Poor man's Tiling Window manager

brisbin33 · 2009-02-15 19:30:19

i can't speak to the logistics of it all, but i will say i'm in love with this setup. the flexibility of having my normal floating openbox setup, then switch to the efficiency of a tiling WM with a few simple keystrokes is so useful. i would kill to have this when stuck in my windows box at work. i know windows does _some_ sort of tiling, but it's not exactly useful in my opinion.

[feature-request]
i've mapped W-Tab to the swap function which works well. what i think would be awesome is if that could take on a more Alt-Tab like behavior where W-Tab would do more of a cycle than a swap through your windows in the order they've been active (and Shift-W-Tab would reverse). right now, i usually Alt-Tab to a particular tiled window, then W-Tab to swap it to the main window. consolidating this would be amazing. i can somewhat visualize how this would work but i just can't code it out. anyone agree? or even understand what i mean?
[/feature-request]

ninian · 2009-02-16 11:01:33

@Nepherte and @brisbin33:

I encountered the same error caused by some upgrade which makes 'xdotool getactivewindow' return an error message as well as an integer. The following fix in lines 39/40 of manage.py seems to work:

def get_active_window():
return str(hex(int(commands.getoutput("xdotool getactivewindow 2>/dev/null").split()[0])))

Happy tiling again!

Added later: just saw we're not alone with this problem: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=65403&p=1

Last edited by ninian (2009-02-16 11:17:44)

u_no_hu · 2009-02-16 20:34:24

Sorry guys for not responding ... I was on vacation for 3 days....far away from the web and all this noise...

brisbin33 wrote:

[feature-request]
i've mapped W-Tab to the swap function which works well. what i think would be awesome is if that could take on a more Alt-Tab like behavior where W-Tab would do more of a cycle than a swap through your windows in the order they've been active (and Shift-W-Tab would reverse). right now, i usually Alt-Tab to a particular tiled window, then W-Tab to swap it to the main window. consolidating this would be amazing. i can somewhat visualize how this would work but i just can't code it out. anyone agree? or even understand what i mean?
[/feature-request]

def cycle():
    winlist = create_win_list()
    winlist.insert(0,winlist[len(winlist)-1])
    winlist = winlist[:-1]
    arrange(get_simple_tile(len(winlist)),winlist)

This seems to do what you requested. Not tested thoroughly though.

Last edited by u_no_hu (2009-02-16 20:39:50)

brisbin33 · 2009-02-17 12:50:26

@ninian and u_no_hu... i love our community, i will try these asap. thanks!

u_no_hu · 2009-02-17 16:36:05

@ninian
Thanks for the fix

adamlau · 2009-03-03 00:15:53

It seems as if the script does not work with JWM if additional workspaces are not clicked into first.

After logging into JWM and then running wmctrl -d

Cannot get current desktop properties. (_NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP or _WIN_WORKSPACE property)

After logging into JWM, clicking into the second workspace on the panel and then running wmctrl -d

0  * DG: 1440x900  VP: 0,0  WA: 0,0 1440x900  1
1  - DG: 1440x900  VP: N/A  WA: 0,0 1440x900  2

The script works as expected only after the second workspace is clicked into.

sfauzia · 2009-03-03 05:07:40

u_no_hu wrote:

Basically a simple python script which does tiling on any windowmanager (Perfectly on pekwm and openbox. Partly on compiz due to the fact that compiz says it has a single desktop even if there are 4 virtual desktops, which means all the windows you have will be tiled).
It uses wmctrl to get the info and manage the windows. Bind it to a key or to autowhatever-on-window-creation-hook.
Currently options are
simple - The basic tiling layout . 1 Main + all other at the side.
left,right - Does the new windows7 ish style of sticking to the sides.
swap - will swap the active window to master column
cycle - cycle the window in master column
You can change the main window factor BottomPadding TopPadding LeftPadding RightPadding though it detects most of the panels. You may have to change wintitle and border according to your theme.
If you need other layouts modify get_simple_tile
Edit : Moved here git://github.com/TheWanderer/poor-man-s-tiling-window-manager.git
Edit 2 : fixed issue of iconified windows showing blank areas in layout.
Edit 3 : Added swap

