List of incompatible apps / known issues / limitations

[Leleat]

General

• Maximizing by double-clicking the titlebar (or using a maximize button) can't be handled by this extension, because that happens in mutter and not GNOME Shell. So everything related to it, like for instance gaps on maximized windows, doesn't work. First reported in https://github.com/Leleat/Tiling-Assistant/issues/86
• Windows, which change the size by themselves: Nothing I can do about it as an extension. I can't 'force' re/size limitations/constraints. For example, GNOME Terminal when the tab bar gets hidden/shown (reported here: https://github.com/Leleat/Tiling-Assistant/issues/65)
• Windows with "custom resizing": Similiar thing applies here. Same example: GNOME Terminal. It can only resize in full rows/columns. So there will be a small gap around those windows when they are tiled.
• always-on-top windows will be put below a tiled window the first time. You need to focus a different window to pull the always-on-top window to the top again.
• Moving tiled windows across monitors doesn't work, if the size of the tiled window is way too big for the new monitor. A workaround is to untile the window before moving it to a new monitor.
• No 'tiling styles' (#198): pretty much the same reason as the other issues. T-A can only do 'fake tiling', i. e. move/resize floating windows. In the end the windows are still just floating windows and will look like it.

Apps

• mpv: See #40 for the original report. Add no-keepaspect-window to your mpv.conf. That isn't necessary on Wayland.

[laichiaheng]

MPV does resize properly on Xorg. We need to add this in mpv.conf: no-keepaspect-window

[Leleat]

MPV does resize properly on Xorg. We need to add this in mpv.conf: no-keepaspect-window

Thanks, updated the post.

[gilesfun]

Maximizing by double-clicking the titlebar (or using a maximize button) can't be handled by this extension, because that happens in mutter and not GNOME Shell. So everything related to it, like for instance gaps on maximized windows, doesn't work

gnome-shell-extensions-useless-gaps is able to work around this first limitation (and seems to function nicely alongside this extension)

Maybe their implementation could be added to this extension?

[Leleat]

gnome-shell-extensions-useless-gaps is able to work around this first limitation (and seems to function nicely alongside this extension)

Maybe their implementation could be added to this extension?

Thanks for the suggestion. I've looked at that extension and it looks like it has the same issues I've encountered when trying to handle the 'double click the titlebar' / maximize-button case. Someone else also already submitted a PR (https://github.com/Leleat/Tiling-Assistant/pull/171)

Unfortunately, trying to add gaps to titlebar-double-clicked windows has 2 big issues (see the PR)

• double-clicking to unmaxize doesn't really work
• animations aren't working

These issues are veeery noticable. So with these limitations I'd rather not add this feature since there are alternative behaviours (dragging window to the top or keyboard shortcuts).

[o-kotb]

For the last one, how about having the extension only work for corners? That way edges can be handled by GNOME and has the tiled style like with maximizing. I can then also disable the left and right edge extension keybinds to have it on GNOME's side as well. I think this is better than no corner tiling at all.

[Leleat]

For the last one, how about having the extension only work for corners? That way edges can be handled by GNOME and has the tiled style like with maximizing. I can then also disable the left and right edge extension keybinds to have it on GNOME's side as well. I think this is better than no corner tiling at all.

I don't think that will work because GNOME has some basic tiling features like resizing side-by-side windows automatically. I won't be able to change those however because they aren't handled gnome-shell. That would break a lot of Tiling Assistant's features.

[0Raik]

Incompatible with the extension

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1181/maximize-to-workspace/

Maximize to Workspace with history is suppose to move a newly created/maximized window automatically to a new workspace which makes working with workspaces a breeze. So one can only choose that or Tiling Assistant and pretty gaps.

[rungitringit]

Hello, If I was to request quarter tiling upstream (that is pin to corners and shortcut keys such as WIN + DOWN RIGHT) which project would be appropriate? Mutter or Gnome? Thank you!

[Leleat]

If I was to request quarter tiling upstream (that is pin to corners and shortcut keys such as WIN + DOWN RIGHT) which project would be appropriate? Mutter or Gnome? Thank you!

Hi, the project to request this from would be mutter (that's why there are a limitations when it comes to tiling via gnome shell extensions). But you don't need to request it there. Better tiling has been requested a few times already (see links below). It's just no one has taken to implement it yet because (among other things) it's also lacking a proper design. The design team has been thinking about better tiling in GNOME but they are still in an explorative stage: https://blogs.gnome.org/tbernard/2023/07/26/rethinking-window-management/

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https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/2128 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/675 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/52 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/1596 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/966 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/704

[rungitringit]

Thank you for that.

It's just no one has taken to implement it yet because (among other things) it's also lacking a proper design. The design team has been thinking about better tiling in GNOME but they are still in an explorative stage: https://blogs.gnome.org/tbernard/2023/07/26/rethinking-window-management/

Oh no, that post scares me. I like that they're trying to think outside the box to improve the design overall, but I am worried that they'll come up with some radical idea which will take years to mature. I often need to use "stable" OS releases at work so the mistakes of the past have a long tail! (Look at the version of Gnome in RHEL 8!)

If they could simply match MS Windows tiling configuration today, it would be a huge step forward for most users.

[rungitringit]

FWIW I've used work contacts to raise this as a feature request with Red Hat. That's got to be worth more than another :+1: on a gitlab.gnome.org Issue.

[Fenimoure]

Thank you, wanted to report windows that open maximized by default not having a gap and found it's not your issue

[Fenimoure]

maximized by default not having a gap

Also, I think there is a workaround possible: for such windows automatically de-maximize them and then re-maximize them for having a gap. I also think, if implemented, this should be optional, because it may irritate some users.