Hey all,

xmonad's reaching a fairly stable place featurewise (and stability-wise too).

Now is perhaps a good time to ask people what we can do to improve xmonad further.

* What things annoy you? OK, it really really annoys me that programs can do XGrabKeyboard and xmonad does not work. I have been in a multitude of situations in which firefox has crashed or frozen after having grabbed the keyboard and this has left me up

I'm responding in line: the creak. Sjansen claims there is nothing that can be done about this. I really don't care, I want it fixed. It really annoys me when I accidentally tap the mouse with my thumb and a window goes floaty. It really annoys me that kde apps' tray icons don't get picked up by kicker.

* What things do you like?

I love the automatic tiling(especially MosaicAlt) and the new xmonad.hs I like how in xmonad.hs I can redefine keys making it so I KNOW which hotkeys xmonad walks on, and if they interfear with a program of mine, I can change them. I like the ability to have kde's kicker. I like the responsiveness of the window manager. I like that with configuration it can take on an almost emacsish proprietary glove feel.

* What things can be done better?

Not xmonad, but in contrib the directional WindowNavigation doesn't wrap or work with layouts like Full and Roledex. The Gaps don't have any kind of automatic layouting, it's all up to windows being over-ride redirect. Sometimes they walk on eachother, or in my case(I have dzen and kicker) I had to do manual fiddling to get things arranged properly.

* What things are missing?

There is currently no way to have a sub workspace. Like a tabbed browser I think of as a sub workspace in tabbed layout, so why can't I put a terminal in my tabbed browser. If I was using the tabbing functionality of the window manager, I could. I would love to have a konfabulator or mac osx type widget thing. I just find calculators, irc channels, and todo lists to be better as things that I popped up and pushed away, and then brought back with a press of a button. I haven't yet figured out the whole todo list thing yet, but I think a text file that I could press a button and it would be floating focused above what I had been working but in such a way that what I had been working on was so visible(not knocked off the screen and out of my head) would be really helpfull, you ever walked into a room and thought to yourself "why did I come here", well I'm that way with workspaces sometimes. These are things that I plan to write myself that are missing: 1 Window bringer should be able to have a designated workspace that one would send windows to and then bring from, this workspace would become a kind of area for 'minimized' windows. 2 The mouse should jump to the center of a window when that window gets focus, this way the mouse would be in a logical window when you grabbed for it. It would also allow the mouse to be used to spin through windows in my layout Roledex.

* What things do you miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz

I really miss the ability in enlightenment to do windowkey-scroll wheal and have windows scaled up(not like be resized but like bitmap zooming) I also miss from enlightenment the 2d grid of workspaces with the little icon. Somehow walking around a mini map of workspaces is really intuitive for me. I miss window decorations sometimes, some apps don't provide usefull titles without them. I might like decorations on a filter basis, like set which applications to decorate kind of like the current float list.

* What things do you not miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz ... :)

I don't miss fuddling with windows, nor do I miss mouse work. I really like the ability to get on IRC and talk to real people who aren't total nubs. I used to do things like go on #ubuntu and everyone would be obviously less intelligent then me, and the entire weight of the world would fall on my shoulders and I would think to myself, "gosh I have to solve all the worlds problems because I'm the only one smart enough to do it". Now I know I'm an idiot and I can let saving the world lie in the hands of geniuses like the one who prompted me for this survey.

If you've any suggestions for things we can change to make xmonad better fit your workflow or whatever, please shout out!

If you grumble when xmonad doesn't do something you think it should -- let us know!

With information like this we can continue to improve our progressive window manager :)

-- Don _______________________________________________ xmonad mailing list xmonad@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/xmonad

On Sat, Dec 22, 2007 at 09:47:34PM -0800, Don Stewart wrote:

Hey all,

xmonad's reaching a fairly stable place featurewise (and stability-wise too).

Now is perhaps a good time to ask people what we can do to improve xmonad further.

* What things annoy you?

I am not very familiar with haskell so even simple edits to the config file can be confusing. Maybe a simpler format with the ability to embed haskell code where needed would be easier.

* What things do you like?

Everything else :)

* What things can be done better?

