[xmonad] Re: Real Tabbing?

[Braden Shepherdson]

Dominik Bruhn wrote:
> Hy,
> is there any chance we might get real tabbing support in xmonad?
> 
> Ill try to explain what I mean by that:
> I often use the "Tall" Layout. It would be nice If I could take any frame and
> apply a tabbed layout on it so that I can open several windows within that frame
> and get some tabs. Currently I cant get this behaviour because I have to select
> the frames where I want tabbing uppon compiletime and there is no keybinding for
> switching the tabs.
> 
> So what I'm searching for is:
> 
> 1. A Keystroke which makes the current frame tabbed
> 2. A possibility to shift a window into a frame (so it gets another tab) and out
> again.
> 3. The current Keybindings like Mod+{j,k} stay the same, they dont switch tabs.
> 4. New Keybindings for moving to the next tab in the current frame.
> 
> Is it possible at all? I'm not into the xmonad sourcecode but perhaps the
> stack-set datastructure is not the right choice for this features. Perhaps some
> developers can tell about this.
> 
> This is the only feature which im missing and which could make me go to ion3
> because everytime I see a ion3 I love this feature.
> 
> So, lets discuss!

I suspect I'm not alone in pondering this one off and on. It's a common 
request. There are some questions of the  interface, whether mod+j/k 
switch panes or tabs, but there are sensible defaults and room for 
customization.

Build a TabbedTall layout specifically would likely be a little tricky, 
but perfectly possible. The bigger question is whether it would be 
possible to implement this as a LayoutModifier that could be strapped 
atop any (well, most) other layouts. I suppose it could keep a list of 
lists of windows, and give the underlying layout a list of "windows" 
which were actually the tabbed panes.

My money is on possible, but it's nontrivial.

I won't volunteer; I don't have the time to continue with my current 
xmonad-mangling project, ScreenWorkspaces. Taking 5 courses in one's 
major in one term is not recommended.


Braden Shepherdson
shepheb