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Tiling window manager users: how exactly do you use yours?

Do you have advanced keybindings for bringing up frequently used programs?

Are there less common layouts you use frequently?

Do you use any advanced or fancy features?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I have a very unusual workflow. In addition to not stacking windows, I don't minimize them either. Instead, I spread them out over many workspaces. Per workspace, I usually only have 1 or 2 windows, but I 'group' workspaces to keep semantically related windows together.
And I do that, by having all workspaces in a column and just placing windows in neighboring workspaces + leaving workspaces empty between the groupings. I also have a minimap for my workspaces in my panel, to just keep track of all of this.

I like this workflow a lot, because it maps semantics to location. It feels like a desk where you just place related documents next to each other and might place some documents more in the middle, others in a faraway corner.

This is in contrast to the traditional Windows workflow or the workflow that many tiling folks use, where the first workspace is for web browsing etc..
Those use groupings based on the kind of task you do in them (often effectively being tabs in an application), like web browsing. They don't group by the topic, e.g. you might frantically research ants and use a separate browser window, separate text editor etc., all grouped up for ants.

Now, traditional use of workspaces does allow this grouping by topics, by just assigning each workspace a topic. But personally, I found that too static.
Like, yeah, I have some larger, completely distinct topics, but often I'll just quickly research bees and that's kind of ant-related, but doesn't need to be fully mixed with that either. I'd rather just place it to the side of the ant stuff.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

That's pretty much what I do as well. It was an absolute game-changer for me when I discovered tiling WMs some ~7 years ago, because it meant super consistent keyboard shortcuts for getting to exactly what I wanted to interact with. I know where individual apps/tasks go, so I put them there. And then when I need to switch to them, it's as straightforward as Super+[workspace].

Also helps a ton that i3wm's workspaces only take up a single monitor at a time, which makes it excellent for jumping between monitors.

None of this is set in stone, but I usually follow a relatively consistent pattern:

Center Monitor

  • 1: Primary/"serious tasks" web browser
  • 4: Any remote or virtualized desktop I might have open at the time
  • 6: Image/video editors. Also sometimes just misc usage.
  • 8: Development web browser next to neovim
  • 9: Steam/games
  • 10: Misc. Often a DBMS or file manager
  • 11: Misc. Often where I put any secondary tasks or second projects I need to reference
  • 12: Misc. Often where I'll stick any long-running tasks that I just need to check on every now and again.

Left monitor

  • 2: Music/comms/task list

Right monitor

  • 3: Always only a terminal.
  • 5: Text editor to use as a
  • 7: Secondary/"wasting time" web browser
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There is two of us. Sidenote: my workspaces are all named after the topic they represent. E.g. dots, htmxpoc...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I don't do that (again, too static for me), but I have larger meta-workspaces still, which group 20 workspaces each into very big, very distinct topics like "Orga" and "Work".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I do this too, but additionally group these outputs strategically on my 4 displays. I never thought of it like a desk with papers on it but that's very much what it is. And also how I organize papers on the few occasions that I do that.