Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

2ManyDogs · 2012-08-28 14:05:59

I just rebuilt, and it is working for me now too. I never would have noticed this bug -- I never move or resize windows in a tiling window manager.

Trilby · 2012-08-28 14:22:13

Neither do I, thats why I only just noticed it. I wouldn't put much into implementing it, but since it was already there at the core and took so few lines of code, it felt silly to screw it up..

Thanks again.

Doomcide · 2012-09-03 15:24:44

I think I found a bug: When I want to start xev X crashes and sends me back to tty. This doesn't happen with tinywm.

Doomcide · 2012-09-03 18:04:29

And another one, I think it was introduced with the latest commit: The window resizing when having 2 or more windows on a workspace is broken. When master is >50 there's a gap and when it's <50 the windows overlap.

Trilby · 2012-09-03 18:36:34

Oh that was no bug ... that was just me trying to to basic arithmetic too late at night. The sizing should be fixed now.

As for xev, I'm not sure what that could be. I don't have any problems with xev under ttwm and I tried it on 3 computers. Are you starting xev from a terminal, or how?

2ManyDogs · 2012-09-03 21:41:12

FWIW, I don't have any problems with xev (running it from urxvt). I have not rebuilt TTWM since you fixed the window resizing, so if there have been changes since then I don't have them.

Trilby · 2012-09-03 21:53:58

I did botch the increase and decrease size for a bit - but I think it went up on git last night and was fixed this afternoon. I tinker quite a bit, and that leads to much breakage.

Since I tinker on various computers and use git to share my most recent experiments between computers, that breakage goes up on git quite regularly.

Last edited by Trilby (2012-09-03 21:57:22)

2ManyDogs · 2012-09-03 21:56:17

That's why I don't update when I have a working version

It doesn't seem like that would cause X to crash when xev is run, but stranger things have happened.

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2012-09-03 21:57:13)

Doomcide · 2012-09-04 10:14:15

Ok than xev must be a problem on my end, it happened with the versions before too. I tried both starting it with urxvtc and dmenu. This is the error message I get:

Outer window is 0x1400001, inner window is 0x1400002
XIO:  fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server ":0"
      after 21 requests (21 known processed) with 12 events remaining.

Any hints are welcome.

Trilby · 2012-09-12 17:23:19

I'm now experimenting with "real" tabs in place of the rectangle placeholders. This allows for seeing the title of all windows in the stack region.

Feedback would be appreciated on how/whether this works or what improvements could be made.

Right now there are some shorthand hacks for font height and width - you need to estimate a FONTWIDTH in the config if you use a different font than I do. This would be the number of horizontal pixels used per character. I will replace this with a proper check on the actual font characteristics soon enough so you can just select a font in config.h and ttwm will determinine it's height and width characteristics.

FYI: I'm also experimenting with minimal external monitor support. The daring can try this out - but I'd advise against it for the time being. That is still in a very experimental stage.

(edited typo)

Last edited by Trilby (2012-09-20 01:49:56)

2ManyDogs · 2012-09-20 01:46:59

Trilby wrote:

I'm not experimenting with "real" tabs in place of the rectangle placeholders. This allows for seeing the title of all windows in the stack region.

I just saw this -- sorry, I've been busy with other things. I'll try to rebuild tomorrow. I hope you meant "now experimenting"

Trilby · 2012-09-20 01:56:47

Geesh, I hope I can program better than I can type. Yes, tabs should be ready. They're working well for me on three different machines.

The external monitor option also seems stable for my use now - but it is of a very different 'flavor' than other WM's external monitor set-up.

The external monitor support would be of most use for projectors or similar external displays, probably not as useful for multi-monitor workstations. The second video output can be activated or deactivated by Mod-a and Mod-b. Once activated any focused window can be ssent to or retrieved/returned from the external display. You can have one (and only one) window per workspace on the external display.

The motivation to finally put in this external monitor support was triggered by my other current project which needed it. I may get around to eventually turning this into more standard multi-monitor support ... but no promises.

2ManyDogs · 2012-09-20 01:59:08

OK thanks. I might not test the external monitor support, but I do have a second monitor I can hook up if I feel motivated. To me at least, multi-monitor support seems "beyond the scope of this exercise" unless you really need to add it. Tabs sound interesting though.

Do you have other major plans for TTWM ?

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2012-09-20 02:01:05)

Trilby · 2012-09-20 02:09:14

2ManyDogs wrote:

Do you have other major plans for TTWM ?

None on the books yet. But I'm open to suggestions.

I do like tinkering with it - even to the point to be on the hunt for other useful options to add. I've tinkered with many ideas that were kind of fun, but which I quickly realized were a bit silly.

