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Hello
I'm trying to figure out how to handle minimized windows in xmonad. I am able to minimize and restore windows using this extension, but I'm trying to figure out a nice way to show what is minimized, like most DE's and WM's do with all windows in the status bar.
Is there a neat way to do this? Is it possible to list minimized windows in the status bar (xmobar, dzen or similiar) and have the scaling of the window titles working properly?
I'm interested in how you handle minimized windows?
Thanks
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Stop.
You're trying to apply something you'd do with a stacking window manager to a tiling window manager. First of all, why do you minimize windows in the first place? Right, because with stacking there's no other way of just displaying fewer windows than you actually have. With tiling however you can either use tags or workspaces to your favor. With tags you either throw the offending window over to another workspace or if you don't want to see any window (and just your background) just switch to an empty workspace. With tags it's even easier: Select no tag to display no window or remove the offending tag from the current tag list. And yes, there are a bunch of extensions to make XMonad more like DWM (which uses these tags as you might have guessed), check out XMonad.Actions.TagWindows and XMonad.Layout.DwmStyle.
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Stop.
You're trying to apply something you'd do with a stacking window manager to a tiling window manager. First of all, why do you minimize windows in the first place? Right, because with stacking there's no other way of just displaying fewer windows than you actually have. With tiling however you can either use tags or workspaces to your favor. With tags you either throw the offending window over to another workspace or if you don't want to see any window (and just your background) just switch to an empty workspace. With tags it's even easier: Select no tag to display no window or remove the offending tag from the current tag list. And yes, there are a bunch of extensions to make XMonad more like DWM (which uses these tags as you might have guessed), check out XMonad.Actions.TagWindows and XMonad.Layout.DwmStyle.
Well, I don't know if using tags or workspaces for putting aside windows is necessarily a better way than minimizing to a status bar. In my opinion it doesn't really have much to do with whether it is a stacking, tiling or dynamic window manager (windows aren't stacked because they're minimized).
If, for instance, I have a workspace named "Programming" and I had 3 open windows: vim, file manager and a pdf document. If I want to focus on just vim and the document, I would probably minimize the file manager (in Awesome WM I would have done that, at least) so that it would be easy to restore and so it would remain on the "Programming" workspace for semantic reasons.
So, would it be more "tiling wm-like" to just move the file manager window to another workspace?
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If you specifically only want to view one window but don't want to move the window, maybe you can change the "layout" or maximize the window. I'm not familiar with xmonad, so I cannot help more.
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If you specifically only want to view one window but don't want to move the window, maybe you can change the "layout" or maximize the window. I'm not familiar with xmonad, so I cannot help more.
Yes I am using that functionality, but I'm thinking about the case where you want to keep e.g. two windows visible and minimize one or two other windows that you do not want to close immediately or move to some other workspace.
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So, would it be more "tiling wm-like" to just move the file manager window to another workspace?
Yes, either that, or quit the not-needed app, and open it again when needed...
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akh, have you figured out a good solution for your issue? I face the exact same use case. Minimizing windows is useful in certain situations and there needs to be a way to show that you've done so, so you don't forget about the window. This feature is included in Awesome and it would be nice to get it replicated in Xmonad. Closing the window and opening it again is a poor substitute.
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Minimizing windows imho dosen't fit in with the tiling paradigm!
Either you want the windows showed together with others in the current workspace, or else you move it elsewhere, where you can go to, to later view it, or add it back to said workspace again if needed later! Your statusbar then shows that there's open windows elsewhere, so that you dont forget about it...
If it's possible to get xmonad to work with tags like dwm, then you can replicate minimizing easily, by just toggling tags, and hence, swapping windows in and out of current view.
Sorry, I have never used xmonad, so don't really know how it works, other than it's a tiling wm...
Last edited by mhertz (2013-01-01 15:25:44)
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As far as I know, this is absolutely true that tilers won't minimize windows by default (an exception is euclid-wm which offers such a feature). Therefore workspaces, as we know them from stacking WMs, operate in a bit different way and their role is not entirely compatible with what we consider a 'desktop'. Instead of multiple desktops, in a tiler you have different working areas which serve different purposes, all at the same time, and you switch between them dynamically. If, for instance, you are working with 3 apps opened in tag 1 and only occasionally need another one that most of the time should stay out of your way, you open it in another tag. When necessary, you toggle between tag 1 and 2, and I guess you can achieve this way a similar functionality that is offered by a minimized application.
Well, I don't know if using tags or workspaces for putting aside windows is necessarily a better way than minimizing to a status bar.
You are partly right: it's not better. It's different. When choosing a window manager, you actually choose between different ways of doing your job.
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akh, have you figured out a good solution for your issue? I face the exact same use case. Minimizing windows is useful in certain situations and there needs to be a way to show that you've done so, so you don't forget about the window. This feature is included in Awesome and it would be nice to get it replicated in Xmonad. Closing the window and opening it again is a poor substitute.
No, I havn't. I've been switching between Awesome and xmonad for some time now, but after some update made my old configuration unusable on my newly installed system, I decided to go with xmonad so far (though I havn't really looked much into the configuration issue).
I'm still able to minimize and unminimize using the extension as written, but I doubt that I am going to use it much since there isn't any way to see what is minimized (and you might easily forget). I think I will settle with moving the window to another tag, so far, but please write if you discover a better solution.
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