GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 165454
"no-overlap" mode
Last modified: 2005-01-27 22:41:05 UTC
This might be an unusual request, but it's something I've desired from a window manager for a long time, based on the way I tend to work with windows. It's related to another feature request I just made as well. It would be convenient to have a mode in which either (a) all visible windows, or (b) all visible windows from the same application (group), could never overlap due to the user dragging them by their title bar. For example, dragging one window on top of another window, the first window would stop moving when their edges touched, until you had continued to drag the mouse halfway accross the second window, in which case the windows would swap positions and you could continue dragging the first window. Does this make sense? I know this is a slightly exotic request and may not fit with the simplicity of function philosophy of metacity, but I feel that it would be a very usable and productive window management method, it would certainly help me in working with the computer and I think many other people as well. Thanks Reed
I believe that having edge resistance would do well enough to make it easy for the user to ensure that windows don't overlap but are as close as possible to each other. Right now, I agree that this is a pain, but I'm sure edge resistance will make it nice. :) *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 81704 ***
Thanks for looking at my request, Elijah! This is different from edge resistance because new windows would also attempt to avoid overlap, and instead of the windows overlapping when the resistance threshold is overcome, the windows would rearrange. Maybe I'm being unclear, or maybe this requires a completely new window manager :) Finally, the ideal feature implementation would have a mechanism for grouping windows such that group co-members could not overlap but, nonmembers could. Again, I don't know how possible this is, it's really just a wish list item, though I may try hacking out a rough patch to demonstrate if I can. Edge resistance might be a fine substitute. Thanks again! Reed
Yes, I know the request is different, but: 1) I think it's a niche use case that would confuse most people 2) Window grouping is inherently buggy (check out all the bugs on libwnck grouping), and I don't think it could be usable as part of such a feature 3) I believe it provides very little benefit beyond what edge-resistance would provide 4) There are nasty edge cases to worry about when there are too many windows on the screen Lots of coding effort, possibility for lots of bugs, and I believe very little payoff compared to a WM that had edge-resistance already. (I agree the benefits would be large compared to Metacity as it currently stands, but I don't think it would be much of an advantage at all relative to when we have edge-resistance implemented) However, there is the possibility that I'm not envisioning the same use case as you. I'm imagining that you want a way to be able to make your windows line up next to each other, without overlap or empty space, so as to be able to maximize the use of your screen space and minimize the distance your mouse has to travel. Is there a different reason you want this?