[xmonad] Re: New XMonadContrib module: IndependentScreens

[Braden Shepherdson]

Don Stewart wrote:
> Forwarded from the offlist buffer:
> 
> Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:06:20 -0500
> From: wagnerdm at seas.upenn.edu
> Subject: New XMonadContrib module: IndependentScreens
> 
> Hey all,
> 
> I've written a short contrib module to scratch an itch I've had even since 
> jcreigh made the first Xinerama support.  I like dwm's module, where 
> workspaces on different screens are conceptually distinct, even if they 
> have the same name.  Now XMonad.Layout.IndependentScreens makes that 
> possible.  Many thanks to Brent Yorgey, who sat next to me and helped me 
> get it into a releasable state. =)  (There's no patch attached; Brent 
> applied it for me.)
> 
> ~d
> 
> P.S. I'm not actually on this list, so be sure any complaints have  
> daniel at wagner-home.com somewhere in the to: line. ;-)
> 

If I understand correctly this is very similar to one of the alternative 
modes offered by mine and Wirt Wolff's ScreenWorkspaces module. It is 
partially completed, and intended to offer three different alternative 
modes:

* Independent workspace lists for each screen, even when they have the 
same name. Pressing mod+1 on screen 1 is different from on screen 2, 
they are different workspaces.
* Subsets of the single workspace list "bound" to each screen, so that 
whenever one of those workspaces is viewed with mod+N, it always appears 
on the workspace to which it is bound.
* Paired workspaces, where you pretend you have one shared workspace 
list, but each is actually a pair of workspaces, one per screen, and 
they switch together when you press mod+N.

Note that though I say "both" and "pair" these should work for arbitrary 
numbers of monitors. The precise state of the module you'd have to ask 
Wirt for; I don't have a dual-head setup handy to test it so he's been 
working on it. I'm pretty sure the part duplicating this module is fully 
working; we were even talking about pushing just that part the other day.

They should definitely be merged if they do in fact overlap.


Braden Shepherdson
shepheb