7 ms·

Qtile – A hackable tiling window manager written in Python

61 points by diogoleal 12y ago

cespare 12y ago
Shameless tangentially-related-software plug: I've been working on Carlisle[0] for a while and I use it day-to-to day. I wrote it because I don't personally like using tiling WMs (and I'm quite happy with Xfce) but I wanted a highly configurable way to quickly move/arrange/resize windows. If you've used Slate[1], it's like a (much simpler) version of that, for Linux (well, EWMH-compliant X window managers, specifically). (Carlisle is a fairly simple wrapper on top of Andrew Gallant's amazing xgbutil libraries[2] for Go.) [0] https://github.com/cespare/carlisle https://github.com/cespare/carlisle [1] https://github.com/jigish/slate https://github.com/jigish/slate [2] http://godoc.org/github.com/BurntSushi/xgbutil http://godoc.org/github.com/BurntSushi/xgbutil
giancarlostoro 12y ago
Used it before, felt like it needed a little more. Great otherwise. After being spoiled with the Windows 8 tiling system I can't seem to appreciate tiling managers on Linux as much as I should.
- baxter001 12y ago
  I'm not familiar with the Windows 8 system, anything interesting you don't see in most tiling window managers?
  - not_with_retard 12y ago
    No, not to mention they're all hackable. This is just a shit-post about half-a-decade-old software.
    - baxter001 12y ago
      Heh, I was toying with "...not implemented in most..".
- ibrahima 12y ago
  Are you serious? Going from tiling window managers to Windows 8, I was like... this could be the start of something great for Windows, but it's still way too basic for me. All Windows 8 seems to have is a split view with adjustable split widths but that's super easy in any sane tiling WM. Or are you talking about Windows 8 apps being "responsive" in some sense?
  - giancarlostoro 12y ago
    Well I do understand it's basic, but I like how isolated the applications can be. For example, I can go full screen with flash on IE for Metro, or with other "full-screen" applications and it will only hijack the portion of the screen that is taken up by IE. I can keep using Skype or even the Desktop on the side and multi-task. If I try to fullscreen Flash elsewhere it hijacks the screen and even with a second monitor breaks my multi-tasking experience. So if anyone made a Tiling Window Manager that isolates how much an application can control, and gets rid of this config it to make it work mentality, they would have me sold. I love having multiple desktops on Linux, one feature that Windows lacks to this day. Their tiling, although incomplete, it works for me and what I do. Sorry if I offended anyone, I'm not a tiling guru, though I'd love to be. I just prefer applications that "just work" without too much effort on the end-users part, as opposed to getting in the way of the end-user.
    - wz1000 12y ago
      Fullscreening applications in xmonad behaves exactly as you described.
      - enoch_r 12y ago
        Are you sure? On my machine, fullscreening, e.g., YouTube will: - in FF, launch a new window, showing a fraction of the frame. - in Chrome, replace the current window, showing a fraction of the frame. In both cases, if I want to see the uncropped video, I have to manually switch to Full mode. I know there are hooks[0] to change this behavior to automatically launch a floating window (I don't use YouTube enough to bother), but I don't think there's a way to get the behavior GP described. Is there? [0] http://xmonad.org/xmonad-docs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Hooks-ManageHelpers.html http://xmonad.org/xmonad-docs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Hooks-Ma...
twp 12y ago
What have been people's experiences with Qtile? I've used ion, Xmonad, and more recently i3wm and would love to hear what's good and not so good about Qtile.
- baxter001 12y ago
  It being Python makes it easier to get the basics done, but for me there's not a lot of value in that fact, other than setting up initial login layouts and screens I'm not a great user of WM scripting, or at least what I do use (setting up workspaces at login and always pushing X app to screen Y, floating all mpv windows) there's not a lot of difficulty or difference in sticking it in a .py file or an xmonad.hs
robertfw 12y ago
I've looked at using Qtile before, but opted to go for I3 as it seemed to be a bit more mature. Would love to hear experiences/thoughts of anyone using this, I would love to switch to it and be able to leverage my existing python knowledge for customizing.
- platz 12y ago
  One of the things about i3 that is really compelling is the multi-monitor support.
  - tych0 12y ago
    Qtile has multi monitor support as well. Any thoughts on why i3's is more compelling?
- dmpayton 12y ago
  I started with Awesome in 2009 and switched to Qtile about a year later. Python is what I do all day every day, and it's really useful to be able to customize my environment in my favorite language. The other plus of Qtile being in Python is that it's much easier for me to contribute back to the project itself.
- sry_not4sale 12y ago
  Qtile is great. I've been using it for years, after xmonad and awesome previously.
freshhawk 12y ago
Does anyone know how it handles multiple monitors? I recently switched from xmonad to awesome and while I'm happy with it, having a separate set of screens for each monitor is pretty annoying. It's been said before but everyone writing a tiling window manager should make it work just like xmonad does for multiple screens, they really got it perfect.
- burntsushi 12y ago
  Wingo[1] (a window manager I wrote in Go) will do it right like Xmonad. Like you, I hate how most WMs handle multiple monitors, and Xmonad got that right. (Wingo is a true hybrid WM. I like to describe it as "Openbox meets Xmonad.") [1] - https://github.com/BurntSushi/wingo https://github.com/BurntSushi/wingo
  - baxter001 12y ago
    Cool, I'll give it a go and hope that it's as helpful in getting into Go as xmonad was haskell, nothing like having your basic interaction mechanisms bug you to motivate you to dig into the code.
  - freshhawk 12y ago
    I'll have to try it out, nice excuse to get beyond my toy program Go experience as well.
- baxter001 12y ago
  There's core support for multiple screens it in the basic window management model, along with hooks for xrandr refreshes. Pretty much everything you need.
- coolsunglasses 12y ago
  What made you switch? Xmonad's unified workspaces across monitors is my favorite feature.
  - freshhawk 12y ago
d0m 12y ago
I've been using stumpwm for a while.. Apart from the "python instead of lisp", what would be the main differences or advantages of Qtile?
krick 12y ago
I cannot get over the fact GUI apps (like firefox) look so bad on every screenshot with tiling WMs. Is it that users just don't care or you actually cannot make it look good ("good" is ambiguous, so let's say how it would normally look on Xfce with standard Xubuntu theme) easily enough? I saw something like Xmonad + Gnome 3, but it sounds pretty scary (I mean, one thing that is good about tiling WMs is that they are normally lightweight). It might sound funny, but it's one of the main reasons why I don't use tiling WM yet.
- phaer 12y ago
  I guess you are referring to the GTK/QT/... theme used? Most tiling WMs don't set one by default, but you can easily do so by using a custom .gtkrc-2.0 or so[1]. [1] see, for example, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GTK%2B#Themes https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GTK%2B#Themes
  - ramLlama 12y ago
    This is exactly right. GNOME, KDE and other out-of-the-box solutions make sure to set the GTK and Qt themes so that everything looks pretty. When you use a WM (window manager) rather than a DE (desktop environment), it is up to you to setup all the ancillary things such as themes and daemons. This is why .xprofile exists! Also, I find lxappearance an easy and quick way to set GTK themes via GUI rather than having to edit the .gtkrc files for every option.
  - dmpayton 12y ago
    Yep. I use Ubuntu and my .xsession starts unity-settings-daemon before firing up Qtile to give me a more pleasent desktop experience.
- linguafranca 12y ago
  In my experience, window manager authors don't usually care if some other program looks bad. There's no real unity, and their attitude is just "not my program, not my problem".
  - 12y ago
linguafranca 12y ago
Having tried to write a window manager for X, I am always impressed by anyone who has enough followthrough to actually finish one. And I'm very eager to see if Wayland has a nicer and more sane API than X.

