GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 423570
Symbol to get screen geometry
Last modified: 2018-07-08 18:26:24 UTC
I would like xinerama support so I can move windows from one monitor to another. Since there are so many possible monitor setups, it would probably be easier and more useful to a greater number of people if symbols were provided to do general calculations and comparisons with window geometries: get geometry information (width, height, x, y) do comparisons with geometry information (less than, equals, etc) only 'less than' would actually need to be implemented define variables to hold results and assign values to them do some simple calculations (add, subtract)
The s-expression parser has some commands that are not documented in the README, only in the source: /* The following built-in s-exp's are supported: "string" A string. 1, 2, 3 Integers #t, #f Booleans. list = (and list*) perform an intersection of a number of lists, and return that. bool = (and bool*) perform a boolean AND of boolean values. list = (or list*) perform a union of a number of lists, returning the new list. bool = (or bool*) perform a boolean OR of boolean values. int = (+ int*) Add integers. string = (+ string*) Concat strings. time_t = (+ time_t*) Add time_t values. int = (- int int*) Subtract integers from the first. time_t = (- time_t*) Subtract time_t values from the first. int = (cast-int string|int|bool) Cast to an integer value. string = (cast-string string|int|bool) Cast to an string value. Comparison operators: bool = (< int int) bool = (> int int) bool = (= int int) bool = (< string string) bool = (> string string) bool = (= string string) bool = (< time_t time_t) bool = (> time_t time_t) bool = (= time_t time_t) Perform a comparision of 2 integers, 2 string values, or 2 time values. Function flow: type = (if bool function) type = (if bool function function) Choose a flow path based on a boolean value type = (begin func func func) Execute a sequence. The last function return is the return typ e. */ Add and subtract are implemented there, so you should be okay there. I think all you need now is the ability to get the geometry of the current screen, right?
I admit, I haven't look at the source. It's amazing how close what I was asking for is to being already completely implemented. What's left, I think, are s-expressions for: screen geometries window geometries substrings The phrase "screen geometries" makes me think of the size of the desktop (eg 2560x1024) and the resolution setting of each monitor (eg 1280x1024), which isn't what I initially had in mind. I wouldn't complain if that were implemented though because it would help with writing more generic s-expressions that would work on computers with drastically different monitor and resolution settings, which probably would have been the next problem I'd eventually have to deal with. What I was thinking were "window geometries". So something like, 1000x750+25+25. This could be implemented as separate s-expressions to get each number separately or an s-expression to get the geometry as a string combined with s-expressions to work with substrings, which I forgot to mention earlier.
DevilsPie is not under active development anymore, has not seen code changes for five years, and saw its last tarball release in the year 2010. Its codebase has been archived: https://gitlab.gnome.org/Archive/devilspie/commits/master There is a successor project at https://www.nongnu.org/devilspie2/ Closing this report as WONTFIX as part of Bugzilla Housekeeping to reflect reality. Please feel free to reopen this ticket (or rather transfer the project to GNOME Gitlab, as GNOME Bugzilla is deprecated) if anyone takes the responsibility for active development again.