[xmonad] Minimise windows?

[Magnus Therning]

Jesús Guerrero wrote:
> On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:57:30 +0100
> "Magnus Therning" <magnus at therning.org> wrote:
>
>   
>> Is there a way of minimising windows in Xmonad?
>>
>> I've found several times that I really miss minimising of windows.
>> Right now e.g. I have a screen with VirtualBox (its control window and
>> a window for a single VM) and I want to stick a browser next to the VM
>> to follow some instructions on a web page.  What I've ended up doing
>> so far is moving the control window to a "scratch screen" so that the
>> screen is divided evenly between the VM and the browser.  However,
>> once I'm done I'll move the browser back to the "web screen" and I'll
>> have to move the control window back again from the "scratch screen".
>>
>> Are others bumping into this use case?  How are you dealing with it?
>>     
>
> By using layouts. You can have a different layout into each virtual desktop
> (or whatever they are called on xmonad). You can as well change the current
> layout (by default with modMask+spacer. 
>
> When I need to see two programs on a given virtual desktop I mostly use the
> Tall layout or a similar one, when I need to expose one fullscreen and hide
> the other window, I just change to  Full layout, and use modMask+tab to
> alternate from one window to another.
>
> Minimisation is a concept that doesn't fit very well on the whole paradigm
> of a tiling window manager, in my humble opinion. I suppose that it could
> be achievable by using layouts however, but I don't see how that would be
> any different from using the Full vs. Tall layouts that I explained.
>
> Cheers :)
>   

I'm already using three layouts, three columns, tall (two columns) and
tall rotated 90 degrees (two lines).  Currently I switch to tall and
then move in the third window (the browser) and move out the control
window so that the workspace is split evenly between only two windows.

Another response mentions the TwoPane layout which I will use for the
time being, but I still think that minimising is a feature that does fit
with a tiling window manager.  I mean with this change I will end up
with 4 layouts (all which I actually use fairly regularly) and I feel
that's a bit too many.  In my case adding minimising of windows would
simplify my setup, both the config and my usage of xmonad.

Another thought might be to add a flexible layout-chooser in addition to
the ring-like one that xmonad has ATM.  I personally would love to have
only two layouts (the ones I use most often and frequently shift
between) in the "ring" as long as I could choose others as I see fit.

/M

-- 
Magnus Therning                             (OpenPGP: 0xAB4DFBA4)
magnus＠therning．org             Jabber: magnus＠therning．org
http://therning.org/magnus

Haskell is an even 'redder' pill than Lisp or Scheme.
     -- PaulPotts


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