61 points by diogoleal 12y ago

Shameless tangentially-related-software plug: I've been working on Carlisle[0] for a while and I use it day-to-to day. I wrote it because I don't personally like using tiling WMs (and I'm quite happy with Xfce) but I wanted a highly configurable way to quickly move/arrange/resize windows. If you've used Slate[1], it's like a (much simpler) version of that, for Linux (well, EWMH-compliant X window managers, specifically). (Carlisle is a fairly simple wrapper on top of Andrew Gallant's amazing xgbutil libraries[2] for Go.) [0] https://github.com/cespare/carlisle https://github.com/cespare/carlisle [1] https://github.com/jigish/slate https://github.com/jigish/slate [2] http://godoc.org/github.com/BurntSushi/xgbutil http://godoc.org/github.com/BurntSushi/xgbutil

giancarlostoro 12y ago

Used it before, felt like it needed a little more. Great otherwise. After being spoiled with the Windows 8 tiling system I can't seem to appreciate tiling managers on Linux as much as I should.

baxter001 12y ago
I'm not familiar with the Windows 8 system, anything interesting you don't see in most tiling window managers?
- not_with_retard 12y ago
  No, not to mention they're all hackable. This is just a shit-post about half-a-decade-old software.
  - baxter001 12y ago
    Heh, I was toying with "...not implemented in most..".
ibrahima 12y ago
Are you serious? Going from tiling window managers to Windows 8, I was like... this could be the start of something great for Windows, but it's still way too basic for me. All Windows 8 seems to have is a split view with adjustable split widths but that's super easy in any sane tiling WM. Or are you talking about Windows 8 apps being "responsive" in some sense?
- giancarlostoro 12y ago
  Well I do understand it's basic, but I like how isolated the applications can be. For example, I can go full screen with flash on IE for Metro, or with other "full-screen" applications and it will only hijack the portion of the screen that is taken up by IE. I can keep using Skype or even the Desktop on the side and multi-task. If I try to fullscreen Flash elsewhere it hijacks the screen and even with a second monitor breaks my multi-tasking experience. So if anyone made a Tiling Window Manager that isolates how much an application can control, and gets rid of this config it to make it work mentality, they would have me sold. I love having multiple desktops on Linux, one feature that Windows lacks to this day. Their tiling, although incomplete, it works for me and what I do. Sorry if I offended anyone, I'm not a tiling guru, though I'd love to be. I just prefer applications that "just work" without too much effort on the end-users part, as opposed to getting in the way of the end-user.
  - wz1000 12y ago
    Fullscreening applications in xmonad behaves exactly as you described.
    - enoch_r 12y ago
      Are you sure? On my machine, fullscreening, e.g., YouTube will: - in FF, launch a new window, showing a fraction of the frame. - in Chrome, replace the current window, showing a fraction of the frame. In both cases, if I want to see the uncropped video, I have to manually switch to Full mode. I know there are hooks[0] to change this behavior to automatically launch a floating window (I don't use YouTube enough to bother), but I don't think there's a way to get the behavior GP described. Is there? [0] http://xmonad.org/xmonad-docs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Hooks-ManageHelpers.html http://xmonad.org/xmonad-docs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Hooks-Ma...

