I think it's not hard to write, but you should elaborate on how such layout should place windows. Currently I don't see convenient solution. I don't have any concrete ideas of how to place the windows at the moment. I was looking to see if others had done something similar first. Off-hand, taking the 2-column layout. If the window is the widest in the column set the column width to that window's maximum. If the window is not the widest, set the window to it's maximum width and just waste the horizontal space. Spare space would go to the second column.
Obviously, there is a ton of room for experimentation, which I am willing to do. I just haven't been able to find much in the documentation that would suggest how to do this. If anyone could give me an example, or a pointer to documentation that would help, I'd appreciate it.
And, by the way, it's better to enforce 80 columns by the means of your editor. E.g. in vim :set tw=80. As far as editing files, agreed. However, some programs I use would make this difficult. Also, I have some graphical widgets that really look ugly when stretched.
-mdg -- Our problems are mostly behind us, now all we have to do is fight the solutions.