/twmg/ - Tiling Window Manager General

Low on precious screen real estate, or busy massaging your carpal tunnel
wrists damaged by waving a mouse around like an idiot? A tiling window manager
might be for you!

> Freedom from the mouse
With any decent twn, you're hand almost never has to leave the home row.

> High customizability
All well known twms are built with customizability in mind, either through a
config file, command line options, or in the case of dwm, editing the source
code directly.

> Efficient use of screen space
because each new window will split the screen one level further, the available
screen space is used optimally (yes, even when using gaps).

> L I G H T W E I G H T
using a tiling window manager forgoes the need for a bloated DE, simply
install any necessary software on top of the window manager to build exactly
the system you want with no cruft!

> Resources
i3wm - i3wm.org/
Babby's first twm, easily customizable from a central config file, has sane
defaults. Usable out of the box.

bspwm - github.com/baskerville/bspwm
Binary Space Partitioning Window Manager
bspwm is a tiling window manager that represents windows as the leaves of a full binary tree.

dwm - dwm.suckless.org/
Dynamic Window Manager written in C.
Slightly higher learning curve than most other twms, basic knowledge of C is
necessary for configuration as it takes place in the header file. Very
lightweight.

awesomewm - awesomewm.org/
Supports lots of features out of the box, less initial configuration necessary than some others.
Shares the concept of tags with dwm which can be more flexible than workspaces

herbsluftwm - herbstluftwm.org/
Manual twm with similar tiling system to i3
Can be reconfigured on the fly using herbstclient

> Brief introduction/ explanation
youtube.com/watch?v=Api6dFMlxAA

> Comparison of various twms
wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Comparison_of_tiling_window_managers

Other urls found in this thread:

vimeo.com/7511980
github.com/Jazqa/kwin-quarter-tiling
github.com/faho/kwin-tiling
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

How do I use polybar properly with herbstluftwm? Everytime I start it the windows don't make space for it and the workspace indicator doesn't work.

Or should I forget about polybar and use some other alternative?

Have you configured it for bspwm? I think the config defaults to i3. It's as simple as uncommenting some lines

How can i add border in i3-gaps only when my gaps are disabled ? Can you bind a border toggle ?

>tiling wm general
>posts a pic with a dynamic wm
Not that there's anything wrong with dynamics wms, quite the opposite, I use dwm myself and it's great. The best of both worlds. I just prefer dynamic because sometimes I need to stack stuff or just plainly use a smaller size than the whole dekstop.

The dynamic in "dynamic window manager" indicates that dwm places and sizes tiles dynamically rather than in a set layout, and has nothing to do with stacking. It has a stacking mode, incidentally, but it is still entirely a twm.
Please avoid being stupid whenever possible and look stuff up first.
I don't know about setting borders automatically, I'm sure it could be done with i3ipc in your language of choice, but I think you can just do
bindsym $mod+Whatever border normal 1

or whatever border style you prefer.

You have to be less autistic about what constitutes tiling. Otherwise we have only bspwm, herbsluft and xmonad. Whose userbase is tiny compared to DWM, I3 and awesome, whose userbase are using them primarily to tile in as advanced a fashion as any tiling-only wm.

install xmonad

>The dynamic in "dynamic window manager" indicates that dwm places and sizes tiles dynamically rather than in a set layout, and has nothing to do with stacking
I was talking about dynamic wms in general, not specifically about dwm, i just said I use dwm which is an example of many dynamic wms.
>It has a stacking mode, incidentally
Which makes it a dynamic wm, not just a tiling wm

(in-package :stumpwm)

How much RAM does dwm use?

Are you saying that dwm, i3, awesome, and all the other wms that have the possibility of any kind of floating windows aren't primarily tiling wms, and used by the vast majority of people in tiling mode? That's semantics and stupid, everyone understands what any of us mean when we say "tiling wm." Except you, apparently. In any case, if it soothes your autism, I'll make sure the next thread is "window managers which are primarily used for their window tiling features but may also include features like monocle mode and stacked mode not strictly limited to tiling general"

OP here I'm sorry I have a limited number of chars and can't fit them all, I suppose I or someone else coulda put it all in a pastebin

Just use a layering one.
Effectively gives you more space, can customize by editing the source (why would you do that?), lighter than tiling memes usually and mouse is actually useful and you still have it anyway

That really seems like the worst of both worlds, I've never used a layering wm, please explain why it's good

wow thanks for using my desktop to start the thread OP~
>we made it

Easiest way to try out a twm?

install them all, then just choose one on the login screen

i3 is a good one to start with. If you're on ubuntu it should be in your repos, or just follow an install guide. You should be able to select it as what you log into from the login screen, if you're using a display manager

Okidoki.

Basically just install one (i3 or awesome are pretty good out of the box) and if you are using a login manager, as would come with gnome or kde or most DEs, look up how to change DE for your particular setup, and do that. All you have to do is logout and log back in with the twm selected usually

I'm sure you used windows or mac os once.
Besides the arguments in my last post, that kind is used by most people, therefore its better.
You can also see how rio works in vimeo.com/7511980

Thank you, lads.

I will still need to use the mouse to click links and stuff like that, right? Or how do you do that wizardry? Or is it a meme?

I currently use i3.

Please give me a few reasons for why people choose other wms. What can they do that i3 cant? Am I missing out by sticking with i3?

You can use vim browser plugins for full keyboard wizardry. but ootb you'll need a mouse, yeah

Nothing really, some people consider i3 bloated because it comes with a lot of features by default, but the main differences really just come down to preference and what you're comfortable with

Ok. I'm content enough being an apprentice for now. Thanks.

