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acppcoder

Member

Registered: 2015-01-24

Posts: 9

contributing to XFWM

Where's the best place to discuss a feature request for XFWM, and/or discuss potential changes to it.

I've implemented a couple of simple tweaks and have some other ideas I might like to experiment with;- it would be nice to know if the maintainers would consider integrating any of these ideas rather than me maintaining my own private fork for everything here.

**tweak 1:** mouse wheel on title-bar takes the window between desktops instead of rollup/rolldown;
( it would be nice to make the mouse wheel a configurable action. )
inspired by sawfish.. allows rapidly flicking windows between desktops, easier to aim at title than toggling 'sticky'

**tweak 2:**  right click maximize=maximize vertically.
easier to click & more useful with widescreen monitors, I never want to maximise horizontal .(I also use it with synergy from a macbook, where middle-click is impossible.)

**Further Ideas:-**
mostly aimed at simplifying hotkey & workflow..

[1] I'm interested in streamlining to the way workspaces work, especially after time with OSX (where a very slick DE with gestures makes workspace management a pleasure), but also wanting easier keyboard-only use:-

Automatic Workspace Management
- start with 1 empty desktop.
- add command to "add an empty desktop if one doesn't exist, and select it"
  - and an option for 'show desktop' to do this; the idea being multiple desktops can replace it.
- when closing windows, any surplus empty workspaces would be closed until there is just one empty desktop
- fullscreen takes the window onto a new desktop, undoing fullscreen takes it back to its' original desktop
   (- inspired by osx fullscreen)
- option to make 'maximise' button issue the fullscreen command (yosemite does this )
- perhaps automatically name the desktop based on it's window. (+the empty one can be called "empty").
   - or just call it 'desktop N' , unless it has a unique application or single window, then use that name..

[2] option to show desktops in the alt-tab window-switcherlist:
(intermediate between alt-tab just showing windows on current workspace. using workspaces would manage the complexity of the alt-tab list, and alt-tab would eliminate needing to remember & use explicit 'jump to desktop' hotkeys)
partly inspired by windows, where the desktop appears in the alt-tab menu. Just generalise that to multi-desktops.
(could show 'desktop N - <topmost window name,...>
.. so to create a new desktop, you just need 'alt-tab' and open something new on it..

[3] 'hide other windows' on space-tab menu becomes 'take to own desktop' (hide-other moves to advance menu)

[4] tile and auto-arrange commands on the alt-space menu, for easier keyboard-only use (don't have to remember so many hotkeys). Push some options to an advance menu to make way (e.g.: layer control?)

[5] implement hotkeys for spatial window navigation(e.g. select-window above, select window left ,etc: like 'windmove' in emacs.. flux box has it). These same hotkeys should also switch between desktops when you move off the edges. (e.g, you just walk the windows of the edge of the screen, then continue on the next workspace..)

[6]
and ideally, a separate desktop-list *per monitor*  .. thats a bigger change, something I've always wanted ;
OSX does it now and it's really nice.
i'm not sure if it fits 'NetWM' conventions, can that be added to in a way that's easy for other maintainers to follow suit?

With these tweaks, I think you could get a lot done on the keyboard with ALT+Space, ALT+Tab, but also the mouse wheel stuff would let you leverage desktops more with fewer fiddly commands when you do use a mouse. Eg, to start a new workspace ,you'd just alt-tab to Empty, then open new stuff.

Last edited by acppcoder (2015-01-25 09:01:12)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,486

Re: contributing to XFWM

Where's the best place to discuss a feature request for XFWM, and/or discuss potential changes to it.

The xfce4-dev mailing list.

You have some interesting ideas.

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MountainDewManiac

Member

From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 1,115

Re: contributing to XFWM

**tweak 1:** mouse wheel on title-bar takes the window between desktops instead of rollup/rolldown;
( it would be nice to make the mouse wheel a configurable action. )
inspired by sawfish.. allows rapidly flicking windows between desktops, easier to aim at title than toggling 'sticky'

I'm not a coder, so I could be wildly mistaken, but I'd think that a good "catch-all" way to encompass such a thing would be to improve the "Mouse and Touchpad" settings application in such a way that the user could customize mouse-buttons in much the same way that he/she can customize keyboard combinations (or even just be able to assign a certain keyboard combination to a mouse button, having already assigned a function to said keyboard combination in the relevant area). I have no use for your specific proposed change, although I'm sure others would find it useful (and I'm sure that you obviously would, since you proposed it) - and the "blind" (roll up/down) function on windows was something I discovered accidentally one day (very minor panic, lol) and never actually found a use for, although I might have used it once or twice in Windows 3.1 during the short time I played around with tiling windows, had it been available (or maybe it was, IDK) - but allowing the end-user to assign functions at-will to the buttons would allow for both the above and any other function he/she chooses to assign.

That'd also allow for the fact that not everyone uses the same type of mouse. For example, suppose that I really liked your proposed feature... However, I have one of those cheap (but works great in linux, and has a penguin on the back of the package, lol) Logitech M325 wireless mice. It has the traditional two buttons, with a scroll-wheel that can be pressed for a third button. It also has a 4th and 5th "button" (tilt the wheel left and right). If I wanted your proposed suggestion, I'd probably want to assign it to one of the latter two buttons; or possibly both: tilt left sends window one desktop to the left, tilt right sends window one desktop to the right. Having the ability to customize buttons like we can customize keyboard combinations would allow me to assign your suggestion (or something else) to any button I chose.

Just a thought. I don't know who maintains the mouse settings gui app.

Regards,
MDM

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Mountain Dew Maniac

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acppcoder

Member

Registered: 2015-01-24

Posts: 9

Re: contributing to XFWM

> I'm not a coder, so I could be wildly mistaken, but I'd think that a good "catch-all" way to encompass such a thing would be to improve the "Mouse and Touchpad" settings application in such a way that the user could customize mouse-buttons in much the same way that he/she can customize keyboard combinations

yes; I'd propose this feature to be merged as a selectable setting (which is part of a config file), and the settings application would have to be updated to follow suit. Pick what the scroll wheel does from options: None, Rollup, Take To Workspace.  (with 'none', the scroll wheel could still switch desktops)

> If I wanted your proposed suggestion, I'd probably want to assign it to one of the latter two buttons; or possibly both: tilt left sends window one desktop to the left, tilt right sends window one desktop to the right. Having the ability to customize buttons like we can customize keyboard combinations would allow me to assign your suggestion (or something else) to any button I chose.

sure, thats a good use of the left/right tilt feature. Perhaps scroll wheel & left/right tilt should have the same range of options.

I'd personally stick with the scroll wheel, I see the desktops as a stack rather than spatial, you could think of it as 'Z' movement rather than left/right ... I've tended to ditch the spatial edge switching because it doesn't scale to multiple-monitors, and I use Synergy a lot.

'shade' (rollup, whatever you call it) is interesting, but I think its' something that can be done better other ways. e.g. a tab-bar (which XFCE has)- you can click on the window there to show/hide it. Or even tabbed windows like Fluxbox has.

Of course, keeping the shade option is useful, since not everyone wants a tab-bar permanently taking up screen-space. it is nice to have a totally minimalist environment too, and a decent right-click menu with launchers & desktop lists..

Last edited by acppcoder (2015-01-26 05:42:43)