Re: [xmonad] darcs patch: XMonad.Core: new layoutMirrored flag

9 May 2008

      Am Freitag, 9. Mai 2008 schrieb Joachim Breitner:
...
Hi,
Am Freitag, den 09.05.2008, 23:06 +0200 schrieb Lukas Mai:
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Fri May  9 22:57:43 CEST 2008  Lukas Mai 
  * XMonad.Core: new layoutMirrored flag
Maybe I’m not fully aware of how layouts work, but to me it seems that
XConf is the wrong place to add this: Aren’t there layouts that combine
other layouts? So what if I combine Mirror Tall and Tall on one screen,
what should layoutMirrored say? Also, is it xinerama safe?
It's not really global. Mirror just flips the bit for the wrapped layout's
runLayout method, using local (because X is a MonadReader for XConf). So
the effects are limited to the layout(s) called from Mirror.
...
A cleaner way would probably be a new method for the LayoutClass class
that allows this query to run, and be modified by mirroring layout
transformers. Seems at least more functional to me than some global
flag... If you give a default implementation of the method, you would
not even have to change the instances. Maybe something a long the lines
of
...
coordinateMirrored :: Window -> Bool
I don't understand this. What I want is a way to teleport information
from Mirror (and similar layouts) to mkAdjust, which queries a window to
build a suitable hinter function. To do this right, mkAdjust needs to know
whether the coordinates it gets are flipped or normal.

mkAdjust :: Window -> X (D -> D)

There is no way to pass this information directly. You could use another
function for this task, but how do you use coordinateMirrored in a layout
to access the mirror bit? Also, coordinateMirror's type doesn't mention a
particular layout, so it can't be a method of LayoutClass. And if it was,
which layout would you pass to it? The control flow goes something like:

runLayout[Mirror] -> runLayout[Foo] -> mkAdjust

for some layout Mirror Foo. I want to change mkAdjust's behavior from
runLayout[Mirror] without runLayout[Foo] having to do anything or even
knowing about it. This calls for hidden parameter passing, which is what
Reader is all about. Unfortunately layouts don't have their own monad
(hmm, maybe there should be a MonadX class and runLayout should be
runLayout :: (MonadX x) =>
    Workspace WorkspaceId (layout a) a
    -> Rectangle
    -> x ([(a, Rectangle)], Maybe (layout a))
No idea if that would work ...)

But X already passes an XConf to each layout, so that's what I used. I
think it's functional enough if you keep in mind that's not a global flag
but an implicit parameter of each layout.

I hope what I wrote above makes sense; I'm going to continue thinking
about this tomorrow. If anyone has a better (less intrusive) idea, I'd be
glad to hear it.

HTH, Lukas