Lucio Chiappetti <lu...@lambrate.inaf.it> writes: > On Mon, 20 Jun 2016, lee wrote: > >> Interesting :) It seems very confusing, though. How do you remember >> what is where? I have a plain setup with just 6x6 pages and many times >> have to flip between them to find the particular page I want to go to. > > Well, after a long time working with 2 desktops each 2x2 pages, a > while ago I junked the idea of separate desktops and pages. Now I have > only 7 > desktops each of 1 page (well, I have buttons to switch them to 2x1 > 1x2 and 2x2 but I'd never used them).
Is there a difference between having N desktops and having N pages which matters for practical use? > I have the pager almost invariably exposed, and know which desk I am > in because it is highlighted in the pager in a different colour. I have the pager always covered up by some window. It just takes away so much screen space that it's only visible on empty, or almost empty, desks. > Three of the desks are named Mail Web and Net, the other are ABCD. I > know in which desk I am also by a label in the bottom right corner, > and by the background colour of the root window. So you actually see the root window :) I have my windows mostly tiled, with some exceptions, either two side by side, or four, as in 2x2. Sometimes I use (1)+(2+2). So I don't need to manage the windows and let fvwm do it instead. Fvwm even does a great job with tiling, IMO better than a tiling WM. That's because tiling WMs insist too much on tiling. With fvwm, I have all the advantages of both tiling and floating window managers at the same time. So I usually don't see the root window or a pager window but the windows I'm actually using. > Although I have root menu entries and keyboard accelerators to switch > desktops, I almost invariably do it clicking on the pager, > > To know which application is in which desk, I usually rely on habits > (mail is in Mail, browser is in Web, virtual machines if any are in > Net etc.) and on the miniicons in the pager, Hm. That makes me think that my trouble with remembering is something you don't really have because you use the pager so much, which shows you where you are and how to get to where you want to go. What if you basically never saw the pager? Would you get confused? > In the rare case I forgot what is where (e.g. for the xclipboard, or > because the window is hidden), I use MB2 bound to FvwmWinList, which > lists all my windows by title, so I can switch there easily, That's like a last resort for me. The list can get so long that it's not easy to find what I'm looking for in it. > I do use a lot the "sticky" mode of the window menu, to move a window > across desktops (I make it sticky so it appears on all, switch to the > final desktop, and unstick it), however I have also functions in the > window menu to move the window to a specific desktop and I use them > sometimes. I simply move them with the mouse when I need to. But I guess that might no be so easy when using desks /and/ pages, unless each desk is only one page. > You can get a flavour of the old and new approaches (and the configs) in > http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/WWW/Opinions/window.html Thanky, I'll take a look at it when I can: My internet is out atm. We're having an unusually heavy thunderstorm, and I guess it must have destroyed (some of) the DSL equipment they very recently deployed around here. I'm not surprised it didn't even survive the first thunderstorm, considering my experiences with this ISP. A lot of the neighbours will probably be looking for new routers tomorrow because they bought the crap they were recommended by the ISP, which is a model known to be overly sensitive to all thunderstorms (and generally sucks anyway). I'll have see if the industrial quality I got held up better ... I'd be quite disappointed if it didn't. -- After using i3 for a while, I totally realized that it is the job of the window manger to mange the windows, literally. It is, by all means, /not/ the job of the user. Once you realized this, you can see the irony of calling an operating system "Windows", and you even have to say they did a good job with that.
