On Mon, Aug 27, 2007 at 02:46:26PM +0200, Kai Grossjohann wrote:
I find that the current workspace switching model does not match my usage pattern. My usage pattern is that I tend to use the same head to view a given workspace.
Is there anyone who prefers a similar working style and who could provide code to implement it? I know that you guys usually tell me that I can do it myself and that it is very easy, but this time, I am doubtful.
I'd say that you've good reason to be doubtful. I think it would be possible to implement via a Layout modifier, but it would be extremely scary and ugly code.
My working style:
- There should be a command to say "workspace X prefers head Y" (for example with X being the currently focused workspace and Y the currently focused head).
- When switching to a workspace, display it on the preferred head. (If there is no preferred head, have some rule such as to always show it on the second head.)
- There should be a way to say that I want to view workspace X on the current head, no matter what X's preferred head is.
I've made a similar proposal, which was shot down, which was to make every workspace associated with a screen, so then there would be two (or more?) sorts of keybindings. You could have a keybinding that ignores this association (and thus reproduces current behavior with a little more code), and one which shows a particular workspace on its current screen. The user could select the behavior they prefer. This isn't quite the same as what you request, but I believe it'll work just as well with your work flow. This would simplify parts of the code, while making some of the existing behavior more complicated. We'd no longer have a "hidden" list in ScreenSet, but instead each Screen would have a Stack of Workspaces (thus holding both a visible Workspace and zero or more hidden Workspaces. Note that you'd also gain the potential to implement keybindings for things like rotating through the Workspaces on a given Screen. It'd be beautiful and simple in xmonad's core, but nightmarish to implement in XMonadContrib (basically involving forking StackSet, as far as I can tell). -- David Roundy http://www.darcs.net