I already mentioned it above, but I think the config could be more user friendly.

* What things are missing?

It would be great to able to arbitrarily resize any window, not just the master area. The whole Master area thing seems pretty integral to xmonad, though, so I don't really expect this to happen.

* What things do you miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz

I miss the ability to have multiple tabs in any window. I understand this is possible with Layout.Combo, but I haven't had time to try to set it up. Basically, I would like to be able to easily create a window layout like this: http://manimal.prettybrd.com/~leedo/iondesktop.png

* What things do you not miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz ... :)

Unfriendly developers! I am not really able to keep up with the mailing list as much as I would like, so it is very well possible much of what I mentioned is already possible. If that is the case, then you all rock even more than I thought. -- Lee

I just want to help you by filling out the User Survey. Just one word before I start: I never used a Tiling Windowmanager before. I went from KDE to Gnome to XFCE (each with their default Windowmanagers). I tried Ion3 but I hated three things: 1. The config in Ion3 is much to complicated. I cant understand if people tell the XMonad-Config is to difficult: Just look at the ion3 one. 2. There are too many keystrokes you have to remeber if you want to use ion3. 3. The licence is crap! When trying to find some darcs-related applications I stranded on Don Stewards Website ( http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~dons/index.html ). And found a link to xmonad.

* What things annoy you?

Difficult question. I think nothing is realy anoying. Im still searching for a perfect windowlayout and I havent found it yet (currently using "Tall"). Thats anoying but a personal question.

* What things do you like?

1. The configfile. Although I have no haskell skills at all its impressive what you can do in the configfile. Thats why I would suggest to keep this file and dont replace it! 2. The logical keybindings. Thats as I said above a thing I hated at Ion. At XMonad its logical: You use shift to move a window and to move the view you use it without shift. 3. I like that I dont have to create windows (like in ion3). I like that xmonad is a real window MANAGER (unlike ion3) 4. That it is my choice which status-bar to use (i recently switched from dzen2 to xmobar)

* What things are missing?

1. A screenshot page where you can see how each layout-module from contrib looks like. As I told above I havent found the right layout yet and such a page would help me. 2. Im not sure if this already exists: A possibility to disable borders for some applications. I only need this for mplayer in fullscreenmode.

* What things do you miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz

Only one thing: The tab-support. I asked for this some weeks ago here on the list. It was already mentioned on another survey. I want every window to have its own tabs and not one tab for all windows. If it is still unclear I can also try to record a video from ion or make screenshots.

* What things do you not miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz ... :)

I told this above. Perhaps you want to add the question: * How have you heard of xmonad and which windowmanagers did you use * before. If I were you this would be very interessting. Greetings from Germany -- Dominik Bruhn mailto: dominik@dbruhn.de

At Sat, 22 Dec 2007 21:47:34 -0800, Don Stewart wrote:

* What things annoy you?

Hmm, there is nothing real that annoys me on xmonad. One point maybe that I dont know so much about xmonad as I want to :).

* What things do you like?

I like the tilling and the very good floating handling. Another point is the very good community, all people in #xmonad are very nice.

* What things can be done better?

Dont know :).

* What things are missing?

Nothing yet.

* What things do you miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz

maybe some blingbling ;)

* What things do you not miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz ... :)

Dunno, never used these. Before I switched to xmonad I used Metacity, KWin or explorer.exe and didnt knew how great it is to use a tilling window manager. I tried dwm and ion3 but xmonad was the best, since the community was great and the configuration wasnt so tough. Keep on rockin guys. Tim -- It's not that afraid to die. I just don`t wat to be there when it happens. -- Woody Allen

Thanks to all who contribute. Xmonad is my currently WM of choice.

* What things annoy you?

Start a program on one workspace and have it pop up later on another due to startup delay. This happens in every WM I have used.

* What things do you like?

Community, organized plugin package, layout plugins, Xinerama, small code size. Floating handling is good. It is my favorite WM at the moment.

* What things are missing?

Optional mouse warts on tabbed layout and floating windows to avoid reaching for keyboard to close windows. Programs like gimp and web browsing could benefit from this.

