[Xmonad] Xinerama & switching workspaces

[Kai Grossjohann]

I think what I want is the following behavior:

Each workspace has a "home screen".  Switching to other workspaces (at
least via RotView, perhaps also via direct access Mod-1 .. Mod-9)
refuses to display workspaces with the wrong "home screen".

There is an extra function / keybinding to show a workspace
unconditionally, regardless of its home screen.

Not sure how to handle workspaces that don't have a home screen yet.
Perhaps Mod-{1,..,9} should display them as if their home screen was the
current screen, then set their home screen to the current screen.  But
RotView should display them without also setting the home screen.

Perhaps switching to a different workspace would set the home screen of
the workspace on the screen we're just leaving.

The rationale for this is my usage pattern: I find that in my mind,
certain workspaces are reserved and always there.  For example, I always
have a workspace for web browsing, one for reading email, one for
developing, and one for running VMware.  On any given day, there may be
additional workspaces with other purposes, that are different each day.

And I also find that I always want to show the web browser on screen 1
whereas my mail reader should be on screen 2.  So it makes sense to me
to set the home screen of the web workspace to 1, so that it is always
shown there.

What do people think?

Kai



Dave Harrison <dave at nullcube.com> writes:

> Hi all,
>
> Having finally submitted that last assignment for the semester the
> time to bail on Ion and embrace xmonad has arrived for me ! :-)
>
> First let me say, well done.  It works very nicely and I'm very
> impressed (have been for a while even without using it).
>
> So now I come to a question, I have a xinerama setup for my laptop
> that means I can plug into a monitor and have two screens.  My usual
> usage involves me having to go hunting through workspaces to find
> where I left a particular client window open (a terminal, web browser
> window etc).  What I'm finding at the moment is that as I move through
> the workspaces, at some point I select a workspace that's on the other
> screen to the one I'm working on, and by selecting that workspace I
> move to that other screen.  Then as I continue looking through my
> workspaces, I pull them to that screen instead (I flick fast ;-) ).
>
> So the question is, how do other people solve this problem (ie. how do
> you cycle workspaces to find something you want in xinerama without
> getting thrown around between screens) ?
>
> And, is there a better way to find something on another workspace ?
>
> Cheers
> Dave
> _______________________________________________
> Xmonad mailing list
> Xmonad at haskell.org
> http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/xmonad