Author Topic: Openbox window tiling  (Read 2416 times)

Offline Taco.22

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Openbox window tiling
« on: July 29, 2011, 09:33:12 PM »
Although I run Openbox I have been playing with tiling window managers for a little bit, and have Awesome set up on AntiX core.  It works great, but after doing a bit of chasing around it seems that it won't be working on PCLOS any time soon.  I have tried a couple of others, but was not overly impressed.  One thing about Awesome is that it allows a right-click menu on the desktop.  Which brings me back to my favourite WM - Openbox.  

I found a python script that allows window tiling in Openbox on the fly.  The site can be found here -
http://pytyle.com/wiki/Main_Page    Download http://sourceforge.net/projects/pytyle/

Configuration page can be found here -
http://pytyle.com/wiki/Configuration

It is very simple to install, drops a config. file into /.config, and then all you need to do is add "pytyle &" to autostart.sh.  Log out/back in and to tile windows you simply hit "Alt-a".  And then there are a whole series of keyboard commands that allow other actions, all configurable.  The only dependency to Python is pythonXlib.

It works brilliantly.  Openbox with minimal interface, right click menu, AND with window tiling on demand.  Or you can set it to tile by default, and untile on demand - "Alt-u".  Love it.  I was wondering if Openbox Bonsai might see a place for this, and whether a package down the track might be worth doing.  
« Last Edit: July 29, 2011, 09:48:18 PM by Taco.22 »
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Offline melodie

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Re: Openbox window tiling
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2011, 02:58:53 AM »
Hi,

I have never quite understood how to use, and how to take advantage of tiling windows, but I would like you to explain that to me, step by step with simple examples.

You could go to packages requests to as for a package request, and make a configuration that all can use as default for a start (this is needed by PCLinuxOS users, who don't want to have to do it all by themselves while starting). ie : openbox-menu comes with all made configurations that I provide to the packager, and renew once a while when I have found improvements to do in them. Then the user can get them from the directory /usr/share/openbox-menu).



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Offline melodie

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Offline Taco.22

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Re: Openbox window tiling
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2011, 03:25:32 AM »
Hi Melodie,

The simplest way of describing a tiling WM is to imagine opening your file manager.  But then you want to open it again so you can drag and drop files from one window to another.  So when you open a second file manager, they overlap and obscure each other.  So if you could hit a button that splits the screen in half and puts each fm window into each half, you then have an organised, structured presentation of the two file manager windows.  Another example is if you open Thunderbird to check mail.  If you then click on "write" to compose an email, this opens in another window.  A tiling WM will split the screen and put both in plain view - the main window and the compose window.

Ah, whilst I was typing this you posted about other OB tiling.  Had a quick look at your links.  I only fell over Pytyle a couple of days ago, and didn't even know about the possibility of tiling for existing WMs.  The thing about Pytyle is that it is a) current, and b) built specifically for OB.  It's default is normal floating windows, but a single keyboard command will round up a bunch of windows in a desktop and tile them - no overlapping or hiding.  Again, that can undone at the click of a button.  I find it particularly useful with smaller things, like having a file manager, terminal and editor all open at once.  Much neater!

As to where we go with it, that depends on how much people try it and like it.  It's only a simple Py script, and the pythonXlib is in repo, so it's worth test-driving.  Put it this way, I now have it set ON by default, and along with the desktop right-click of OB, wonder how I used to get by without it!  

[EDIT - have made a request for packaging - http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,94977.0.html - Will see how it goes.]  

  
« Last Edit: July 30, 2011, 07:51:39 AM by Taco.22 »
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