layout-machi/README.md

layout-machi

A manual layout for Awesome with a rapid interactive editor.

Why?

TL;DR --- I want the control of my layout.

1. Dynamic tiling is an overkill, since tiling is only useful for persistent windows, and people extensively use hibernate/sleep these days.
2. I don't want to have all windows moving around whenever a new window shows up.
3. I want to have a flexible layout such that I can quickly adjust to whatever I need.

Use the layout

Use layout = layout_machi.layout.create() to instantiate the layout.

Editor

Call editor = layout_machi.editor.create() to create an editor that can either

• Interactively edit layout by calling editor.start_interactive()
• Set the layout with batched commands by calling editor.set_by_cmd(cmd), where cmd is a string

data is an object for storing the history of the editing, initially {}.

The layout editing command

The editing starts with the open area of the entire workarea, takes commands to split the current area into multiple sub-areas, then recursively edits each of them. The editor is keyboard driven, each command is a key with at most 2 digits as parameters (A, B) before the command. Undefined parameters are (mostly) treated as 1.

1. Up/Down: restore to the history command sequence
2. h/v: split the current region horizontally/vertically into 2 regions. The split will respect the ratio A:B.
3. w: Take two parameters (A, B), and split the current region equally into A columns and B rows. If no parameter is defined, behave the same as Space without parameters.
4. s: shift the current editing region with other open regions. If A is defined, shift for A times.
5. Space or -: Without parameters, close the current region and move to the next open region. With parameters, set the maximum depth of splitting (default is 2).
6. Enter/.: close all open regions. When all regions are closed, press Enter will save the layout and exit the editor.
7. Backspace: undo the last command.
8. Escape: exit the editor without saving the layout.

For examples:

h-v

11 22
11 22
11
11 33
11 33

hvv (or 22w)

11 33
11 33

22 44
22 44

3-13h2v--2h-12v

Details:

• 3-: set the maximum editing depth to 3
• 13h: horizontally split the initial region (entire desktop) to the ratio of 1:3
• For the left part:
  • 2v: vertically split the region to the ratio of 2:1
  • --: ignore further editing the splitted regions
• For the right part:
  • 2h: horizontally split the region to the ratio of 2:1
  • -: ignore the left part of the splitted regions
  • 12v: split the right part vertically to the ratio of 1:2

Tada!

11 3333 44
11 3333 44
11 3333
11 3333 55
   3333 55
22 3333 55
22 3333 55

Persistent history

By default, the last 100 command sequences are stored in ~/.machi_history. To change that, please refer to editor.lua. (XXX more documents)

Switcher

Calling layout_machi.switcher.start() will create a switcher that can (1) move window/focus into other regions by direction keys, and (2) switch windows in the same regions using Tab key.

Other functions

layout_machi.editor.fit_region(c, cycle) will fit a floating client into the closest region. If cycle is true, it then moves the window by cycling all regions.

TODO

• Tabs on regions?

License

Apache 2.0 --- See LICENSE