Gala should support better window tiling [$25]

[Kamil Nadeem]

Elementary's Gala is awesome. I find it lacking in one aspect, the window tiling. The "*Ctrl+⌘+Left/Right* Snap Window to Half of Workspace" part is good but not great. Need more tiling features, something like the Num keys snapping windows like in Ubuntu Unity or soemthing like this Gnome-Shell extension https://plus.google.com/112759940931397244391/posts/NHCdTj5LpTP . Makes working with multiple windows a breeze. :-)

[Heath Paddock (heathbar)]

As a workaround, you can use dconf-editor for some basic tiling.
sudo apt-get install dconf-tools
Then run dconf-editor and navigate to org > gnome > desktop > wm > keybindings. There are a number of items named move-to-corner and move-to-side which seem to work as long as the key combination isn't already used for something else.

[Heath Paddock (heathbar)]

I just realized it my suggestion doesn't resize the window so it's worthless. Sorry about that.

[Niklas Rosenqvist (niklas-s-rosenqvist)]

It would be awesome if somehow the code from this excellent GNOME-Shell extension could be reused here: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/657/shelltile/

[Tom Beckmann (tombeckmann)]

@Niklas, if you get the chance, it'd be nice to see a video of the features of this extension. Otherwise I'll see when I can get gnome-shell running.

[HansBKK (hansbkk)]

"Tiling" is a pretty open-ended topic area where there are almost as many pattern-preferences as users.

Rather than devs putting time/energy into building in the actual behaviors and keybindings, I think it would be better for them to just make sure the relevant emwh etc standards are well-complied with and leave the tile-management to higher level script/daemon tools.

Users interested in this functionality - especially Python coders - should put in a little time testing these:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiling_window_manager#Third_party_tiling_applications_on_Xorg

running on stock eOS and report back where things do/don't work

Then one or more could be extended as needed to suit our needs

wmctrl itself could sure use some love too. . .

PS pet peeve I have with the current tile-right/left is how you can't then easily adjust the widths, almost like the windows are pseudo-maximized, only the bottom right corner seems to work, have to "break out" of the tiling mode before free resizing is possible,

[HansBKK (hansbkk)]

Update (can't edit?) re the last bit, found this https://bugs.launchpad.net/gala/+bug/1224727

My current workaround (QuickTile python script)
http://www.reddit.com/r/elementaryos/comments/296wg3/tiling_how_do_i_get_quarters_instead_of_halves/ciy5r9d

Reddit's a great place for OT discussions

[Niklas Rosenqvist (niklas-s-rosenqvist)]

Hey, Tom Beckmann, I added a quick recording of ShellTile. By dropping a window over another while holding control they get grouped together. The implementation could probably be done a little more gracefully but it's effective for me when working with lots of windows that I need to see at the same time.

[Oktay Acikalin (oktay-acikalin)]

I really like to occasionally tile my windows. But after having the possibility to either put them to the left or right, I'm only missing top and bottom.

[Niccolo Brogi (nbrogi)]

What's really annoying IMHO is that when you unsnap the window goes back to the default size and position instead of how it was before snapping.

I often make it snap by mistake and have to resize it and position it again.

[Eric Göpel (capstan)]

Wow open from 2014 and still no change! ;)

In fact I believe it's really necessary, especially the need of beeing able of resizing tiled windows together.

My dream-workflow:

If I drag one windows to one sid it should be tiled to this half of the screen. On the other half alle windows on this workspace should be displayed. With a click of one, that window gets tiled to the other half.
Then if I move my cursor over the middle (where the windows meet) it should get a ↔ and they should be resized together, leaving no space between them.

Nearly everytime we are tiling a window to the left/right it's because we want to display two windows side by side. Said this, making suggestions for which window to add makes a lot sense. Like it's now, we have to tile one window, change to second window ia Atl+Tab/Plank and tile it to the other side. Also resizing isn't supported.

I added a mockup to show what I'm meaning.

[Zisu Andrei (matzipan)]

Hello Eric,

If you find that fixing this issue is very important to you, consider posting a bounty [1] for it. This will incentivise volunteers to tackle it!

[1] https://www.bountysource.com/teams/elementary/bounties

[Maxim Taranov (png2378)]

https://www.bountysource.com/issues/931574-gala-should-support-better-window-tiling