lain/Layouts.md

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Currently, there are 7 layouts.

lain/layout
.
|-- cascade
|-- cascadetile
|-- centerwork
|-- termfair
|-- uselessfair
|-- uselesspiral
`-- uselesstile

Just add your favourites to layouts table:

layouts =
{
    ...
    lain.layout.termfair,
    lain.layout.uselesstile,
    ...
}

Or set them on specific tags like this:

awful.layout.set(lain.layout.uselessfair, tags[1][7])

How do layouts work?

cascade

Cascade all windows of a tag.

You can control the offsets by setting those two variables:

lain.layout.cascade.cascade_offset_x = 64
lain.layout.cascade.cascade_offset_y = 16

The following reserves space for 5 windows:

lain.layout.cascade.nmaster = 5

That is, no window will get resized upon the creation of a new window, unless there's more than 5 windows.

cascadetile

Similar to awful.layout.suit.tile layout, however, clients in the slave column are cascaded instead of tiled.

Left column size can be set, otherwise is controlled by mwfact of the tag. Additional windows will be opened in another column on the right. New windows are placed above old windows.

Whether the slave column is placed on top of the master window or not is controlled by the value of ncol. A value of 1 means "overlapping slave column" and anything else means "don't overlap windows".

Usage example:

lain.layout.cascadetile.cascade_offset_x = 2
lain.layout.cascadetile.cascade_offset_y = 32
lain.layout.cascadetile.extra_padding = 5
lain.layout.cascadetile.nmaster = 5
lain.layout.ncol = 1

extra_padding reduces the size of the master window if "overlapping slave column" is activated. This allows you to see if there are any windows in your slave column.

Setting cascade_offset_x to a very small value or even 0 is reccommended to avoid wasting space.

centerwork

You start with one window, centered horizontally:

+--------------------------+
|       +----------+       |
|       |          |       |
|       |          |       |
|       |          |       |
|       |   MAIN   |       |
|       |          |       |
|       |          |       |
|       |          |       |
|       |          |       |
|       +----------+       |
+--------------------------+

This is your main working window. You do most of the work right here. Sometimes, you may want to open up additional windows. They're put in the following four slots:

+--------------------------+
| +---+ +----------+ +---+ |
| |   | |          | |   | |
| | 0 | |          | | 1 | |
| |   | |          | |   | |
| +---+ |   MAIN   | +---+ |
| +---+ |          | +---+ |
| |   | |          | |   | |
| | 2 | |          | | 3 | |
| |   | |          | |   | |
| +---+ +----------+ +---+ |
+--------------------------+

Yes, the number "four" is fixed. In total, you can only have five open windows with this layout. Additional windows are not managed and set to floating mode. This is intentional.

You can set the order of the four auxiliary windows. This is the default configuration:

lain.layout.centerwork.top_left = 0
lain.layout.centerwork.top_right = 1
lain.layout.centerwork.bottom_left = 2
lain.layout.centerwork.bottom_right = 3

This means: The bottom left slot will be occupied by the third window (not counting the main window). Suppose you want your windows to appear in this order:

+--------------------------+
| +---+ +----------+ +---+ |
| |   | |          | |   | |
| | 3 | |          | | 0 | |
| |   | |          | |   | |
| +---+ |   MAIN   | +---+ |
| +---+ |          | +---+ |
| |   | |          | |   | |
| | 2 | |          | | 1 | |
| |   | |          | |   | |
| +---+ +----------+ +---+ |
+--------------------------+

This would require you to use these settings:

lain.layout.centerwork.top_left = 3
lain.layout.centerwork.top_right = 0
lain.layout.centerwork.bottom_left = 2
lain.layout.centerwork.bottom_right = 1

Please note: If you use Awesome's default configuration, navigation in this layout may be very confusing. How do you get from the main window to satellite ones depends on the order in which the windows are opened. Thus, use of awful.client.focus.bydirection() is suggested. Here's an example:

globalkeys = awful.util.table.join(
    ...
    awful.key({ modkey }, "j",
        function()
            awful.client.focus.bydirection("down")
            if client.focus then client.focus:raise() end
        end),
    awful.key({ modkey }, "k",
        function()
            awful.client.focus.bydirection("up")
            if client.focus then client.focus:raise() end
        end),
    awful.key({ modkey }, "h",
        function()
            awful.client.focus.bydirection("left")
            if client.focus then client.focus:raise() end
        end),
    awful.key({ modkey }, "l",
        function()
            awful.client.focus.bydirection("right")
            if client.focus then client.focus:raise() end
        end),
    ...
)

termfair

I do a lot of work on terminals. The common tiling algorithms usually maximize windows, so you'll end up with a terminal that has about 200 columns or more. That's way too much. Have you ever read a manpage in a terminal of this size?

This layout restricts the size of each window. Each window will have the same width but is variable in height. Furthermore, windows are left-aligned. The basic workflow is as follows (the number above the screen is the number of open windows, the number in a cell is the fixed number of a client):

     (1)                (2)                (3)
+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+      +---+---+---+
|   |   |   |      |   |   |   |      |   |   |   |
| 1 |   |   |  ->  | 2 | 1 |   |  ->  | 3 | 2 | 1 |  ->
|   |   |   |      |   |   |   |      |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+      +---+---+---+

     (4)                (5)                (6)
+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+      +---+---+---+
| 4 |   |   |      | 5 | 4 |   |      | 6 | 5 | 4 |
+---+---+---+  ->  +---+---+---+  ->  +---+---+---+
| 3 | 2 | 1 |      | 3 | 2 | 1 |      | 3 | 2 | 1 |
+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+      +---+---+---+

The first client will be located in the left column. When opening another window, this new window will be placed in the left column while moving the first window into the middle column. Once a row is full, another row above it will be created.

Default number of columns and rows are respectively taken from nmaster and ncol values in awful.tag, but you can set your own.

For example, this sets termfair to 3 columns and at least 1 row:

lain.layout.termfair.nmaster = 3
lain.layout.termfair.ncol = 1

uselessfair, uselesspiral & uselesstile

These are duplicates of the stock fair, spiral and tile layouts.

However, "useless gaps" (see below) have been added.

Useless gaps

Useless gaps are gaps between windows. They are "useless" because they serve no special purpose despite increasing overview. I find it easier to recognize window boundaries if windows are set apart a little bit.

The uselessfair layout, for example, looks like this:

+================+
#                #
#  +---+  +---+  #
#  | 1 |  |   |  #
#  +---+  |   |  #
#         | 3 |  #
#  +---+  |   |  #
#  | 2 |  |   |  #
#  +---+  +---+  #
#                #
+================+

All of lain layouts provide useless gaps. To set the width of the gaps, you have to add an item called useless_gap_width in your theme.lua. If it doesn't exist, the width will default to 0. Example:

theme.useless_gap_width = "5"

What about layout icons?

They are located in lain/icons/layout.

To use them, add lines to your theme.lua like this:

theme.lain_icons         = os.getenv("HOME") .. "/.config/awesome/lain/icons/layout/default/"
theme.layout_termfair    = theme.lain_icons .. "termfairw.png"
theme.layout_cascade     = theme.lain_icons .. "cascadew.png"
theme.layout_cascadetile = theme.lain_icons .. "cascadetilew.png"
theme.layout_centerwork  = theme.lain_icons .. "centerworkw.png"

Credits goes to Nicolas Estibals for creating layout icons for default theme.

You can use them as a template for your custom versions.