Beautiful tiling

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-29 11:40:37

I have a pretty much of a problem. I'm a Linux user as it was said I can choose from various approaches and choose the one made exactly for me or just change something a little to get the perfect matching with my needs. I felt like that's true for about five years of using only GNU/Linux... but now I'm an adult man who need more of a workspace, yet I have something just as a child and I want my workspace to be an eye-candy.

You know, I tried to change the approach of main desktop environments to better suits my needs. I was using Gnome with Compiz for a long time as it was nice to adjust all the key combinations and leave the mouse just for the WWW usage; now I'm using KDE with Krusader instead of Dolphin but that's just for now. You know, it's just not enough! I want my perfect tiling manager as my work depends on working with a lot of different files, I want my window manager to help me with it, not to just irritate me while I manually prepared three desktops with all the six open files and now I need to close two of them and open another one; tiling seems great as I was looking at Wmii usage via Youtube.

But, hey, so why don't I just switch? Because I'm used to pretty things like windows moving around smoothly, not just jumping from place to place with the speed of the light and overall look of i386; and I like it when I have my favorite theme set and the transparency in on for inactive windows the way I can see my great wallpaper during these half-on-a-minute breaks in thinking. Generally: I want beautiful tiling manager. Is there any way to make such a workspace of my dreams?

Last edited by Włóczymyśl (2011-03-29 11:40:50)

mythus · 2011-03-29 12:50:06

Just out of curousity, have you tried the tiling mode on kde, or use pytyle with any other DE? There's also the tiling mode in e17, and I believe a tiling plugin for compiz.

redden0t8 · 2011-03-29 12:57:49

It doesn't have animations for window movements, but other than that I think Awesome WM sounds a lot like you're looking for. It doesn't do transparency on its own, but it's designed to play nicely with xcompmgr (ie you can set xcompmgr window transparency behaviour from Awesome WM's configuration files).

The one caveat is that Awesome WM's configuration files are actually lua scripts. If you already know how to program, this isn't really an issue as lua is very easy to pick up, but otherwise the learning curve can be steep. At the same time, though, this is a huge feature because if you can dream of a particular behaviour, Awesome can do it.

toad · 2011-03-29 13:01:38

Greetings to Szczecin - lovely place

Apart from tiling in KDE you also have the ability to have a programme open on a specific desktop with a specific size in a specific place. Easy enough to set up, you're in for a nice surprise at the next login - it really is quite cool...

imag1narynumber · 2011-03-29 13:29:05

I believe you can use Xmonad in Metacity's stead. As with the prior posts, I don't think this gives animations, though.

ANOKNUSA · 2011-03-29 13:57:20

Tiling in KDE is a little finicky (takes some time to set up, as there isn't a great guide available right now; also, Kate doesn't tile properly for some reason), but it does a fairly good job and should improve over time. You can also use pytyle, either with Kwin or Compiz. When combined with Compiz, newly opened windows will tile while performing their opening animations. If I'm not mistaken, the new Compiz will have an auto-tiling plugin available, too, but I'm not sure when that's coming out (I think it was supposed to go "stable" some time ago). However, when you first switch tiling on in any WM or with any utility, your windows will still quickly "jump into place;" even Divvy, the tiling utility for Mac and Win7, doesn't support fancy animations on its own.

ksira · 2011-03-29 18:36:28

I was a user of Musca, but recently, I've switched to subtle. It has a different take on tiling from my experience. It's fully manual, but tagging windows is mandatory, and windows are positioned using a concept gravities instead of panes ( I know that doesn't make sense, you just have to try it yourself to see). Basically, subtle forces me to be more beautiful in my tiling, but I define beauty as having a simple, non-cluttered interface that works in a consistent way, not by transparencies. When I used Musca, my desktop would quickly devolve into a mess where I had no order whatsoever.

bohoomil · 2011-03-29 20:23:09

Nobody has mentioned fvwm which is a very interesting, feature-rich WM worth mentioning here.

And a little side remark: I had long been searching for a perfect blend of tiling and floating features when I finally ended up with dwm. Not only this is a way more efficient solution than all the approaches I tried, but it's definitely the most aesthetically appealing because it's free from impurities and leftovers written in the code of often exclusive concepts, and impossible to get rid of (i.e. remaining visible / perceptible in use). Pytyle and Openbox definitely work, but you neither get a fully-featured tiler, nor an improved floater. Such an approach may be possible but is hardly ever aesthetically correct. Thus my little advice: if possible, feed your curiosity with experience of a real tiling WM, fire test it at work, or stick with a dedicated project -- be it Gnome, Enlightenment, or anything that was designed to be a coherent entity. Stopgap measures usually don't give satisfaction...

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-31 12:03:54

Sorry for that but my world collapsed and why I am looking for alternative approaches it that I was always Gnome 2 user and now it will be depreciated so I looked at Xfce but found it not very cutting edge as Gnome/KDE are; KDE itself in the other hand is so different and all these Qt apps I don't know and all these GTK apps which are looking shitty after any visual setting in kWin... generally, what I want now is some old school romance with great engine so I'm going to try KDE without kWin, nor with Plasma Desktop (ohh, it was pain in the ass) and some good tiling manager would be great as I'm no longer looking for ways I know.

So, generally: what tiling WM would be a desktop manager in the same time OR what WM/DM set would you recommend for usage with KDE applications? Pure-tiling one, just like bohoomil said.

About Awesome 3: I know Python pretty well but don't feel like I would like to work after work just to work better...

the_isz · 2011-03-31 12:23:15

Włóczymyśl wrote:

About Awesome 3: I know Python pretty well but don't feel like I would like to work after work just to work better...

