Xfce Forum

PseudAnonymous

Member

Registered: 2021-04-05

Posts: 42

[FEATURE REQUEST] More Hotkeys/Combos For Switching Workspaces

The default F1 to F12 keys can be remapped to any arbitrary keys/combos, but the limit of twelve workspaces is ... well, limiting.

This request is, therefore, that the feature be opened up to allow an arbitrary number of assignments - if I have seventy-five workspaces then I would like to be able to assign

<mod-key(s)> + <sequence>

to all of them

e.g. SHIFT+ALT+0 through SHIFT+ALT+7+5

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Don't dance like nobody's watching, dance like a toddler instead - they don't even care if there's any music!

eriefisher

Member

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 528

Re: [FEATURE REQUEST] More Hotkeys/Combos For Switching Workspaces

One way to do this, albeit a bit clumbsy, is to create your work spaces in rows of up to 12. For instance, 12 across with 4 rows = 48 workspaces. You then hit CTL+F1-12 then ctl+ALT+arrow up/down to the row desired.

Since there is really no limit on how many workspaces you can have but only the default key strokes you can use to switch between them it seems like a good alternative. Not sure why anyone need so many workspaces??? Tiling would be a better option since you could easily see all the applications on a workspace, cycle through them, maximize for use then repeat for the next application.

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Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.18

PseudAnonymous

Member

Registered: 2021-04-05

Posts: 42

Re: [FEATURE REQUEST] More Hotkeys/Combos For Switching Workspaces

Not sure why anyone need so many workspaces???

TL;DR: Because I do

LONG EXPLANATION: I have a lot of research topics and activities on the go at any one time and it's not so much that I end up down the rabbithole, but that I move through Terry Pratchett's L-Space, entering a rabbithole in one place only to find myself emerging from another in an entirely different warren in a different dimension - only to repeat the process after entering a rabbithole in yet another warren across the country from where I popped out this time ... an endless number of rabbitholes in an endless number of warrens in an endless number of parallel (or even pocket) dimensions (all intersecting in an endless number of ways). 

I start out with one browser window, a filemanager window and a terminal ... and end up with twenty tabs open in each - at least ten of which won't be immediately relevant to the task in hand but are going to be in a little while ... hopefully after I've investigated this new thing first, but more than likely not until another ten later.

It becomes unmanageable that way.

So I end up hiving them off  into sub-groups, so that there's a manageable collection of related information and activities in each case, allowing me to keep track of things - at the moment that means I start on desktop 0 and start pushing things out to desktops -1, -2, +1, +2 and then, as and when it becomes necessary, splitting them between top-level groups of fifteen desktops, subdivided into groups of five desktops ... working from the inside to the outside in each instance.

I need a lot of desktops.

One way to do this, albeit a bit clumbsy, is to create your work spaces in rows of up to 12. For instance, 12 across with 4 rows = 48 workspaces. You then hit CTL+F1-12 then ctl+ALT+arrow up/down to the row desired.

Since there is really no limit on how many workspaces you can have but only the default key strokes you can use to switch between them it seems like a good alternative.

Yeah, that's kinda what I was talking about here. But, when I list things with xfdesktop --windowlist, that grid isn't replicated, it's just one long list ... which isn't completely unmanageable (it's what I do now after all), but it's definitively suboptimal for my purposes.

And no, a pager on a panel isn't an option for me: with that many desktops, it'd take up far too much desktop real-estate; and, if I hid it, I'd have to either

1. mouse around to find it every time (and I'm a keyboard jockey and loathe using the mouse, and avoid it as much as possible)

or

2.1 reveal it with a hotkey/combo
2.2 get my bearings vis-a-vis where I am and where I want to be (up three and six right)
2.3 hide it again
2.4 make my move

... and that just won't do: I'm busy, have a million-and-one things on my mind and, by the time I've done all that, I've forgotten why I wanted to go there in the first place - to make a quick note of, or check on, something, or quickly start a new websearch I'll come back to later, but, in the meantime, need there to remind me later (because I will have forgotten about it in the interim).

