- Created:
- 25th August, 2008
New present windows layouts
There are now three layouts modes that can be used in the KWin present windows desktop effect:
- Regular grid - The old layout that displays windows next to each other on a grid,
- Flexible grid - Similarly to the regular grid except each grid cell doesn’t need to line up with the others, and
- “Natural” - Absolutely no grid at all, each window is placed wherever it best fits. (The new default)
Also fixed a bug that prevented correct keyboard operation on multi-monitor systems.
Elsewhere in KWin
- Present windows can (Kind of) be used as the Alt+Tab window switcher
- Lots and lots of optimizations
- Magic lamp effect now works correctly when the panel isn’t on the bottom of the screen
- More work on the desktop cube/sphere/cylinder effect
- Right-to-left language window title fix
- The panel no longer overlaps fullscreen windows that lose focus (Most people that use multi-monitors come across this way too often)
- “Yes” no longer means “Cancel”
Comments
25th August, 2008Sander
In the natural layout, if you keep the same windows open, will that mean the windows will always be presented in the same way or will they be shuffled each time?
25th August, 2008Lucas Murray
As the layout is not randomly generated in natural mode the windows will appear in the same spot every single time no matter what their stacking order is. However if you move the windows around the screen then a different layout will be generated.
25th August, 2008jospoortvliet
Haven’t seen the shuffle options yet (rebuilding right now) but using the present windows effect as windows switcher is JUST AMAZING ;-)
It would be cool if the mouse would work while alt is still pressed, though. Hint?
(the reason I like the present-windows thing as window switcher is in part because the taskbar plasmoid is broken for me, this is a good enough replacement)
25th August, 2008anonymous
Great work! I look forward to using it, but when will that be? Is this stuff going to be included in 4.1.1 or 4.2? Thanks for your hard work!
25th August, 2008Michael
Does the natural layout respect the relative window sizes i.e. a bigger window appers bigger than a smaller one? IIRC the 4.1 layout doesn’t (correct me if I’m wrong, haven’t used it a lot). That would be cool! Because for apps like konsole, it’s often hard to find a window by title or content (if scaled down). But what I do know is it’s shape, it’s position and it’s size. So e.g. I want this flat konsole window, which is bigger than normal and in the upper right corner.
Which reminds me, a “present all windows of the current application” (e.g. all konsole windows) would be nice, global and per desktop.
The icon in the lower right corner looks a bit odd. How about integrating it with the window description?
25th August, 2008Lucas Murray
Working on it.
Definitely in 4.2, it’s up to your distribution to decide whether it’s backported to 4.1 or not.
If you don’t have the “fill gaps” setting enabled all windows will be scaled to the same size. The downside to disabling this setting is that there will be wasted space on the screen.
Due to the nature (Haha) of the algorithm windows near the edges of the screen usually stay near that edge.
27th August, 2008jospoortvliet
Ha, yeah, I noticed (running SVN)… Cool work.
If you’re still on this kind of stuff, what do you think about doing the same to the switch desktop thing? Eg allow to use it like ctrl-tab (the shortcut I now use to switch desktops). Currently, you get a list of desktops and their apps - and you can use ctrl-F8 to go to the desktops. Pressing CTRL-F8 could switch at once, but keeping ctrl pressed (like with alt-tab) shows all desktops, lets you shuffle, and click one with the mouse.
28th August, 2008jospoortvliet
Something I just noticed (after logout-login): the present windows used for windowswitching doesn’t use the natural layout, while CTRL-F10 and CTRL-F9 do. Is this a settings thing or a bug?
28th August, 2008Lucas Murray
That was a recent change as when using the natural layout there is no defined window layout, for alt+tab window switching to make sense the windows need to be arranged in their stacking order. If you would like to use the natural layout on alt+tab and don’t mind not being able to walk through the windows using the shortcut it’s possible to just change the present windows shortcut to alt+tab instead—overriding the default behaviour.
30th August, 2008jospoortvliet
Did you just do it again? Write what somebody (I) asked for here before we even had a chance to blink? You can now use the cube for window switching… Lovely. Can’t use the mouse while using ctrl-tab, right now, I suppose that’s something which can be fixed (or already is, compiling right now)?
Another thing. I use ctrl-tab for ‘walk through desktops’, like alt-tab for ‘walk through windows’. So this is smart: you go through the desktops like alt-tab does through windows, a quick ctrl-tab always brings you to the last desktop you were on. Great!
This preservation of order of desktops does get a bit weird when you keep ctrl pressed and walk through the desktops, though. You quickly get something like 1-2-4-3 as order in which ctrl-tab goes through the desktops… The cube then spins like crazy. I think this, though logically sound, feels weird. When ctrl stays pressed, maybe it shouldn’t use the order anymore (but remember it for a quick ‘ctrl-tab to go back to the previous desktop I was on’ later).
Have your say