This is purely awesome! I think cycle is my favorite, with three windows open. I've never used a tiling WM before, and now I'm definitely glad I've stuck with my old friend Openbox Was well worth it to patch wmctrl to make this functional. Thanks!

sfauzia · 2009-03-10 05:25:28

u_no_hu wrote:

Edit 2 : fixed issue of iconified windows showing blank areas in layout.

Well, I am actually having blank areas in my layout, but I don't use window titles.

[edit] I just tested turning on and off the window decorations, and with decorations enabled there's only a tiny sliver available of the screen, which is perhaps there to access the right-click menu, but other than that, absolutely no gaps. Without window decorations is exactly as I reported: wide, gaping gaps. Hope this won't be trouble to fix. [/edit]

[edit] I fixed it by just removing all instances of window title and window border, as I don't use either, from the code. Works perfectly now. I hope this helps anyone else with the same issue. [/edit]

Last edited by sfauzia (2009-03-10 06:11:51)

u_no_hu · 2009-03-10 07:46:02

@sfuzia
you can change those in the script

BottomPadding = 0
TopPadding = 0
LeftPadding = 0
RightPadding = 0
WinTitle = 21
WinBorder = 1

Try adjusting WinTitle and WinBorder. Trial and error

arkusk · 2009-03-10 11:54:21

hi all
I'm on Xubuntu 8.10 hence my wm is xfwm4. when I execute the script this is what I get:

a@a-laptop:~/scripts/poor-man-s-tiling-window-manager$ python manage.py simple
manage.py:43: Warning: 'with' will become a reserved keyword in Python 2.6
File "manage.py", line 43
with open(file, 'w') as f:
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

any help appreciated
cheers
Arian

u_no_hu · 2009-03-10 12:17:07

@arkusk
It may be because your are using python 2.5. Try adding this at top of the script

from __future__ import with_statement

Or just use arch linux for the latest

arkusk · 2009-03-10 13:53:33

@u_no_hu
thanks, that fixed it!

arkusk · 2009-03-10 14:40:03

Ubuntu Intrepid seems to use an older version of xdotools. So if you get this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 189, in <module>
    swap()
  File "manage.py", line 169, in swap
    active = get_active_window()
  File "manage.py", line 40, in get_active_window
    return str(hex(int(commands.getoutput("xdotool getactivewindow 2>/dev/null").split()[0])))
IndexError: list index out of range

and you don't feel like compiling the most recent xdotools version from source , change line 40 in manage.py from

    return str(hex(int(commands.getoutput("xdotool getactivewindow 2>/dev/null").split()[0])))

to

    return str(hex(int(commands.getoutput("xdotool getwindowfocus 2>/dev/null").split()[0])))

Last edited by arkusk (2009-03-17 14:57:59)

Rasi · 2009-03-17 08:28:16

brisbin33 wrote:

i can't speak to the logistics of it all, but i will say i'm in love with this setup. the flexibility of having my normal floating openbox setup, then switch to the efficiency of a tiling WM with a few simple keystrokes is so useful. i would kill to have this when stuck in my windows box at work. i know windows does _some_ sort of tiling, but it's not exactly useful in my opinion.

http://www.winsplit-revolution.com/ - it doesnt get much better than this...

