bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

taylorchu · 2013-01-27 10:45:51

@bloom
then is there a way to form complete binary tree just by spawning new windows?

btw, I feel this is better than what the current behavior is.

bloom · 2013-01-27 11:15:39

taylorchu wrote:

then is there a way to form complete binary tree just by spawning new windows?

The layout trees in bspwm are full but not necessarily complete.

taylorchu wrote:

btw, I feel this is better than what the current behavior is.

The current behavior is: when no space is specified for the next window to appear, use the space occupied by the focused window.

This is what the automatic mode does and I doubt it would be possible to top that.

Last edited by bloom (2013-01-27 11:17:27)

taylorchu · 2013-01-27 12:02:52

if bspwm enforces complete tree, then it will use the space occupied by "the largest window".

what is nice for this is that we actually dont have to locate and focus the window manually => true automatic

bloom · 2013-01-27 14:39:47

taylorchu wrote:

if bspwm enforces complete tree, then it will use the space occupied by "the largest window"

There's a few problems with this approach:

It doesn't generate a complete tree.
Multiple windows might have the same area.

bloom · 2013-01-27 14:52:35

taylorchu wrote:

then is there a way to form complete binary tree just by spawning new windows?

Are you aiming for a kind of automatic grid layout?

cippaciong · 2013-01-27 16:49:01

I finally had some time to try bspwm seriously and things went much better than last time.
I still have to get used to sxhdc but I suppose is just a matter of time.
There are some things by the way that are not working as they should and I can't understand the reasons.
Proceeding with some order:

bar and ewmh fifo
I can run dzen2 using your launchpanel scripts but I'd like to try LemonBoy bar. I saw your panel_bar example but I don't know how to use it; running bar with

./panel_bar | bar

having bspwm launched with

bspwm -s $EWMHSTATUS_FIFO

ends having only and empty bar on top.
Also, I don't understand what I can put in ewmh fifo (using dzen in this case). If I use your clock utility everything looks good but if I try to display conky or even a simple "date" command the only thing displayed is the current workspace. Nontheless I can see that the date and the current windows are there since they quickly appear and disappear (flashing) when moving over different windows.
Don't know if it's clear.

compton
I installed compton-git from aur and I use your bspwm_autostart ending with

pgrep -x compton > /dev/null || compton --respect-prop-shadow -bc -t -8 -l -9 -r 6 -o 0.7

but no trace of shadows

updatethm
You have this command in bspwm_autostart but I can't understand its function and if I try to run it in a shell I simply get "command not found".

GIMP
This is absolutely the strangest problem. Gimp opens up frozen and without lateral panels (single window mode); if I change workspace and then come back to the one with gimp, gimp is no more than a blank window.
I have a similar problem with gparted and I can reproduce it also using i3wm but in the case of gimp it's only occurring in bspwm. The only way to see it in i3wm too is to launch dzen using your launchpanel script. On bspwm is not dzen dependant by the way, it happens also without dzen running.

Ok, this should be all. Apart from that I find bspwm really good and elegant; I think it's worthy to have a deeper try.
Keep up with your work.

bloom · 2013-01-27 17:58:16

Thanks for trying.

cippaciong wrote:

I finally had some time to try bspwm seriously and things went much better than last time.
I still have to get used to sxhdc but I suppose is just a matter of time.

It is called sxhkd.

cippaciong wrote:

There are some things by the way that are not working as they should and I can't understand the reasons.
Proceeding with some order:
bar and ewmh fifo
I can run dzen2 using your launchpanel scripts but I'd like to try LemonBoy bar. I saw your panel_bar example but I don't know how to use it; running bar with
./panel_bar | bar
having bspwm launched with
bspwm -s $EWMHSTATUS_FIFO
ends having only and empty bar on top.
Also, I don't understand what I can put in ewmh fifo (using dzen in this case). If I use your clock utility everything looks good but if I try to display conky or even a simple "date" command the only thing displayed is the current workspace. Nontheless I can see that the date and the current windows are there since they quickly appear and disappear (flashing) when moving over different windows.
Don't know if it's clear.

You're confusing ewmhstatus and bspwm's -s flag.

If you choose ewmhstatus, the non EWMH informations shall be thrown to $EWMHSTATUS_FIFO and must not end with a new line.

Hence:

echo -n foo > "$EWMHSTATUS_FIFO"

is correct, but not:

echo foo > "$EWMHSTATUS_FIFO"

If you choose to have a custom panel, define a new environment variable (e.g. BSPWM_STATUS_FIFO) and use the following in your .xinitrc:

[ -e "$BSPWM_STATUS_FIFO" ] && rm "$BSPWM_STATUS_FIFO"
mkfifo "$BSPWM_STATUS_FIFO"
exec bspwm -s "$BSPWM_STATUS_FIFO"

And then your panel launcher would look like this:

cat "$BSPWM_STATUS_FIFO" | panel_bar | bar

cippaciong wrote:

compton
I installed compton-git from aur and I use your bspwm_autostart ending with
pgrep -x compton > /dev/null || compton --respect-prop-shadow -bc -t -8 -l -9 -r 6 -o 0.7
but no trace of shadows

Shadows will only appear on floating windows (I assume you have set apply_shadow_property to true).

cippaciong wrote:

updatethm
You have this command in bspwm_autostart but I can't understand its function and if I try to run it in a shell I simply get "command not found".

