[xmonad] How to prefix workspace names with numbers?

[Pablo Olmos de Aguilera C.]

On 9 October 2012 04:18, Jacek Generowicz <jacek.generowicz at cern.ch> wrote:
>
> Pablo Olmos de Aguilera C. writes:
>
>> First, I'd question myself why I would want to create workspaces on
>> the fiy :P,
>
> Really !?

I started laughing here....

>> and then "keep them" enough time to make your issue relevant. I always
>> imagined dynamicworkspaces as a complement to create "short-lived"
>> workspaces.
>
> DynamicWorkspaces has made my use of computers bearable.
>
> *Everything* I do, gets its own Dynamic workspace:
>
> + Letter to Aunt Mabel: open a new workspace;
> + fiddle with my XMonad config: new workspace;
> + Order a book/toaster/monitor: new workspace;
> + try to solve my dropped network connection problem: new workspace;
> + install some software: new workspace;
> + fix bug #7364: new workspace;
> + draw a new logo for the Worm Appreciation Society: new workspace;
> + the new course I am writing: its own workspace
> + topic I want to read up on and experiment with for the new course: new
>   workspace. In reality, many workspaces, because I will want to
>   investigate many different topics.

That's sounds great. I don't understand how (or where) in the screen
you can list all those workspaces without going crazy or memorizing
everything. I tried to use DWS and every new workspace is added before
the first one (which seems a bit odd to me) and after a while dzen was
totally filled, so I couldn't keep track of everything.

> The fact that I can have all windows related to some activity grouped
> together on a workspace, not interfering with those related to other
> activities, combined with the ability to SWITCH TO THAT WORKSPACE IN
> UNDER A SECOND, regardless of whether it was last visited seconds ago or
> weeks ago, is one of the hugest boons to my productivity I have ever
> experienced.
>
> Having these workspaces have names I make up on the fly, makes it very
> easy to remember what is what.
>
> The real world has this habit of not letting me finish whatever I am
> doing without interruption. I have to task switch between many things.
> Some tasks last mere seconds, some take weeks or months. The ability to
> have a workspace dedicated to each of these tasks and to switch between
> the contexts they create at almost zero cost, and the concomitant
> confidence this brings in being able to switch away from some context in
> the knowledge that when I get around to resuming this task (be it 5
> seconds from now or 3 weeks from now) everything will be waiting for me
> exactly as I left it, is what make my modern use of computers bearable.

I agree... you never turn off your computer do you?

>> In my case I keep 7 "fixed" WS:
>
> Frankly, I don't see how you manage with only 7 workspaces.
>
>> 1:terms, 2:web, 3:coding, 4:files, 5:media, 6:various, 7:im.
>
> Coding? Just one workspace for coding? You can seriously fit *all* the
> windows related to *all* the coding tasks you are currently working on,
> on to a *sigle* workspace?  Remember that 'currenly' includes
>
> + the speculative refactoring of the frobnicator in the Fubar project,
>   which you've been playing with in your spare moments over the last week
> + the showstopping segfault that your PHB/lover/most important client
>   *needs* solving *this minute*.
> + the new feature you have been working on as your main coding task for
>   the last 2 days
> + that damned bug #7364 which you've been chipping away at for the last
>   month
> + your experiments with the new feature introduced by the latest release
>   of some language/package you use
> + the code samples you are creating to help new people joining the Barfoo
>   project, get going quickly

Actually I use tmux + vim and I'm really happy with it. Normally I
code for myself or little projects so I've never found with some of
the use cases you said before. Anyway, I get the point :).

> Each of these is likely to contain
>
> + Editor window
> + compilation/evaluation/running/tsting window(s)
> + documentation window
> + miscellaneous related web search window

Tmux + tmuxinator <3.

> All that, one one 'coding' workspace? Really?
>
> (If you don't like coding, similar examples can be made in whatever
> domain you like.)
>
> Files? Various? Aah, takes me back to the Dark Ages before I got my
> hands on DynamicWorkspaces.

Here I was like ROFLMAO.

> Working with a window manager without Dynamic Workspaces, to me, looks
> like working on a filesystem without mkdir and rmdir, where you
> determine the directories you get when you configure your OS.
>
>> They are called that way, so it's easy to use the number to jump
>> between them
>
> I have 3 keys for workspace navigation (and some related ones for screen
> navigation)
>
> + Select workspace by name Automatically switches when unique starting
>   substring is entered: this means that most workspace switches take just
>   two keystrokes. And I don't have to remember that, say, files is 4: I
>   just have to remember that files starts with 'f' (or, in extremis, 'fi').
> + Select most recently used invisible workspace (very useful).
> + Cycle through (I almost never use this one)
>
> On most of these I also have the following modifiers
>
> + SHIFT: send the focused window to the target workspace (keep focus on
>   the source workspace)
> + CONTROL: carry the focused window to the target workspace (move focus
>   to the target workspace)

Well, I couldn't imagined how to do that, so I've never tried too. It
would be awesome if you can post your complete config file in
paste-like service like gist or pastebin. It could help me to evolve
from those medieval times.

> You can pry my DynamicWorkspaces from my cold dead fingers.

... I was still laughing here. Thanks for your time, it was an AWESOME
email, you should post it somewhere else.

I honestly have been working for a couple of months and I'm very
comfortable with the setup that I got right now :)

Regards,
-- 
Pablo Olmos de Aguilera Corradini - @PaBLoX
http://www.glatelier.org/
http://about.me/pablox/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pablooda/
Linux User: #456971 - http://counter.li.org/