Tiling Window Managers
Sean Reifschneider
tummy.com, ltd.
Tiling WM in 3 Easy Steps
Learn an esoteric language
Read 300 pages of API documentation
Write a custom window manager
Profit
Tiling WM Choices
25 listed on Wikipedia page
I mostly looked at:
i3
xmonad
awesome
bluetile
wmii
KDE tiling mode
Benefits of Tiling
Very minimal
Keyboard driven
Use all real-estate without overlapping
Small (?)
Drawbacks
Very minimal
Labor-intensive to set up
They're all in pieces all over the floor
My Choice: i3
Simple config file
Multi-column, including left+right navigation
Modes: If you like vi
Easiest to start with
Does not use "main window" idea
i3 Drawbacks
Default accel: Alt (like nothing else uses it)
Default motion: jkl; (hjkl is hardwared in my brain)
Default config is by keycode
Has bugs in mark+goto and force workspace to screen
Much more limited than others
(Or is that a strength?)
My Keymap
Win+ hjkl (motion)
Win+Shift hjkl (move)
Win+ s (stack)
Win+ d (default)
Win+ f (fullscreen)
Win+Shift f (float)
Win+ Escape (vi mode)
Win+ 1-9 (workspace/monitor)
My Conclusions
Been using them for around a month
For my use, it works very well
Required changing to "windows have no fixed size" mode
I really like stack mode for e-mail
"Main window" isn't really to my liking
I mostly already was tiling my windows manually
I need to figure out:
Minimize windows
Icon bar (klipper)
Multimedia keys
xmonad could move workspaces between screens <3