktop monitors. One idea I had would be to have a window manager only have a single main window in each desktop and then scaled down windows around the border on the desktop, like the TV in Idiocracy (https://www.soundandvision.com/files/_images/200902/2172009173627.jpg https://www.soundandvision.com/files/_images/200902/21720091...). Selecting windows would swap out the main window with the scaled version on the border. This would give you the ability to focus on one window that is always centered while seeing scaled versions of all the other window's output. Maybe this has already been done?

wang_li 3y ago
Many years ago, 1982, there was an applie ii video game named Dung Beetles. It was a pac man style dot chomper in a maze. Except the maze was quite large and the area around the player was viewed as if through a magnifying glass. I would find it interesting -- but probably unworkable -- if my virtual desktop were 5x and any window not focused were small and when focused it blows up to normal size. With some options of being able to make windows stay large when not focused and etc.
yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
That sounds like how dwm tiles windows
yoyohello13 3y ago
Dynamic tiling window managers like dwm and xmonad can do this. They default to a 'master/stack' layout but you can change the layout algorithm. You esentially have a 'master' window and a stack of secondary windows. You can promote a window with super+enter and it gets swapped into the master area. There are some autotiling scripts for i3 that can emulate this behavior as well.
- GrumpySloth 3y ago
  AwesomeWM as well. It allows you to write your own tiling algorithms in Lua.
- ElectricalUnion 3y ago
  I thought that xmonad just changed the windows dimensions and location for most of the layout configurations, can it change scale of the windows as well?
k4rli 3y ago
Pretty sure it's doable with i3 although needs some tinkering.
kergonath 3y ago
This sounds a bit like the Stage Manager thing in newer macOS versions. Except that they do this with groups which can have more than one window.
alpaca128 3y ago
The centeredmaster patch for dwm works roughly like that - the master window(s) is in the center of the screen and the rest is stacked on the left and right.

wang_li 3y ago

Many years ago, 1982, there was an applie ii video game named Dung Beetles. It was a pac man style dot chomper in a maze. Except the maze was quite large and the area around the player was viewed as if through a magnifying glass. I would find it interesting -- but probably unworkable -- if my virtual desktop were 5x and any window not focused were small and when focused it blows up to normal size. With some options of being able to make windows stay large when not focused and etc.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago

That sounds like how dwm tiles windows

yoyohello13 3y ago

Dynamic tiling window managers like dwm and xmonad can do this. They default to a 'master/stack' layout but you can change the layout algorithm. You esentially have a 'master' window and a stack of secondary windows. You can promote a window with super+enter and it gets swapped into the master area. There are some autotiling scripts for i3 that can emulate this behavior as well.

GrumpySloth 3y ago
AwesomeWM as well. It allows you to write your own tiling algorithms in Lua.
ElectricalUnion 3y ago
I thought that xmonad just changed the windows dimensions and location for most of the layout configurations, can it change scale of the windows as well?

k4rli 3y ago

Pretty sure it's doable with i3 although needs some tinkering.

kergonath 3y ago

This sounds a bit like the Stage Manager thing in newer macOS versions. Except that they do this with groups which can have more than one window.

alpaca128 3y ago

The centeredmaster patch for dwm works roughly like that - the master window(s) is in the center of the screen and the rest is stacked on the left and right.