I feel like my eyes can only look at one thing at a time. I just have shortcuts to switch between programs.

Why do you prefer using a tiling WM and how do you use the tiling functionality in your workflow?

  • jemorgan@lemm.ee
    1·
    1 year ago

    If you’re only actively using one window at a time, that makes sense, but alt+tabbing through a stack of 8 open applications to go back and forth between something you’re working on and something you’re closely referencing sucks. If your primary workflow for a computer involves that, I honestly don’t understand how someone can live without tiling.

    • blackbrook
      1·
      1 year ago

      That’s why I said “someone needs to invest in …”. It’s not ideal, and besides alt tab, I do select from taskbar icons (often cascading) which is not ideal either. But I do want most of these windows maximized so tiling is not really the right solution.

      I really think there is something that both the tiling people and the overlapping people are missing. There is perhaps something basic in the windowing paradigm that none of us can see past to be able to get to something better.

      BTW though, it’s not as bad as you seem to imply with the stack of 8 windows because alt tab goes to the last used window, at least in the Plasma desktop I use. It’s really only the more complicated sequences which get awkward (which for me is pretty common anyway).

      • jemorgan@lemm.ee
        1·
        1 year ago

        Someone has invested, the solution is tiling window managers.

        As 217 people have told you in this thread, tiling window managers allow you keep all your windows full screen if you want.

        • blackbrook
          1·
          1 year ago

          217 people have certainly not told me anything. Maybe you’re confusing me with OP, I think you’re the only one who has replied to my 2 comments.

          However I just looked at the rest of the comments to see if I was missing something, but no, no one has addressed what I’m saying. Maybe there is some property of a tiling wm that I don’t get, but to me if a window is maximized, that means it occupies the whole screen and there are no other tiles visible. Whether the other non visible windows are tiled or layered is moot. I think what I want is a way to organize and select windows that has nothing to do with how they are layered in the Z axis, or tiled in X and Y. It’s a logical problem, not a physical space problem.

          Again, I’m selecting between a bunch of maximized windows 95% of the time. I don’t deny the use cases for wanting multiple windows to be visible at once, and tiling is a good solution for that, but those use cases are rare for me. I spend a trivial amount of time rearranging and resizing windows. This is the only thing I hear people say tiling solves. This is a non problem for me.

          However I’ve never used a timing wm. So I’m all ears if there is something I’m missing.