You don't need this.

cippaciong wrote:

GIMP
This is absolutely the strangest problem. Gimp opens up frozen and without lateral panels (single window mode); if I change workspace and then come back to the one with gimp, gimp is no more than a blank window.
I have a similar problem with gparted and I can reproduce it also using i3wm but in the case of gimp it's only occurring in bspwm. The only way to see it in i3wm too is to launch dzen using your launchpanel script. On bspwm is not dzen dependant by the way, it happens also without dzen running.

Gimp is working fine here, make sure you have the following rule in your autostart:

bspc rule Gimp floating

Regarding Gimp, is Windows → Recently Closed Docks empty?

cippaciong · 2013-01-27 18:23:58

bloom wrote:

It is called sxhkd.

You're obviously right and I would like to know why the hell I came out with that name -_-'

bloom wrote:

You're confusing ewmhstatus and bspwm's -s flag.
If you choose ewmhstatus, the non EWMH informations shall be thrown to $EWMHSTATUS_FIFO and must not end with a new line.
Hence:
echo -n foo > "$EWMHSTATUS_FIFO"
is correct, but not:
echo foo > "$EWMHSTATUS_FIFO"
If you choose to have a custom panel, define a new environment variable (e.g. BSPWM_STATUS_FIFO) and use the following in your .xinitrc:
[ -e "$BSPWM_STATUS_FIFO" ] && rm "$BSPWM_STATUS_FIFO"
mkfifo "$BSPWM_STATUS_FIFO"
exec bspwm -s "$BSPWM_STATUS_FIFO"
And then your panel launcher would look like this:
cat "$BSPWM_STATUS_FIFO" | panel_bar | bar

Got it; I'll try right now

bloom wrote:

Shadows will only appear on floating windows (I assume you have set apply_shadow_property to true).

You're right, I didn't noticed it was working on floating windows only (and it's working). What if I want shadows on tilied windows too?

cippaciong wrote:

You don't need this.

Thanks

bloom wrote:

Gimp is working fine here, make sure you have the following rule in your autostart:
bspc rule Gimp floating
Regarding Gimp, is Windows → Recently Closed Docks empty?

I have the Gimp floating rule and I don't think is just a matter of closed docks also because I can't click on Windows → Recently Closed Docks since Gimp is not responding at all.
Considering the error I have also on gparted I'm afraid the problem is only mine and not bspwm related.

rennis250 · 2013-01-27 18:38:21

bash -c 'echo {0..10}'

Oh, I wasn't aware that the sxhkdrc file passed through bash. No problem! I'm really enjoying bspwm so far (and owl! - it's a very nice interface).

--Rob

bloom · 2013-01-27 19:58:29

cippaciong wrote:

bloom wrote:
Shadows will only appear on floating windows.
What if I want shadows on tilied windows too?

Launch compton without the --respect-prop-shadow option.

cippaciong wrote:

I have the Gimp floating rule and I don't think is just a matter of closed docks also because I can't click on Windows → Recently Closed Docks since Gimp is not responding at all.

You could try launching Gimp from a terminal with:

gimp --verbose

bloom · 2013-02-08 19:48:50

The inner and outer borders are gone.
The border width is now set through the border_width setting.

New actions for the grab_pointer message have come up: {move,resize}_tiled.

cippaciong · 2013-02-08 20:06:49

bloom wrote:

The inner and outer borders are gone.
The border width is now set through the border_width setting.
New actions for the grab_pointer message have come up: {move,resize}_tiled.

Awww..I liked the triple border

bloom · 2013-02-09 11:08:54

cippaciong wrote:

I liked the triple border

It couldn't be kept: the border pixmap is not made to handle large pixmaps, consequently the border drawing function was horribly slow.

Last edited by bloom (2013-02-09 11:09:16)

cippaciong · 2013-02-09 11:17:16

bloom wrote:

It couldn't be kept: the border pixmap is not made to handle large pixmaps, consequently the border drawing function was horribly slow.

Got it.

I was looking at your dotfiles on github and I noticed that sometimes you put i3status in EWMHSTATUS_FIFO; I tried to do the same but it didn't work. I assume the problem is still that the output ends with a new line but I don't know how to avoid this.

Last edited by cippaciong (2013-02-09 11:20:24)

bloom · 2013-02-09 11:39:44

cippaciong wrote:

I assume the problem is still that the output ends with a new line but I don't know how to avoid this.