twp 12y ago

What have been people's experiences with Qtile? I've used ion, Xmonad, and more recently i3wm and would love to hear what's good and not so good about Qtile.

baxter001 12y ago
It being Python makes it easier to get the basics done, but for me there's not a lot of value in that fact, other than setting up initial login layouts and screens I'm not a great user of WM scripting, or at least what I do use (setting up workspaces at login and always pushing X app to screen Y, floating all mpv windows) there's not a lot of difficulty or difference in sticking it in a .py file or an xmonad.hs

robertfw 12y ago

I've looked at using Qtile before, but opted to go for I3 as it seemed to be a bit more mature. Would love to hear experiences/thoughts of anyone using this, I would love to switch to it and be able to leverage my existing python knowledge for customizing.

platz 12y ago
One of the things about i3 that is really compelling is the multi-monitor support.
- tych0 12y ago
  Qtile has multi monitor support as well. Any thoughts on why i3's is more compelling?
dmpayton 12y ago
I started with Awesome in 2009 and switched to Qtile about a year later. Python is what I do all day every day, and it's really useful to be able to customize my environment in my favorite language. The other plus of Qtile being in Python is that it's much easier for me to contribute back to the project itself.
sry_not4sale 12y ago
Qtile is great. I've been using it for years, after xmonad and awesome previously.

freshhawk 12y ago

Does anyone know how it handles multiple monitors? I recently switched from xmonad to awesome and while I'm happy with it, having a separate set of screens for each monitor is pretty annoying. It's been said before but everyone writing a tiling window manager should make it work just like xmonad does for multiple screens, they really got it perfect.

burntsushi 12y ago
Wingo[1] (a window manager I wrote in Go) will do it right like Xmonad. Like you, I hate how most WMs handle multiple monitors, and Xmonad got that right. (Wingo is a true hybrid WM. I like to describe it as "Openbox meets Xmonad.") [1] - https://github.com/BurntSushi/wingo https://github.com/BurntSushi/wingo
- baxter001 12y ago
  Cool, I'll give it a go and hope that it's as helpful in getting into Go as xmonad was haskell, nothing like having your basic interaction mechanisms bug you to motivate you to dig into the code.
- freshhawk 12y ago
  I'll have to try it out, nice excuse to get beyond my toy program Go experience as well.
baxter001 12y ago
There's core support for multiple screens it in the basic window management model, along with hooks for xrandr refreshes. Pretty much everything you need.
coolsunglasses 12y ago
What made you switch? Xmonad's unified workspaces across monitors is my favorite feature.
- freshhawk 12y ago

d0m 12y ago

I've been using stumpwm for a while.. Apart from the "python instead of lisp", what would be the main differences or advantages of Qtile?

krick 12y ago

I cannot get over the fact GUI apps (like firefox) look so bad on every screenshot with tiling WMs. Is it that users just don't care or you actually cannot make it look good ("good" is ambiguous, so let's say how it would normally look on Xfce with standard Xubuntu theme) easily enough? I saw something like Xmonad + Gnome 3, but it sounds pretty scary (I mean, one thing that is good about tiling WMs is that they are normally lightweight). It might sound funny, but it's one of the main reasons why I don't use tiling WM yet.

phaer 12y ago
I guess you are referring to the GTK/QT/... theme used? Most tiling WMs don't set one by default, but you can easily do so by using a custom .gtkrc-2.0 or so[1]. [1] see, for example, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GTK%2B#Themes https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GTK%2B#Themes
- ramLlama 12y ago
  This is exactly right. GNOME, KDE and other out-of-the-box solutions make sure to set the GTK and Qt themes so that everything looks pretty. When you use a WM (window manager) rather than a DE (desktop environment), it is up to you to setup all the ancillary things such as themes and daemons. This is why .xprofile exists! Also, I find lxappearance an easy and quick way to set GTK themes via GUI rather than having to edit the .gtkrc files for every option.
- dmpayton 12y ago
  Yep. I use Ubuntu and my .xsession starts unity-settings-daemon before firing up Qtile to give me a more pleasent desktop experience.
linguafranca 12y ago
In my experience, window manager authors don't usually care if some other program looks bad. There's no real unity, and their attitude is just "not my program, not my problem".
- 12y ago

linguafranca 12y ago

Having tried to write a window manager for X, I am always impressed by anyone who has enough followthrough to actually finish one. And I'm very eager to see if Wayland has a nicer and more sane API than X.