I made a transparent status bar the other day - but as tabs wouldn't be transparent this really didn't seem to be a good addition. On a similarly purely aesthetic motivation I also considered making tab background colors match the top color of the window's client space to effectively have seemless tabs. This effect is easily acheived with terminal windows by setting the active tab BG to be the same as the terminal BG, but I realized any other window would be a challenge as the tab color would have to adjust every time the window was repainted. With something like a web browser this would quickly become a mess.

I've also dabbled with getting application icons and scaling them to fit in the tabs. But this was all novelty with no added functionality, so it was fun to tinker with, but it goes against the primary goals I have for ttwm to remain as lightweight as practical.

If there are interesting features that you can think of, I'd love to get new ideas.

One I am considering something like a monocle mode. This would essentially be as if all windows were in the stack and there was no master. It would not be quite the same as fullscreen as it wouldn't be a transient state, and the statusbar would be visible. But multiple windows could be stacked but use the full client space.

EDIT FYI - I made some PKGBUILD and Makefile changes today and it seems network issues interfered with the new PKGUILD making it to the AUR properly. This is fixed now, but if anyone tried installing from the AUR in the last 5 hours it probably failed - sorry.

Last edited by Trilby (2012-09-20 02:14:43)

2ManyDogs · 2012-09-20 02:38:44

Trilby wrote:

One I am considering something like a monocle mode. This would essentially be as if all windows were in the stack and there was no master. It would not be quite the same as fullscreen as it wouldn't be a transient state, and the statusbar would be visible. But multiple windows could be stacked but use the full client space.

I like this idea -- I mainly use ratpoison, and usually with all windows full screen and I just switch back and forth as necessary. I use tmux to have multiple terminals in one full-screen window, and only occasionally split the frame when I need to see two windows at once. This might actually be better because I would have the statusbar to remind me of what windows were active, and when I needed to split the screen I still could (assuming this mode could be switched with the standard mode).

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2012-09-20 02:43:24)

wirr · 2012-09-22 10:56:25

Hy Trilby

Thank you for this cool wm.

Trilby wrote:

If there are interesting features that you can think of, I'd love to get new ideas.
One I am considering something like a monocle mode. This would essentially be as if all windows were in the stack and there was no master. It would not be quite the same as fullscreen as it wouldn't be a transient state, and the statusbar would be visible. But multiple windows could be stacked but use the full client space.

I would drop the master column and have one or two tabbed columns.

Trilby wrote:

I do often want to see two windows at a time, but rarely three.

You could introduce a command to split the stack vertically. For the rare case.

Trilby · 2012-10-01 02:36:27

I finally got around to some more tinkering and implemented a monocle-like setting. The keybindings and some defaults may be a bit awkward, as I just threw in something to test it out. The defaults are currently Mod+Up to go to single column/monocle-like mode and Mod+Down to go back to a master+stack mode.

I'm glad you're enjoying ttwm wirr, unfortunately the options your suggest would be easier said than done. They would not actually be *hard* to do, but they would take a good chunk of code to implement. This is definitely the case for an additional split for three regions so this will not be added. Mutliple tabs in the master region is a simple enough concept, but the code already uses a short hand so from the programs perspective there is no distinction between master and stack: the master window is just the first one in the client list. To have multiple tabs in the master region, I'd have to add code and data structures for the program to keep track of which windows should be in which region.

Last edited by Trilby (2012-10-01 02:46:06)

2ManyDogs · 2012-10-01 03:42:55

I like it. I really like having the tabs to tell me what windows I have open in monocle mode. I can see ttwm replacing ratpoison on my Arch machines. One thing I noticed is that it doesn't "remember" my master/stack "factor" -- I like to set the master size to 0.65 in config.h instead of the default 0.5. When I go back to master/stack from monocle the factor is reset to 50%. Is this by design? Also, any plans to add a flag so monocle mode could be on by default?

Thanks for tinkering...

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2012-10-01 05:06:02)

Trilby · 2012-10-01 11:54:50

I am planning on having it remember the factor - but for testing it out it was quicker just to have it reset. An option for defaulting to that mode would be pretty easy to. In fact I think these will both be covered by a Bool variable in the next update instead of actualy changing the factor value.

2ManyDogs · 2012-10-01 12:17:52

Thanks for the update. The new features seem to work well for me.

Trilby · 2012-10-01 12:26:18

Whoa, did you already get them? In case I misunderstood, I just pushed these settings so now columns can be on or off (off = monocle-like) by default and the size of the master region is remembered. If anyone uses a custom ttwm.conf, note the addition of the `static Bool columns` variable to the default config.

Last edited by Trilby (2012-10-01 12:27:38)

Trilby · 2012-10-06 03:57:38

SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES:

With the last git push I have made the status bars (cpu/volume/battery) optional and/or replaceable so one can substitute dzen, a short conky, or anything else for these bars.

