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mhd

Member

Registered: 2008-02-06

Posts: 21

Fullscreen wm configuration

It seems that tiled and fullscreen wms are quite popular 'round here, so maybe someone could help me get the configuration I'm currently yearning for.

For the next few weeks, I want to go a  bit more "zen" at work, focusing more on CLI applications and leaving multiple windows for a while (I'm normally using keyboardless, leightweight window managers). So the "ideal" configuration would have a single application at one time, most of the time one terminal running screen and several Firefox frames. Cycling between them should be done by keyboard, no modifier keys required.

So far ratpoison seems a likely candidate, and it's what I've been using right now. But for some applications, it would be neat to still remain in one-app-per-screen mode, but leave a bit space at the sides. So if my screen is 1600 pixels wide, I want Firefox to occuppy the center 1200 pixels of that, and have 200 pixels of background appear at each side. Resizing that to the appropriate amount while staying centered would be a big plus.

Like I said above, ratpoison is able to do a lot of that, so if it could manage the rest I'd be overjoyed. I also thought about running window-manager-less and just bind some window control tool (devilspie, window etc.) to some keybindings.

finferflu

Forum Fellow

From: Manchester, UK

Registered: 2007-06-21

Posts: 1,899

Website

Re: Fullscreen wm configuration

What is it among what you have mentioned above that Ratpoison cannot do? I think you can achieve all of that with Ratpoison, if you want.
If you want a more automated tiling, I suggest you to go for wmii, which is the most approachable auto-tiling WM for those who are not accustomed to them.

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fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: Fullscreen wm configuration

If you're happy with one app per screen and you don't need tilling...  You can use openbox, and add either this:

    <keybind key="A-F12">
      <action name="ToggleFullscreen"/>
    </keybind>

or this:

    <keybind key="A-F11">
      <action name="ToggleMaximizeFull"/>
      <action name="ToggleDecorations"/>
    </keybind>

or both, naturally, to rc.xml.  It should be pretty self-explanatory what these actions do (I prefer the second option, because it doesn't monopolize the screen for a single app to the same extent as the first on does).

I used to use a tilling WM but I realized that I don't actually use the tilling feature at all, that I don't need to have multiple terminal windows open at the same time since I use screen, vim and so on which can "tile" inside their own windows anyways...  All I really need is the ability to fullscreen applications with a single key combination when I want to focus on what I'm doing at a given moment and to have as many "desktops" as I want.  I'm pretty sure you could achieve something similar with fluxbox and other WMs, openbox was a natural choice for me though, because I know it well, and because it is so easy to customize.

pauldonnelly

Member

Registered: 2006-06-19

Posts: 776

Re: Fullscreen wm configuration

So far ratpoison seems a likely candidate, and it's what I've been using right now. But for some applications, it would be neat to still remain in one-app-per-screen mode, but leave a bit space at the sides. So if my screen is 1600 pixels wide, I want Firefox to occuppy the center 1200 pixels of that, and have 200 pixels of background appear at each side. Resizing that to the appropriate amount while staying centered would be a big plus.

You just want empty borders? In Ratpoison, do ":set padding 200 200 0 0", or so. If you haven't set up your keys for one-key window switching, I recommend doing that as well. I used:

# use F-keys to select windows
definekey top F1 select 1
definekey top F2 select 2
definekey top F3 select 3
definekey top F4 select 4
definekey top F5 select 5
definekey top F6 select 6
definekey top F7 select 7
definekey top F8 select 8
definekey top F9 select 9
definekey top F10 select 10
definekey top F11 select 11
definekey top F12 select 12

definekey top Super_L other

Phrodo_00

Member

From: Seattle, WA

Registered: 2006-04-09

Posts: 342

Website

Re: Fullscreen wm configuration

that sounds like a job for matchbox, a PDA fullscreen window manager

freakcode

Member

From: São Paulo - Brazil

Registered: 2007-11-03

Posts: 410

Website

Re: Fullscreen wm configuration

that sounds like a job for matchbox, a PDA fullscreen window manager

Matchbox, really. I've seen some configs with it too, works nice if you use Gtk apps.

mhd

Member

Registered: 2008-02-06

Posts: 21

Re: Fullscreen wm configuration

You just want empty borders? In Ratpoison, do ":set padding 200 200 0 0", or so.

Thanks, that's what I was looking for, can't believe I didn't notice it before. Sadly this seems to be a  global setting (mainly used for status bars), so there's no way to define  it on a per-window basis (i.e. keep only one Firefox frame 'thin'). I guess for stuff like this, I'd have to look into stumpwm, which seems to be made for stuff like this, being basically a more programmable ratpoison...

Anyway, thanks for the the help to everyone. With my current configuration, the desktop looks significantly less cluttered, and once the screen config is done and most of the stuff is moved to terminal applications, I can enjoy unprecedented productivity

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: Fullscreen wm configuration

By the way, in ratpoison there is a way to have it "remember the frames" (the command is 'fdump'), and then you can bind a key to "restore the frames" (command 'frestore'). Hence you can split the window into two frames, set their width to what you like, 'fdump' them; and then you have this layout only 2 keypresses away (or 1 if you like . A guy had this set up so that he could use gimp in ratpoison: http://www.forcix.cx/work_environment/gimppoison.html

jbromley

Member

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 268

Re: Fullscreen wm configuration

Sadly this [the padding settings] seems to be a  global setting (mainly used for status bars), so there's no way to define  it on a per-window basis (i.e. keep only one Firefox frame 'thin').

Actually, there probably is a way to do this. If you're already using the rpws script for workspaces you could do a couple of things. The first would be to modify rpws so that the set padding command gets run when you switch to or from your Firefox desktop. This could also be done by attaching some code to the ratpoison switch group hook.

I switch between ratpoison and wmii as window managers. Once I went on a tear writing a bunch of scripts to do things like a windows menu, tagged workspaces (never worked), etc. in ratpoison. At the end I found that all the effort didn't make using ratpoison any more efficient.

Good luck,
j