* What things do you miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz

compiz - negative plugin to invert colors

* What things do you not miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz ... :)

Complexity of the layout / movement of focus. I prefer swapping layout algorithms to tweaking a layout. -Sam On Dec 23, 2007 12:47 AM, Don Stewart wrote:

Hey all,

xmonad's reaching a fairly stable place featurewise (and stability-wise too).

Now is perhaps a good time to ask people what we can do to improve xmonad further.

* What things annoy you? * What things do you like? * What things can be done better? * What things are missing? * What things do you miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz * What things do you not miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz ... :)

If you've any suggestions for things we can change to make xmonad better fit your workflow or whatever, please shout out!

If you grumble when xmonad doesn't do something you think it should -- let us know!

With information like this we can continue to improve our progressive window manager :)

-- Don _______________________________________________ xmonad mailing list xmonad@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/xmonad

On Sat, Dec 22, 2007 at 09:47:34PM -0800, Don Stewart wrote:

Hey all,

xmonad's reaching a fairly stable place featurewise (and stability-wise too).

I came to tiling WM's by way of wmii(2) and loved it for quite a while, but when debian moved to wmii3 I didn't feel like relearning it all... I had developed a workflow and wanted to stick with it. So I went off to IceWM for a while and after using that, and tweaking it, I realised I was trying to make it behave more like a tiling WM. heh. anyway, I relearned wmii, but had a kind of nasty session with them on IRC where I asked how to do something (don't remember what) and basically got told to get lost. And I had even offered to look into coding up a solution to the problem if they could talk to me about it!! Well, anyway, I went looking, always had an interest in Haskell, and here I am.

Now is perhaps a good time to ask people what we can do to improve xmonad further.

* What things annoy you?

lack of how-to's. Sometimes I just need a dumb step-by-step to get me started, then I can figure out the rest myself. That or screenshots with config files well commented to explain how they affect the screen shot would be nice...

* What things do you like?

all of it.

* What things can be done better?

handling of floats. I'm sure it can be done and I jsut haven't figured it out yet, but pushing things into and out of tiling should be easier. (i'm still on .4 so I realise these may be solved). Sometimes I can get things tiled, but can't get them to later float. And its annoying to move to the mouse to manipulate floats -- I'd like to move, resize with keys. Again, I realise these may already be do-able and I just haven't figured it out.

* What things are missing?

again, may already exist: grow or shrink the current window and then revert it to managed mode. sometimes this or that window needs to be a little bit bigger for just a minute and the it can go back to being controlled by the wm. sort of like Mod-L|H and its control of the master pane, the same should be doable for any window. And there needs to be a way to revert to the default size, the modifications made with Mod-L|H can be reverted in one keystroke.

* What things do you miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz

tagging. although, now that I'm dual head its not a big deal, on my laptop it would be nice to tag, say, IRC window, to be on every workspace. I realise it might have a different layout on each one...

* What things do you not miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz ... :)

annoying devs. A "we are better than everyone else attitude"...

If you've any suggestions for things we can change to make xmonad better fit your workflow or whatever, please shout out!

keep on keepin' on. Great work guys and a testiment to your skills and the power of Haskell. A

On Sat, Dec 22, 2007 at 09:47:34PM -0800, Don Stewart wrote:

xmonad's reaching a fairly stable place featurewise (and stability-wise too).

Now is perhaps a good time to ask people what we can do to improve xmonad further.

I'm a bit late but...

* What things annoy you?

Hard to recommend to people with low computer skills and/or interest.

* What things do you like?

Erm... everything :] Haskell; keyboard orientation; light & unbloated; highly extensible/customizable; efficient/simple workflow; licence... everything ! :]

* What things can be done better? * What things are missing?

My number one whish is : 2(or even 3)d workpace grid. Although i'm not sure i would use the 3rd dimension... i'm certain about the 2nd ;).

* What things do you miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz

Left Ion3 for Xmonad a couple of months ago. I don't miss anything from Ion anymore. Just in the begining, when i wasnt used to Xmonad.

* What things do you not miss from ion/wmii/dwm/compiz ... :)

Everything :p Thanks again for this great WM. Alexandre