paperwm
Present windows as grid rather than single row in thumbnail switcher
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. A scrollable window manager becomes annoying when a lot of windows are on one workspace, resulting in a very long train horizontal navigation. Navigation by keyboard becomes difficult. See #1089
Describe the solution you'd like A grid like navigation with Super+Up/Down/Left/Right would be faster and with vertical scrolling (Super+Up/Down) navigation becomes very easy between multiple rows (most times won't exceed 3 or 4 rows) of apps on one workspace. Even the changing position of app windows is much easier on grid navigation than on a very long train horizontal navigation. Also, adding window names in the grid view will be very useful (especially when working with multiple documents or PDFs).
Like these images:
- 2 rows: https://static0.howtogeekimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/img_5d2fb024e91ee.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=650&dpr=1.5
- 3 rows: https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Alt-Tab-with-browser-tabs.jpg
- 4 rows: https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/Microsoft/Windows-10/alt-tab-edge-tabs/alt-tab-task-list.jpg
[Please don't get me wrong, I hate Windows. These images I found only for the sake of explaining my feature request]
Describe alternatives you've considered The best alternatives are scrolling with a mouse on the top bar or 3 finger swipe on touchpad.
Current alternative solutions with keyboard navigation are: Win+1/2/3/.../9/0 (especially Win+5 to get to the center of the train for example). But, overview (Win, arrow keys, enter) (with "Always Show Titles In Overview" extension) is more simple without having to know the number of apps open on the workspace.
This already exists, if I'm understanding you correctly. Super+PgUp/PgDown enters a new workspace where you can open new windows. You can then navigate left and right with Super+Left/Right. If you're talking about further splitting the same workspace, you can do that, too. You can manually drag a window above or below another and create a horizontal split, or you can use Super+I.
If you mean that PaperWM should be more like other tiling managers, I'm pretty sure that defeats the purpose. If that's what you like, look up the Tiling Shell extension or similar. There's a myriad that can do tons of tiles on the same workspace.
Can you explain further what you mean, if I've missed your point?
I appreciate your time and effort in responding. I think you've missed my point. I'm talking, instead of navigating through windows horizontally in only one row on the same workspace like this image:
- https://itsfoss.com/content/images/wordpress/2020/01/paperwm-desktop.png
Why not navigate through windows horizontally and vertically on the same workspace, like these images:
- 2 rows: https://static0.howtogeekimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/img_5d2fb024e91ee.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=650&dpr=1.5
- 3 rows: https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Alt-Tab-with-browser-tabs.jpg
- 4 rows: https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/Microsoft/Windows-10/alt-tab-edge-tabs/alt-tab-task-list.jpg
This functionality isn't the same as horizontal split, it's very different. I'm not talking about tiling layouts here. I'm talking about keyboard navigation between multiple windows on the same workspace.
In these images, windows are arranged in a grid. So, you can navigate up/down instead of just right/left. This functionality becomes very useful when you have 5 windows or more on the same workspace.
Say, you have 13 windows on the same workspace, like this image:
- arranged in 3 rows: https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Alt-Tab-with-browser-tabs.jpg
If you are on window no. 6, you can navigate down to window no. 11 (by Super+down arrow), up to window no. 2 (by Super+up arrow), left to window no. 5 or right to window no. 7 on the same workspace.
This solves the annoying problem when a lot of windows are on one workspace in PaperWM (or any scrollable window manager). Instead of one very long row (currently), I suggest having windows arranged into two rows (when you have 3 windows), three rows (when you have 7 windows) and four rows (when you have 10 windows). I suggest a square grid to minimize keyboard clicks for navigation between windows (the three previous images are not a square grid).
Also, why display one window title at a time? I suggest displaying all windows titles like in this image:
- https://static0.howtogeekimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/img_5d2fb024e91ee.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=650&dpr=1.5
It sounds like what you're requesting is for PaperWM to be not PaperWM. The entire goal is to have (nearly) full-sized windows that you can quickly scroll horizontally, rather than cramming a bunch into smaller tiles on the same workspace. If you're running into issues where you have too many windows in a row, you should be utilizing workspaces above or below your current row (Super+PgDown/Up). Your idea is to take those workspaces and cram them back into a single workspace, and at that point, it's indistinguishable from other Tiling Managers; why, then, have scrolling at all?
Say, you have 13 windows on the same workspace, like this image:
- arranged in 3 rows: https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Alt-Tab-with-browser-tabs.jpg
These three rows should exist on three separate workspaces. Switch between them with Super+PgDown/Up.
Also, why display one window title at a time? I suggest displaying all windows titles like in this image:
-https://static0.howtogeekimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/img_5d2fb024e91ee.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=650&dpr=1.5
You can do that by utilizing Gnome's built-in Overview (Super key).
It sounds to me like you don't actually like PaperWM and wish it was like every other tiling manager. If that's the case, rather than trying to change this one, there's already many projects available that would be better suited to your needs.
If I understand correctly, @Astarospace you're not actually asking for PaperWM itself to change layout, just the window navigator (Super+arrows) to wrap thumbnails into multiple rows for extremely long workspaces. Correct?
If that's the case, then the ticket can be split into three:
- A visual issue: PaperWM's thumbnail switcher doesn't handle super-long workspaces well
- An ergonomic issue: Quickly moving across a long workspace is unwieldy and/or inaccurate
- A proposal: You are suggesting wrapping thumbnails into multiple rows to facilitate navigation
Otherwise, as @telorand says, what you are looking for may just not be part of PaperWM's design goals.
@Thesola10 you understand me correctly.
I suggest wrapping thumbnails into a square grid to minimize keyboard clicks for navigation between windows. I suggest having windows arranged into two rows (when you have 3 windows), three rows (when you have 7 windows) and four rows (when you have 10 windows).
Say, you have 13 windows on the same workspace, like this image:
- arranged in 3 rows: https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Alt-Tab-with-browser-tabs.jpg If you are on window no. 6, you can navigate down to window no. 11 (by Super+down arrow), up to window no. 2 (by Super+up arrow), left to window no. 5 or right to window no. 7 on the same workspace.
Also, why display one window title at a time? I suggest displaying all windows titles like in this image:
https://static0.howtogeekimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/img_5d2fb024e91ee.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=650&dpr=1.5
I have created a parent issue (#1089) to clarify the issue this proposal is trying to solve
Also, why display one window title at a time? I suggest displaying all windows titles like in this image:
This would be due to the way GNOME's window switcher widget works. We try to keep interface components close to their upstream counterparts, so this specific aspect is out-of-scope. Additionally, this would be unwieldy in window columns where vertical thumbnail space is already constrained.