Watch the video OP linked.
There are two different approaches, i3 is tree based, another is list based.
There are some other differences, but watch the video for a better overview

Why not just use a floating/stacking WM since you might need the mouse eventually if a program requires it

I like awesome wm.

Tiling wms don't prevent you from using the mouse inside applications, that would be retarded

Filthy commie

I don't use i3 to minimize mouse usage, that's easily achievable in any DE with a little xdotool wizardry anyway. Mostly I just like the auto resizing that allows me to have max screen space usage at all times without any manual moving/resizing of windows/

To clear this up since there seems to be some confusion, you still have a fucking mouse, fully functional, in any tiling wm. You just don't HAVE to use it, since there are lots of keyboard shortcuts you can use instead of dragging the mouse around.

just confirmed that this is possible in i3

Ratpoison is for people who work and don't want to lose time ricing.

How does Compton work with herbstluftwm?
I put 'compton -f'at the beginning of autorun but that causes the wm to crash for some reason. I can start Compton inside of herbstluftwm without a problem though.

I am using the tiling features in floating window managers extensively (the grid plugin in compiz, the tiling features in Xfce or the quicktile script). I do not want to swap to a tiling window manager as it is impractical for some of the work I do.

Is there a way to get grid/tile like arrangements automatically when opening windows within a floating window manager (plus maybe a few key mappings) to shuffle the layout?

not disagreeing with you, but curious:
What work that you do is inhibited by a tiling window manager? If you are going though that much trouble to get tiling features in your floating wm, I suspect you might have an easier time just configuring to allow for the work that would otherwise be hindered in a twm rather than jumping through hoops to get tiling behavior in your current wm.

yes, but you'll have to script it yourself with xdotool

also, most tiling window managers have some floating window support

in i3 you could add something like
for_window [class="Whatever"] floating enable

which I have set for any dialogue boxes, preferences windows, (many of which share a class so it's not too difficult or verbose in the config file) and a few things like my desktop recorder which are awkward when tiled.

It's not much trouble as these tools are integrated into the DE or my config files and I my muscle memory is trained for the key combinations to arrange the windows on a grid. I mostly only need a 2x2 layout, with a vertical split and then a horizontal split on the right. It's really only for certain combinations, eg. Vim plus evince or vim plus R in the terminal and a graph output window.
It's probably easiest to set up something like this myself. I tried xmonad within gnome2 years ago when I was new to Linux, but it was just too much fiddling and I didn't really use the tiling features often enough.

What is the program on the left side of this screenshot?
I see it for a while now here but never bothered to ask, it looks good as a placeholder.

just google pipes.sh

Thanks user

Yeah, if you only need a few specific tilling setups then xdotool will be sufficient for you. You can use it inside a bash script to search by window class, set each window to the exact size and position you want, then bind the script to a shortcut. Doing that will probably eat up an hour of work, though.

I do recommend giving TWMs a second try at some point. I was in a similar situation as you, using mostly xfce's tiling commands, but this is much nicer. You only have to fiddle with configs once, really.

stumpwm configuration in process

>horizontally splitting on the browser
disgusting

I, as well, am too dumb for tiling window managers.

trying out not using gaps at all, its so much comfier than wasting space for gaps

is dwm worth the effort to set up? I like the concept of tagging

It's the smallest, most lightweight, and most minimalist. I say yes

Is that vanilla KDE??? If so I'm switching right now.

realized I didn't really answer your question. I often work together with colleagues at the same pc, and the mouse is practical to highlight and rearrange things, and they can use it too. Tiling is limited to certain sets of applications/layouts. I will set up something using xdotool when I have some free time.
Plasma looks really good. If that is native KDE I'm really tempted to try it.

The tiling is a script. Rest is vanilla. I wish KDE had proper tiling.

Post script

github.com/Jazqa/kwin-quarter-tiling
I haven't really programmed before so no bully.

Can I play too?

>Just added spectacle on top of macOS.

Why every snapshot I look of tilling wm, they seem to have poor fonts compared to a desktop wm?

haha, that's just people's poor taste. you can use whatever font you want, just like you can in whatever DE you're used to.

doesn't even matter

i3-nogaps ;)

well, some keyboard-centric wms actually don't offer mouse bindings on purpose. but I realize that's not exactly what the newbies above were worried about. :)

Is there a tiling wm that has VIm bindings?
Considering changing to linux just for this

Looks good, I'll install KDE on the Desktop at home and will give it a try.

How is it different from github.com/faho/kwin-tiling ?

any of them can be configured to in like 5 minutes. i3 almost comes that way by default, you just have to shift the defaults one key to the left

Don't know. Never tried the other one. I started playing around with the KWin's scripting engine a bit over month ago and it got out of hand quickly.

If I had to guess, the other one is a better "tiling" script while mine is easier for people new to tiling as you don't have to use the keybindings because you can move and resize windows with mouse instead.

xmonad can be configured to do this easily (and has most commands on home row.) It needs some customization, though.

how do I use slstatus for dwm? I have it compiled and installed but how do I activate it?

also, how do I apply patches?

I feel like I'm making progress but I have quite a few hangups

install Ratpoison

Run slstatus in your xinit before dwm launch

exec slstatus && dwm
?

that didn't work
I'm using lightdm

[Desktop Entry]
Name=dwm
Comment=dwm
Exec=dwm
Type=Application


can I just add another Exec line?

How do those DEs use so much memory? Explorer on Windows only uses 30MiB, and that's in winbloat 10

Devs keep adding (((features)))

>have to redo all my settings and learn another WM for 2 megabytes
I think not

Make a script

slstatus &
exec dwm

Place the script path in the Exec line. Make sure it's executable and you're putting the absolute path