It's why my desktop is designed with a minimalist but rapid and information-rich workflow: I don't have time to mouse around (or even press hotkeys) to reveal information, I need it constantly visible at a glance, not hidden behind something/on a popup panel/in a widget on a desktop that I need to reveal only to learn, or rather not, that the time to notice something needed looking into has passed ... and any hotkeys I do use have to result in instant 'gratification': ALT+TAB to another app, SUPER-L+TAB -> xfdesktop --windowlist and cursor to the app/window I need (no matter what desktop it's on), SUPER-L -> xfce4-popup-whiskermenu --pointer and search on the fewest possible number of chars - even the time taken to glance, never mind mouse, over to a location that isn't exactly where I'm focussed right now is time wasted (a fixed location would needlessly inhibit my workflow) ... and having to TAB+cursor to the specific category, ENTER, cursor down ... ... *sigh* ain't nobody got time for that nonsense (Life's too short).

So, yeah, it's doable ... and actually sort of what I do now (just in 2D): I hotkey to the central desktop of a group of fifteen and then cursor left or right as necessary between subgroups of five desktops.

But it's decidedly suboptimal: too many steps necessary to get from A to %B and too limiting in terms of how many desktops are available in a subgroup - I can end up having to encroach on desktop +2 or even +1 of subgroup +1 of maingroup -2, because I needed a -3 or -4 in the current subgroup (or even a -2 subgroup in the current maingroup).

What I really need is

1. an arbitrary number of workgroups (KDE's 'activities') containing an arbitrary number of desktops each.
2. an arbitrary number of hotkeys to jump between workgroups and then between desktops within them

'1' might be done with a meta-level xfdesktop ---windowlist for workgroups/activities (an 'xfdesktop ---workgrouplist', if you will) and then xfdesktop ---windowlist would just operate on the windows within the current workgroup - and you could just cycle through workgroups/activities with a hotkey combo (like KDE does with SUPER+TAB).

'2' would still be necessary for desktops (current XFCE workgroups) though, because I can't know in advance that any given workgroup/activity won't require more than twelve desktops - it's not altogether unusual for me to require eight browser windows, four filemanagers, three fullscreen terminals and multiple other app windows open just for one subtopic of one subtopic ... and under those circumstances, having them all on the same desktop is just too risky (far too easy to flip to the wrong one and paste the wrong data/command, delete the wrong file, close the wrong window, whatever), so, they need to be split up, to minimise that risk as much as possible.

Tiling would be a better option since you could easily see all the applications on a workspace, cycle through them, maximize for use then repeat for the next application.

I already kinda tile things in a lot of instances, in that I edge/corner-tile things whenever possible, but often there's too much I need open fullscreen - it's just more effective to ALT+TAB between maximised windows, hop left/right a couple of desktops, or hotkey  from one desktop to another to quickly reference (or remind myself of) something that's tangentially related to my current focus but really a separate matter in its own right, than it is to have to resize things  ... potentially losing the formatting in some unfortunate cases (there's nothing worse than having the multiline reformated result of lsblk -o NAME,PTTYPE,FSTYPE,UUID,LABEL,PARTLABEL,MOUNTPOINTS,SIZE,FSSIZE,FSUSED,FSUSE%,FSAVAIL,PARTFLAGS messing up your view of things, pushing previous information offscreen, so that the results of all the relevant commands aren't simultaneously visible in the same window as you wanted them).

Yours are all good points of course and, given the current situation, about the best that can be done. But, all I'm asking is that someone drop whatever else they're doing and, instead, expend the time and effort to develop a solution that caters to my specific needs in return for (at best) an effusive 'thankyou' on my part (along with my ongoing evangelising of XFCE as the best DE there has ever been) ... whilst I do nothing myself - is that really so very unreasonable of me?

However, that aside, in all seriousness, if KDE can offer 'activities' then so can XFCE and, really, if it's on offer there, then clearly a lot of people besides me find it a useful feature - KDE is very popular, after all, so, I'm sure there must be more than just me amongst those of us who find XFCE caters sufficiently better to our needs than does KDE to forego it who'd find it useful (the use-case can't be that edge).

Last edited by PseudAnonymous (2023-12-15 13:52:47)

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Don't dance like nobody's watching, dance like a toddler instead - they don't even care if there's any music!