[HN Gopher] Show HN: A tiling window manager like i3wm written e...
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       Show HN: A tiling window manager like i3wm written entirely in C#
        
       Author : toothbrush6
       Score  : 95 points
       Date   : 2022-04-15 17:34 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | carvking wrote:
       | Nice to have some c# submissions.
       | 
       | Looks interesting. Thanks for sharing.
        
       | lostmsu wrote:
       | What is the license?
       | 
       | I am author of Stack WM [1]. Also C#, but all the configuration
       | and layouts are defined in WPF XAML and are generally static
       | (e.g. like PowerToys, but much more flexible due to WPF
       | containers and data binding + you can make WPF-based widgets).
       | 
       | Curious about the license for I am interested in having a common
       | library for window manipulation. I am using VirtualDesktop [2] to
       | handle Windows desktops, and it needs some love.
       | 
       | [1]: https://losttech.software/stack.html
       | 
       | [2]: https://github.com/losttech/VirtualDesktop
        
         | toothbrush6 wrote:
         | Currently there's no license, but looking to add one ASAP.
         | 
         | Your project looks really cool, but unfortunately I'd be
         | looking to limit distribution of the software for profit. GPL
         | seems like it'd be the most appropriate, but I'm by no means an
         | expert on this stuff.
        
       | splittingTimes wrote:
       | When saying "using the build in DWM" he does not refer to the
       | suckless DWM, right? I would be surprised when the buildin WSL
       | would include suckless DWM and actually power the tilting.
       | 
       | How an operating system named and based on windows never had a
       | sane window manager of beyond me.
       | 
       | https://dwm.suckless.org/
        
         | toothbrush6 wrote:
         | Desktop Window Manager (DWM) is the name of the built-in window
         | manager for Windows
        
       | mt_ wrote:
       | I really like Fancy Zones from PowerToys[1]. [1]
       | https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys
        
         | st0le wrote:
         | Used to use FZ but it relies on the user to move windows
         | around. More of a passive window manager.
         | 
         | I've been using komorebi[1] but it's rather clunky with the ahk
         | dependency. I'll have to try Glaze and give it a spin.
         | 
         | [1]: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi
        
           | bsnnkv wrote:
           | komorebi dev here. I can't tell you the number of times I've
           | wanted to just write my own take on sxhkd[1] for Windows and
           | use that to manage my own keybindings for komorebi instead of
           | ahk.
           | 
           | You can just as easily write your own/use another hotkey
           | daemon or PowerShell scripts to handle komorebi's
           | configuration and keybindings, in that sense there is no
           | dependency on ahk at all. However, the inertia around ahk in
           | the Windows ecosystem is undeniable and it's in the interests
           | of making adoption and onboarding easier that the project
           | provides example ahk files and has invested in an ahk code
           | generation library.
           | 
           | My thoughts on the dominant hotkey daemon in the Windows
           | ecosystem aside, I remain convinced that the famous bspwm
           | socket communication architecture[2] is the best way to
           | handle both configuration and keybindings for a tiling window
           | manager that has been proposed to this day.
           | 
           | Unfortunately I have to concede that there is a certain
           | configuration burden that comes with komorebi, which is
           | amplified in some cases by having to write/maintain ahk. This
           | configuration burden is largely due to the highly fragmented
           | nature of Windows application development that is discussed
           | often on HN and it is inescapable.
           | 
           | With this in mind, the next release of komorebi (currently
           | available on master) will invest even more heavily in
           | automatic configuration generation.
           | 
           | A separate repository of common application-specific
           | configuration tweaks[3] (in YAML!) has been created which I
           | and others from the komorebi Discord server are contributing
           | to, with the goal of having the edge cases for as many
           | applications as possible fully documented so that a
           | comprehensive configuration file can be generated[4] for the
           | user which ensures that every (major) Windows application
           | behaves as expected under a tiling window manager.
           | 
           | I hope that other Windows tiling window manager developers
           | can use these YAML definitions in the future to handle the
           | same edge cases in their projects so that eventually there
           | will be a tiling window manager of every flavour (bspwm, i3wm
           | etc.) available for Windows users where having to manually
           | accommodate and compensate for the non-standard behaviour of
           | individual applications is a thing of the past.
           | 
           | [1]: https://github.com/baskerville/sxhkd
           | 
           | [2]: https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm#description
           | 
           | [3]: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi-application-specific-
           | conf...
           | 
           | [4]: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi/#generating-common-
           | applic...
        