This has been done by removing all of the code for these from ttwm and making a separate program tbars (tiny bars). With this came many changes in the config.h layout, so if you use a custom config.h be sure to merge the changes from the new format.

If you launch ttwm from xinitrc as follows it will look and act just like it always has:

tbars &
exec ttwm

If, however, you wish to ditch these bars in favor of something else, you can launch dzen/conky and change the STATUSBARSPACE definition in config.h (and recompile) to tell ttwm how much space to reserve for a status/info bar.

Ttwm in either configuration will still show the clock and workspace information. The former I feel is just fundamentally/universally useful, the latter really is the job of a window manager. I realized though that since there was no need for it to share data there is no reason for the status bars to be part of the WM itself.

I have kept these as part of the same package as they are designed to work together, but can be separated to suit users desires.

2ManyDogs · 2012-10-06 04:06:38

Trilby wrote:

Whoa, did you already get them? In case I misunderstood, I just pushed these settings so now columns can be on or off (off = monocle-like) by default and the size of the master region is remembered. If anyone uses a custom ttwm.conf, note the addition of the `static Bool columns` variable to the default config.

I meant "thanks for the update on your plans" and by "new features" I meant monocle mode and mode switching -- sorry for the confusion. I've been busy with another project, so I have not had time to test the new features (the bar, the new default, and percent memory). The statusbar change is a good idea too. I'll test when I have more time.

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2012-10-06 04:08:30)

bgc1954 · 2012-10-06 21:07:39

Trying out ttwm again and I quite like it but having a few issues. First, I don't seem to be able to change the color of the clock--I've tried #FFFFFF, white, #FF3300, red, but I seem to always get a light grey and that's a little too subtle for my "older" eyes.

Second, I'm trying to change the keys for a TERM using to be more what I'm used to with other tiling wm's, but it doesn't seem to want to change from modkey+Enter. Other changes work, like using modkey+w for firefox--cause I don't use luakit and modkey+x for dmenu--cause I'm used to that. I also use Mod1Mask as my MODKEY in case that makes any difference.

I quite like being able to use a short conky with dzen on the status bar rather than your little colored bars. It's all about choice.

I also preferred the other tab style--I saw it temporarily when I was in a slackware install that I was updating awhile ago and put ttwm on it.

I made a request awhile back for being able to use the numlock key when in ttwm. If it's not too much work, I wish you would consider it.

See my next posts--pretty much ignore the above stuff.

Edit: also wondering about the STATUSBARSPACE. I have to set the -x value in my dzen script with conky to get it to appear on the far right side of the screen otherwise the tabs for the windows don't show up and when i set -x then it covers the end part of the tabs. I'm probably doing something wrong or I don't quite get your method of setting it up.

Last edited by bgc1954 (2012-10-06 22:17:22)

2ManyDogs · 2012-10-06 21:13:36

bgc1954 wrote:

Trying out ttwm again and I quite like it but having a few issues. First, I don't seem to be able to change the color of the clock--I've tried #FFFFFF, white, #FF3300, red, but I seem to always get a light grey and that's a little too subtle for my "older" eyes.

That's odd. I set the clock color to #bbbbbb (i also had problems seeing the deafult) and I got a nice "bright" gray. Let me go try it again with the newest version.

(edit) I just pulled the latest code from git, and set the mod mask to mod1. I changed the clock color to #bbbbbb and set the terminal command to ModMask|Shift + Return. Both of these changes worked for me. Then just to check I set the clock color to #bbbb00 and got a yellow clock.

Let's see what Trilby has to say...

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2012-10-06 21:24:10)

Arch Linux

#51 2012-08-28 14:05:59

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#52 2012-08-28 14:22:13

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#53 2012-09-03 15:24:44

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#54 2012-09-03 18:04:29

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#55 2012-09-03 18:36:34

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#56 2012-09-03 21:41:12

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#57 2012-09-03 21:53:58

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#58 2012-09-03 21:56:17

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#59 2012-09-04 10:14:15

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#60 2012-09-12 17:23:19

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#61 2012-09-20 01:46:59

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#62 2012-09-20 01:56:47

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#63 2012-09-20 01:59:08

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#64 2012-09-20 02:09:14

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#65 2012-09-20 02:38:44

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#66 2012-09-22 10:56:25

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#67 2012-10-01 02:36:27

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#68 2012-10-01 03:42:55

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#69 2012-10-01 11:54:50

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#70 2012-10-01 12:17:52

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#71 2012-10-01 12:26:18

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#72 2012-10-06 03:57:38

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#73 2012-10-06 04:06:38

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#74 2012-10-06 21:07:39

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

#75 2012-10-06 21:13:36

Re: Alopex: a tiling tagging tabbed window manager with fur

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