[HN Gopher] Show HN: Bonk, a command-line tool for X11 window ma...
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       Show HN: Bonk, a command-line tool for X11 window management
        
       Author : FascinatedBox
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2024-04-07 18:39 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | compressedgas wrote:
       | This does not appear to do anything that xdotool doesn't already
       | do.
        
         | FascinatedBox wrote:
         | This solves a few issues in xdotool for me:
         | 
         | Window selection allows for multiple criteria at once, and I
         | can also reject windows.
         | 
         | I'm also able to use the window manager's client list as a
         | source, which makes getting toplevel windows much easier.
         | 
         | Window movement is done using static gravity, fixing an issue
         | where windows were moving differently if they were a terminal
         | window versus non-terminal window.
         | 
         | Bonk can delete properties. I sometimes delete WM_NORMAL_HINTS
         | if a window has size hints set where I can't resize it the way
         | I want.
         | 
         | xdotool can raise windows but can't lower them (bonk can do
         | both).
        
           | o11c wrote:
           | > I sometimes delete WM_NORMAL_HINTS if a window has size
           | hints set where I can't resize it the way I want.
           | 
           | With kwin it's easy to manually override an
           | application/window to ignore geometry constraints or
           | whatever. I do this for xterm to avoid having a few pixels of
           | background showing at the edge when maximized.
           | 
           | I also used to do this a lot to get the much-nicer "soft
           | fullscreen" in SDL1 applications.
        
           | jdiff wrote:
           | Can it send whatever signal it is that WMs do when a window
           | is fullscreened, or block the signal sent when it's
           | unfullscreened? If so, I'm 100% sold.
        
       | anthk wrote:
       | Good, but wmctrl and xdotool do exactly that with far more
       | features.
        
       | shmerl wrote:
       | Kind of obsolete in the age of Wayland.
        
         | o11c wrote:
         | Wayland is still buggier than a swamp. At this point they're no
         | longer showstopping bugs, but if you don't want to be
         | constantly annoyed by little things not working, X11 is still
         | the way to go.
        
           | shmerl wrote:
           | Buggier or not - it's too late to think X11 is the
           | alternative. It's not. Wayland is going to get better for
           | whatever is needed.
           | 
           | X11 is absolutely not the way to go.
        
             | GuB-42 wrote:
             | The question is "when?". Wayland is 15 years old, it
             | already had a lot of time to "get better". So today, in
             | most cases, I'd say X11 is still the way to go, it just
             | works better.
             | 
             | When Wayland will get better and apps start supporting
             | Wayland more than they support X11, it will be the time to
             | switch, but at the glacial pace Wayland advances, chances
             | are that your current system will be obsolete when it will
             | happen.
             | 
             | It is still a good idea to consider Wayland support for
             | your own apps and have at least a test machine running it,
             | but doesn't mean writing apps designed to work with X11
             | like this one is a wasted effort. X11 is here to stay, for
             | a while at least.
        
               | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
               | Further, it's not even clear that this kind of program is
               | practically _possible_ on Wayland. At best, that 's yet
               | another new protocol someone would need to invent that
               | only some compositors would implement.
        
               | shmerl wrote:
               | _> Further, it 's not even clear that this kind of
               | program is practically possible on Wayland._
               | 
               | It's pretty clear. But some are too stuck up to even
               | research it or be part of shaping it. Which is common
               | among legacy vendors who very rarely even care to
               | communicate with Wayland developers about their needs.
               | 
               | Those who aren't stuck up deal with it just fine (OBS
               | Studio for example).
        
               | shmerl wrote:
               | _> The question is  "when?_
               | 
               | I'd say within this year already. Some major parts like
               | explicit sync are being merged already. And all future
               | work (like HDR) will only go to Wayland. Not to X11.
               | 
               | So this claim that X11 is a viable option is a fallacy.
        
               | bitwize wrote:
               | > The question is "when?". Wayland is 15 years old, it
               | already had a lot of time to "get better". So today, in
               | most cases, I'd say X11 is still the way to go, it just
               | works better.
               | 
               | If you run more than one monitor with different DPI,
               | Wayland is the only choice. If you want to do HDR,
               | Wayland will be the only choice.
               | 
               | > When Wayland will get better and apps start supporting
               | Wayland more than they support X11, it will be the time
               | to switch, but at the glacial pace Wayland advances,
               | chances are that your current system will be obsolete
               | when it will happen.
               | 
               | Toolkit developers are already considering removing their
               | X11 code paths. All of the effort is going into Wayland.
               | The best time to switch was a few years ago. The second
               | best time to switch is now.
        
           | kiwijamo wrote:
           | It depends a lot on your desktop enviornment/window manager,
           | distro, hardware, etc. I personally find Wayland works
           | perfectly out of the box whereas X11 still to this day has
           | issues with basic stuff like screen tearing that needs me to
           | add a line to my xorg config file to enable the driver
           | feature that stops screen tearing. (Note that every other
           | display server has zero issues -- MacOS, Windows, Wayland,
           | etc so the fact X11 still suffers from this in 2024 is a
           | strong indicator of its suitability for everyday use). For me
           | the GNOME/Debian/Wayland on Intel GPU has worked flawlessly
           | since Debian switched the default to Wayland a few years ago.
           | The same combo has been problematic for X11 for years until
           | Debian switched over to Wayland and it has been great ever
           | since. Firefox has supported GPU/Video acceleration in
           | Wayland for several years as well which has solved that
           | particular bugbear. I understand though that other combos
           | (particually the less-used DE/WMs and/or closed-source GPU
           | drivers etc) are better for X11 for legacy reasons however I
           | suspect with time these issue will be resolved.
        
         | bee_rider wrote:
         | Probably will be, whenever that occurs.
        
       | TheSkyHasEyes wrote:
       | FYI bonk.io has been around for almost a decade.
        
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       (page generated 2024-04-07 23:00 UTC)