             | st0le wrote:
             | Thank you for your work. I definitely think it's much
             | better than most solutions out there. I was exploring
             | trying to get it to work with espanso[1] (also written in
             | Rust) but haven't had much time.
             | 
             | [1]: https://espanso.org/
        
           | toothbrush6 wrote:
           | Yeah exactly, FancyZones feels like a bit of an upgrade over
           | the built-in tiling (eg. with Win+Left/Right). It doesn't
           | quite compare to keyboard-driven TWMs like i3 and bspwm.
        
       | no-dr-onboard wrote:
       | I love i3wm and am continually surprised that they never
       | integrated the gaps fork.
       | 
       | Does anyone know of a good tiling wm for Mac?
        
         | infinitezest wrote:
         | Not quite the same thing but I've been using Rectangle. It
         | doesn't automatically tile windows but does give you control
         | over window size and placement using the keyboard.
        
         | Otek wrote:
         | There is only one that's good enough to disable animations and
         | takes control over the desktop: Yabai
        
         | z8 wrote:
         | Amethyst
        
       | nowherebeen wrote:
       | I used i3wm for 5 years. I still miss it after switching to the
       | new MBP 3 months ago. Using mouse to manage spaces is so tedious
       | and wastes 2-3 seconds each time, which added up quickly
       | throughout the day.
        
         | davidatbu wrote:
         | I was also a die hard i3wm fan who started using MacOS on a new
         | job.
         | 
         | I am currently a (mostly) happy user of Yabai. There's some
         | blog posts from folks who made the same transition, lemme know
         | if end up taking a look and still have questions, and I'll try
         | to answer them.
        
         | bartvk wrote:
         | Do you know about Amethyst? I've been told it's not as fast as
         | i3 but I'm a happy user.
         | 
         | https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst
        
           | nowherebeen wrote:
           | I tried it, it just wasn't for me. I liked i3 because it was
           | so simple and intuitive. I didn't need to think, it was all
           | muscle memory.
        
             | cjaybo wrote:
             | What about Rectangle? When moving from i3 in Linux to Mac I
             | tried Amethyst for a while but switched to Rectangle soon
             | after and have used it since.
             | 
             | Still haven't found anything truly comparable to i3,
             | though.
        
         | bonestamp2 wrote:
         | Try BetterTouchTool or Magnet. Magnet's UI is a little nicer,
         | but that doesn't really matter since you'll never see after
         | you've set it up. I prefer BetterTouchTool because the shortcut
         | keys are more flexible. Perhaps you can match the i3wm keys to
         | leverage that existing muscle memory.
        
       | dtn wrote:
       | Thanks for this, this is wonderful. I used to use bug.n for
       | tiling, but it was terribly slow and buggy most of the time-
       | haven't tried any other solutions since.
        
       | betwixthewires wrote:
       | I have grown to like tiling and think it is the future of desktop
       | computing, if there really is one, even though it is an older
       | paradigm. The ability to automate and set up workflows and
       | maximize on screen space is great.
       | 
       | I've been having trouble lately finding a good launcher/menu. I
       | use Wayland, so I want to use something Wayland native but I wind
       | up sticking with dmenu because the Wayland alternatives don't
       | quite work right. You can't index aliases, .desktop files and
       | PATH at the same time (aliases are a problem with dmenu too), and
       | you can't just run commands. A wlroots launcher that can handle
       | all of these things would be fantastic, bonus points if it can
       | pop out a terminal for TUI applications.
        
       | lf-non wrote:
       | The github description (which clarifies that the project is
       | intended for windows users) would be a better title.
       | 
       | > A tiling window manager for Windows inspired by i3 and Polybar.
        
         | toothbrush6 wrote:
         | You're completely right. Can't seem to change it this late
         | after posting though.
        
           | temp220416 wrote:
        
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       (page generated 2022-04-16 23:02 UTC)