Should work now as of 71a0.

cippaciong · 2013-02-09 13:42:48

bloom wrote:

cippaciong wrote:
I assume the problem is still that the output ends with a new line but I don't know how to avoid this.
Should work now as of 71a0.

It works, thank you.

cippaciong · 2013-02-12 13:23:16

I'm really having fun with bspwm these days .
One thing I kinda miss from i3wm by the way is the workspace_auto_back_and_forth option which basically switch back to the previously focused workspace. So if I am on workspace 1 and I press super+3 I switch to workspace 3 but pressing it again will come back to my previous workspace so 1.
It's not that fundamental so I wouldn't say that I need it but if you want you can think about adding it.

bloom · 2013-02-12 14:44:15

Isn't alternate_desktop enough?

cippaciong · 2013-02-12 15:50:42

Using alternate_desktop I should set an extra keybind to invoke it. The option I mentioned is useful mainly because you don't have to move your finger from the button where it is. I find it useful mainly when I'm in a certain workspace and I only have to quickly check something on another workspace. alternate_desktop won't work if this "other workspace" is not the last one I used, isn't it?

bloom · 2013-02-12 16:31:18

Implemented in 5438f49.

cippaciong · 2013-02-12 16:34:17

bloom wrote:

Implemented in 5438f49.

You're super fast!
Thank you!

EDIT: Works like a charm.

Last edited by cippaciong (2013-02-12 16:45:25)

rodyaj · 2013-02-20 13:23:58

cippaciong wrote:

bloom wrote:
Implemented in 5438f49.
You're super fast!
Thank you!
EDIT: Works like a charm.

Very nice feature.

Last edited by rodyaj (2013-02-20 13:24:16)

andmars · 2013-02-27 22:55:31

hi, I wanted to test bspwm today so I downloaded it from git. "make" works but "sudo make clean install" gives me;

andreas@andreas-pc ~/Dokumente/wm $ cd bspwm/
andreas@andreas-pc ~/Dokumente/wm/bspwm $ make
bspwm build options:
CC      = gcc
CFLAGS  = -std=c99 -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -I/usr/local/include -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=200112L -DVERSION="0.4" -Os
LDFLAGS = -L/usr/local/lib -s
LIBS    = -lm -lxcb -lxcb-icccm -lxcb-ewmh -lxcb-xinerama
PREFIX  = /usr/local
CC bspwm.c
CC events.c
CC messages.c
CC ewmh.c
CC settings.c
CC helpers.c
CC tree.c
CC types.c
CC rules.c
CC window.c
CC -o bspwm
CC bspc.c
CC -o bspc
andreas@andreas-pc ~/Dokumente/wm/bspwm $ sudo make clean install
cleaning
installing executable files to /usr/local/bin
cp: der Aufruf von stat für „bspwm“ ist nicht möglich: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
cp: der Aufruf von stat für „bspc“ ist nicht möglich: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
make: *** [install] Fehler 1

sorry for the german output. It says: stat for "bspwm" and "bspc" not possible. file not found. error 1.
Am I doing something wrong here?

cippaciong · 2013-02-27 23:40:46

Why don't you simply install it from AUR?
By the way, in case you'll need this in future, you can simply set the LANG environmental variable to C before compiling in order to have the output in english.
Just type:

export LANC=C

andmars · 2013-02-28 07:12:04

cippaciong wrote:

Just type:
export LANC=C

thanks, that makes it:

andreas@andreas-pc ~/Dokumente/wm/bspwm $ sudo make clean install
cleaning
installing executable files to /usr/local/bin
cp: cannot stat 'bspwm': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat 'bspc': No such file or directory
make: *** [install] Error 1

Arch Linux

#76 2013-01-27 10:45:51

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#77 2013-01-27 11:15:39

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#78 2013-01-27 12:02:52

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#79 2013-01-27 14:39:47

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#80 2013-01-27 14:52:35

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#81 2013-01-27 16:49:01

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#82 2013-01-27 17:58:16

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#83 2013-01-27 18:23:58

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#84 2013-01-27 18:38:21

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#85 2013-01-27 19:58:29

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#86 2013-02-08 19:48:50

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#87 2013-02-08 20:06:49

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#88 2013-02-09 11:08:54

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#89 2013-02-09 11:17:16

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#90 2013-02-09 11:39:44

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#91 2013-02-09 13:42:48

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#92 2013-02-12 13:23:16

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#93 2013-02-12 14:44:15

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#94 2013-02-12 15:50:42

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#95 2013-02-12 16:31:18

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#96 2013-02-12 16:34:17

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#97 2013-02-20 13:23:58

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#98 2013-02-27 22:55:31

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#99 2013-02-27 23:40:46

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

#100 2013-02-28 07:12:04

Re: bspwm — A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

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