[SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

descendent87 · 2010-02-15 23:58:59

I've been using openbox/pekwm for a few years I recently tried tiling window managers again (tried them a few years ago and hated them) and I'm hooked but after trying just about all of the popular ones and reading the man pages/web sites I can't find any that have a certain feature I'd like (maybe I've just completely missed it). What I'd like is to have firefox in the master area (left hand side, about 50-60% width), whatever else I have open (usually one or two terminals and thunar) in the slave area and then pidgin buddy list open in a small thin area on the right hand side of the screen.
I'm not fussed about status/task bars or anything like that (but being able to add my own would be a bonus), prefer no window borders (like i3 or wmii) and would prefer something easy to configure (I don't mind learning haskell if xmonad is perfect for my needs but I'd rather avoid awesome as I've heard the config changes often and I'm not too keen on the built in task bar etc)
Thanks

Last edited by descendent87 (2010-02-16 14:12:41)

Runiq · 2010-02-16 00:15:47

You can set this layout up in musca. It "only" does manual tiling, but after using it for quite a long time, I can say it's quite simple and intuitive, and I now prefer manual over dynamic tiling any day.

Also, openbox does exactly what I want (no idea how to set that up, though). You might want to look into pytile.

descendent87 · 2010-02-16 00:34:51

Thanks I'll have a look at musca, what's the difference in dynamic and manual tyling managers? What I'd ideally like is something where I can set so that firefox/chromium/uzbl (whatever browser I'm using) always opens in the master area, pidgin always opens in the far right hand side and anything else (terminals, thunar, mplayer) always opens in the slave erea (inbetween web browser and pidgin). I'm a bit of a nood when it comes to tiling WM's so not sure if that's possible or which can do it.
I've had a look at pytile for openbox but would rather use a WM that is built for tiling rather than a tiling plugin for openbox

Runiq · 2010-02-16 00:58:48

descendent87 wrote:

what's the difference in dynamic and manual tyling managers?

Dynamic tilers have one or more pre-defined layouts for you to choose from and arrange the frames accordingly, while in manual tilers, you choose the size/arrangement of frames yourself.

What I'd ideally like is something where I can set so that firefox/chromium/uzbl (whatever browser I'm using) always opens in the master area, pidgin always opens in the far right hand side and anything else (terminals, thunar, mplayer) always opens in the slave erea (inbetween web browser and pidgin).

Well, this is doable with musca, though I've never even tried to set it up that way Though it's probably along the lines of:

* Put commands in a ~/.musca_start file
* In this file, set up frames as you want using commands like hsplit, vsplit, etc.
* Set focus to the frame you want browser to appear in (also with above commands), start browser, dedicate frame to browser so no other window will appear in the same frame
* focus next frame, start Pidgin
* etc.

Unfortunately, this won't work with multiple browser windows, for example, since the dedicate command won't allow several browser windows to appear in the same frame. Also, my solution is *very* ugly (seems more like an Excel macro to me rather than a properly scripted solution ). There's probably a lot more possible with proper use of wmctrl, but I never got around doing much with it. If you really do want full control over your layout, I should probably recommend Xmonad, but I've had zero experience with it (a >500MiB ghc is a little spooky).

brisbin33 · 2010-02-16 02:19:25

descendent87 wrote:

...and then pidgin buddy list open in a small thin area on the right hand side of the screen.

http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~aavogt/xmo … ut-IM.html

also http://pbrisbin.com:8080/pages/im-layout.html if your interested in my take on it .

edit:

and as an example:

Last edited by brisbin33 (2010-02-16 02:26:33)

keenerd · 2010-02-16 03:38:23

descendent87 wrote:

what's the difference in dynamic and manual tyling managers?

This is a false dichotomy. Every tiling window manager is (or at least claims to be) dynamic. Dynamic means if you change one window's size, the others dynamically compensate.

Manual tilers are generally much more flexible, at the expense of greater complexity. Expect a manual tiler to have twice as many keybindings. Automatic tiler impose restrictions, letting you quickly impose predefined layouts at a single button press.

Musca is probably the best manual tiler. Xmonad is a very good automatic tiler, but you can add a layout fairly easily.