Awesome is configured via lua, not python. Just FYI...

Włóczymyśl · 2011-03-31 12:43:54

the_isz wrote:

Włóczymyśl wrote:
About Awesome 3: I know Python pretty well but don't feel like I would like to work after work just to work better...
Awesome is configured via lua, not python. Just FYI...

Yeah, I meant that it's not so impossible for me to learn the configuration style as I referred to:

redden0t8 wrote:

If you already know how to program, this isn't really an issue as lua is very easy to pick up, but otherwise the learning curve can be steep.

the_isz · 2011-03-31 14:03:41

Włóczymyśl wrote:

Yeah, I meant that it's not so impossible for me to learn the configuration style as I referred to:
redden0t8 wrote:
If you already know how to program, this isn't really an issue as lua is very easy to pick up, but otherwise the learning curve can be steep.

Oh, sorry, must have missed that.

But to actually contribute something to the topic:

I've been using awesome for quite some time now and have tried other tilers in
the meantime (last was yesterday when I tried subtle and wmfs). To me, awesome
is the only one satisfying practically all my needs:

Dynamic tiling
Integrated, sanely configurable and moderately easy extendable status bar
Integrated systray
Stable and tested
Small footprint (including dependencies)

The minor problems with it are (imho):

Not in main repos
Depends on a modified cairo package
Requires learning at least a little lua to configure

As to the last point: After trying multiple other tilers, I think you always
have to accept a trade-off between configurability and ease-of-use. Awesome does
this rather well in my eyes by using a small footprint, easy readable scripting
language (no need to compile after changing configs) which offers much
configurability to you without being too much in your way.

The only tiler having a chance to replace awesome for me any time soon would be
QTile because it is configured using python (which I like writing), but it just
isn't mature enough yet for me to use.

I hope these comments help you with your search for your favourite tiler

ANOKNUSA · 2011-03-31 17:18:55

Włóczymyśl wrote:

Sorry for that but my world collapsed and why I am looking for alternative approaches it that I was always Gnome 2 user and now it will be depreciated so I looked at Xfce but found it not very cutting edge as Gnome/KDE are; KDE itself in the other hand is so different and all these Qt apps I don't know and all these GTK apps which are looking shitty after any visual setting in kWin... generally, what I want now is some old school romance with great engine so I'm going to try KDE without kWin, nor with Plasma Desktop (ohh, it was pain in the ass) and some good tiling manager would be great as I'm no longer looking for ways I know.
So, generally: what tiling WM would be a desktop manager in the same time OR what WM/DM set would you recommend for usage with KDE applications? Pure-tiling one, just like bohoomil said.
About Awesome 3: I know Python pretty well but don't feel like I would like to work after work just to work better...

Seeing as how your concern seems entirely cosmetic, the answer is: anything you like. You're still gonna need to use the KDE Settings manager, QtConfig, and another program of your choice (lxappearance, et al), and a little creativity to set your widgets, decorations, etc. the way you like. There are wiki pages on how to configure integrated visual styles among both Qt and GTK+ apps. And it goes without saying that regardless of the WM you choose, you'll need to install the KDE libraries to use KDE programs. Look around, play around--only you can sort out what works for you. Here's KDE's Dolphin file manager next to GIMP, as an example:

I use this same setup in both KDE and OpenBox. Play around enough, do some reading, and you'll find what you're looking for. It took me months to get to the point where I could get every detail just how I wanted it in KDE; I'm still learning about OpenBox, since it's different from what I'm used to.

Last edited by ANOKNUSA (2011-03-31 17:19:29)

Włóczymyśl · 2011-04-04 16:23:25

Well, I played a little with QTile and it is exactly what I want. I tried it stand-alone but the problem was (there was a lot of problems but this one I couldn't manage for a while) that there was this "No DISPLAY set" error as a return of some sys funcion so I just installed Xfce for desktop manager and turned Xfwm off and everything was just perfect. But I want the same with KDE and there is the same "No DISPLAY set" error (it didn't appear for Xfce at all, even with Xfwm running). I dunno if it's even the place to ask about it or I should create another topic but... I think of QTile+KDE as a literally "beautiful tiling" so I will leave the question here and hope you will help.

Also, @ANOKNUSA: that was only the secoundary concern of mine but thanks for the tips, I just finished some changes according to Arch wiki and you were right: GTK+ apps can look good with KDE; I should have figured it out that there were people which needed mixing Qt with GTK+ and did some software for it.

Last edited by Włóczymyśl (2011-04-04 17:34:28)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-03-29 11:40:37

Beautiful tiling

#2 2011-03-29 12:50:06

Re: Beautiful tiling

#3 2011-03-29 12:57:49

Re: Beautiful tiling

#4 2011-03-29 13:01:38

Re: Beautiful tiling

#5 2011-03-29 13:29:05

Re: Beautiful tiling

#6 2011-03-29 13:57:20

Re: Beautiful tiling

#7 2011-03-29 18:36:28

Re: Beautiful tiling

#8 2011-03-29 20:23:09

Re: Beautiful tiling

#9 2011-03-31 12:03:54

Re: Beautiful tiling

#10 2011-03-31 12:23:15

Re: Beautiful tiling

#11 2011-03-31 12:43:54

Re: Beautiful tiling

#12 2011-03-31 14:03:41

Re: Beautiful tiling

#13 2011-03-31 17:18:55

Re: Beautiful tiling

#14 2011-04-04 16:23:25

Re: Beautiful tiling

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