Last edited by Rasi (2009-03-17 08:28:40)

ninian · 2009-03-17 08:53:06

arkusk wrote:

you don't feel like compiling the most recent xdotools version from source , change line 40 in manage.py

Great - thanks for that tip!

brisbin33 · 2009-03-17 13:19:15

Rasi wrote:

brisbin33 wrote:
i can't speak to the logistics of it all, but i will say i'm in love with this setup. the flexibility of having my normal floating openbox setup, then switch to the efficiency of a tiling WM with a few simple keystrokes is so useful. i would kill to have this when stuck in my windows box at work. i know windows does _some_ sort of tiling, but it's not exactly useful in my opinion.
http://www.winsplit-revolution.com/ - it doesnt get much better than this...

that looks awesome, will try soon. thanks

Rasi · 2009-03-17 20:29:08

Feature Request: Simple vertical tiling

Also: On kde4 the window decoration is ignored is this intended?
And: Can one have the simple tiling with 50/50 tiling?

Last edited by Rasi (2009-03-17 20:32:38)

u_no_hu · 2009-03-17 21:05:47

Rasi wrote:

Feature Request: Simple vertical tiling

Done. Call with vertical as parameter . Let me know if you find any bugs.

Rasi wrote:

Also: On kde4 the window decoration is ignored is this intended?
And: Can one have the simple tiling with 50/50 tiling?

You can adjust the wintitle and winborder values in the script according to wm and decorations. ANd MwFactor for 50/50 .

Nepherte · 2009-03-17 21:09:11

I will repeat my question of a page back as I didn't get an answer: is there an easy way to include maximized windows in the list of windows that have to be tiled?

Last edited by Nepherte (2009-03-17 21:09:30)

u_no_hu · 2009-03-17 21:31:52

@Nepherte
Which window manager are you using? In openbox it seems it is not possible to resize a maximised window. Check if there is any work around. If its not there we can try replacing openbox maximise with the script

Nepherte · 2009-03-17 21:32:45

I'm using metacity.

u_no_hu · 2009-03-17 21:50:30

I don't have metacity to test this. So you can try with "wmctrl -e ...... " to resize a maximized window and check if it works.

Rasi · 2009-03-17 23:24:26

u_no_hu wrote:

Rasi wrote:
Feature Request: Simple vertical tiling
Done. Call with vertical as parameter . Let me know if you find any bugs.

Rasi wrote:
Also: On kde4 the window decoration is ignored is this intended?
And: Can one have the simple tiling with 50/50 tiling?
You can adjust the wintitle and winborder values in the script according to wm and decorations. ANd MwFactor for 50/50 .

ok... this is great, but i guess i meant the "other vertical" lol

WINDOW1
-----------
WINDOW2

Last edited by Rasi (2009-03-17 23:46:53)

u_no_hu · 2009-03-18 06:28:49

Rasi wrote:

ok... this is great, but i guess i meant the "other vertical" lol

Done. How difficult can it be to swap x and y . Call with horizontal as parameter

adamlau · 2009-03-19 23:29:01

Or a maximize all option, breaking tiling mode back to stacking.

Arch Linux

#51 2009-02-15 19:30:19

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#52 2009-02-16 11:01:33

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#53 2009-02-16 20:34:24

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#54 2009-02-17 12:50:26

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#55 2009-02-17 16:36:05

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#56 2009-03-03 00:15:53

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#57 2009-03-03 05:07:40

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#58 2009-03-10 05:25:28

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#59 2009-03-10 07:46:02

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#60 2009-03-10 11:54:21

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#61 2009-03-10 12:17:07

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#62 2009-03-10 13:53:33

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#63 2009-03-10 14:40:03

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#64 2009-03-17 08:28:16

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#65 2009-03-17 08:53:06

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#66 2009-03-17 13:19:15

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#67 2009-03-17 20:29:08

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#68 2009-03-17 21:05:47

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#69 2009-03-17 21:09:11

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#70 2009-03-17 21:31:52

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#71 2009-03-17 21:32:45

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#72 2009-03-17 21:50:30

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#73 2009-03-17 23:24:26

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#74 2009-03-18 06:28:49

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

#75 2009-03-19 23:29:01

Re: Poor man's Tiling Window manager

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