Last edited by keenerd (2010-02-16 03:41:55)

descendent87 · 2010-02-16 14:11:51

Thanks for the answers/explanations. brisbin33 that is exactly what I'm looking for so looks like xmonad it is. Now to learn haskell...

descendent87 · 2010-02-16 18:04:29

brisbin33, I've been reading your site and love your xmonad setup so have used your xmonad.hs as a template but getting some errors:

Error detected while loading xmonad configuration file: /home/benji/.xmonad/xmonad.hs

xmonad.hs:126:59:
        Couldn't match expected type '([Char]. [Char], [Char], [Char])'
                   against inferred type '(a, b)'
        In the pattern: (c, _)
        In the stmt of a list comprehensionL (c, _) <- myIM
        In the expression:
             [className =? c --> doShift "3-chat" | (c, _) <- myIM]
Please check the file for errors

and line 126 of my xmonad.hs is:

  , [className =? c                 --> doShift "3-chat" | (c,_) <- myIM     ] -- move chats to chat

Any ideas on what's wrong or what to do?
If you need my whole xmonad.hs let me know

EDIT: Thought it might be easier to post the whole xmonad.hs http://pastebin.com/m49c31c30

Last edited by descendent87 (2010-02-16 18:25:13)

brisbin33 · 2010-02-16 21:24:37

yes, you're issue is here:

myIM      = [("Gajim.py","roster","Pidgin","Pidgin.py")]

it has to do with haskell list comprehensions:

[ className =? c --> doShift "3-chat" | (c,_) <- myIM ]

I'm basically getting a list of (c, _)'s from myIM to be used in the expression to the left of the '|' (a manage hook). i'm using 'c' and '_' b/c the second part of the tuple can be discarded, i only care about c.

so myIM needs to be a list of (a,b)'s to be evaluated correctly: [(a,b), (a1,b1), (a2,b2)].

you've currently got [(a,b,a1,b1)] which is incorrect.

all that said, the ghc error is actually quite accurate .

descendent87 · 2010-02-16 21:28:26

Thanks I removed the last 2 and changed gajim.py to pidgin, it recompiles now but pidgin's buddy list is still being tiled normally, any ideas?

brisbin33 · 2010-02-16 21:29:02

descendent87 wrote:

Thanks I removed the last 2 and changed gajim.py to pidgin, it recompiles now but pidgin's buddy list is still being tiled normally, any ideas?

make sure you get the write WM_ROLE for pidgin. i believe it's "buddy_list" or something, can't remember.

you could check with xprop.

/edit:

also, with xmonad, it's extremely beneficial to start small. copy/pasting my whole config and hitting Mod-q is asking for trouble. check our wiki for setting up a tiny anti-xmonad.hs that just gives you the default settings. then add changes bit by bit. i.e. just add an imLayout, then maybe a managehook.

just my recommendation anyway...

Last edited by brisbin33 (2010-02-16 21:33:58)

descendent87 · 2010-02-16 21:40:01

Changed roster to buddy_list (checked with xprop and that's correct) but still being tiled normally. Thanks for all the help by the way

EDIT: Yeah I realised it was a pretty big config so been removing all the bits that I didn't need, might just start with the basic one on the wiki and just add the IM layout and dzen bar from yours though.
I noticed you use 2 dzen bars, is this needed or can I have the same info shown on just 1 bar? (workspace names to the left conky to the right)

Last edited by descendent87 (2010-02-16 21:42:35)

brisbin33 · 2010-02-16 21:43:36

did you see this line?

    -- im roster on left tenth, standardLayouts in other nine tenths
    imLayout        = withIM (1/10) imProp standardLayouts

    -- WMROLE = "roster" is Gajim.py's buddy list
    imProp          = Role "roster"

myManageHook is what makes the roster tile and the others float.

myLayout is what makes the roster tile in the left 1/10th screen.

brisbin33 · 2010-02-16 21:44:53

descendent87 wrote:

I noticed you use 2 dzen bars, is this needed or can I have the same info shown on just 1 bar? (workspace names to the left conky to the right)

dzen can only accept one input. that's why i use two bars. one fed from xmonad and the other conky. xmobar on the other hand can accept xmonad input and add a clock/cpu/etc if that's what your after.

i find xmobar to be buggier in general though so...

brisbin33 · 2010-02-16 21:47:10

descendent87 wrote:

Thanks for all the help by the way

oh, i'm excited to get 1337 posts so i'll reply all day

descendent87 · 2010-02-16 22:29:48

Started a simpler xmonad.hs file from the wiki with just a few extra bits added, all working now. Thanks

Last edited by descendent87 (2010-02-16 22:37:11)

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#1 2010-02-15 23:58:59

[SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#2 2010-02-16 00:15:47

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#3 2010-02-16 00:34:51

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#4 2010-02-16 00:58:48

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#5 2010-02-16 02:19:25

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#6 2010-02-16 03:38:23

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#7 2010-02-16 14:11:51

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#8 2010-02-16 18:04:29

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#9 2010-02-16 21:24:37

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#10 2010-02-16 21:28:26

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#11 2010-02-16 21:29:02

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#12 2010-02-16 21:40:01

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#13 2010-02-16 21:43:36

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#14 2010-02-16 21:44:53

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#15 2010-02-16 21:47:10

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

#16 2010-02-16 22:29:48

Re: [SOLVED] Looking for a tiling WM with a certain feature

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