mike:
How many non-programmers are using tiling window managers in X11 though?
I don't think that line of thinking is the right direction to go. I've liked the idea of a tiling window manager before I began using or hacking on it. I don't think there's anything inherently more programmer-ish about a window management scheme which deviates from the de facto "piles of crap" layout.
So, I'd agree with Alex on this, but on the other hand I would also recoil a bit at the suggestion that this feature be added to the core, since there are bound to be many differing opinions on what is best.
What would the alternatives look like? Some ad hoc 1st (or 0th) order, configuration language like .muttrc or something nasty like VimScript?
Gah! Scary.
Might it not be possible for there to exist something in XMonadContrib that contains all the bloat necessary to provide a gtk (or qt) gui configuration tool? That way, (in addition to Don being able to avoid this question altogether,)
- Distributors could enable it in Config.hs and compile it for the "non-programmers," while the rest of us are happy with our lean, efficient core XMonad.
- Various configuration fronts could be contributed and selectively enabled/ignored (GTK storing data in the gconf registry thing, QT however the KDE people store application data, vimscript, .muttrc, etc.)
I'm not enough of a Haskell/XMonad hacker to fully think this through though... I expect it might even sound quite naive. I'm sure I'll be able to learn a lot from your replies.
I'm text console-y enough I didn't even consider a gui tool. But that would be lovely. Being an FP guy I immediatley assumed the OP was looking for a new configuration language :) Andrea, perhaps you'd like to play with gtk2hs to write a tool to modify Config.hs ? Or anyone else interested -- I'm happy to guide people on this matter, and it could be quite robust and workable, I suspect. -- Don