Xinerama + Virtual Desktops

[Scott Rubin]

OK,

Tell me if this idea is crazy, already implemented, or the greatest 
thing ever because I'm not sure.

I already know that in CVS xinerama support is much improved, but as I 
don't like to do anything that will mess up portage (gentoo user) I 
don't use it yet.

Anyway, right now, in xfce 4.05 the way it works is this.  The virtual 
desktop encompasses both monitors.  If I want something to be always on 
the left monitor I have to make it sticky so it is on all desktops. 
Also the pager displays the desktops as one very wide thing instead of 
two separate squares, which makes more sense visually as I have two 
monitors with different resolutions.  So I have been making heavy heavy 
use of devilspie so that applications I want to appear on the smaller 
monitor always do not appear in the pager or taskbar.

I just had a vision of how it could be perfect.  First, make virtual 
desktops a single monitor in size.  So I can set the left screen to be 
desktop 5 and the right screen to be desktop 1, or any other combination 
I want.  I should also be able to put the same desktop on both screens. 
Of course sometimes I want it to be the other way around, so maybe have 
some desktops be one screen wide and some be dual screen? That needs 
more thought.

The second though I had is this. If I can put any virtual desktop on any 
screen at any time, what happens to things like pager, taskbar, panel, 
etc.  What  about gaim and gkrellm/torsmo/gdesklets,etc that you want to 
always see?  Add the ability to make windows stick not to all virtual 
desktops, but to a specific monitor.  So for example if I set gaim to 
stick to the right monitor then no matter which desktop I select to be 
displayed on the right monitor gaim will be there.

This idea requires a lot more interface and functionality thought, but I 
feel it would be really neat and makes a lot of sense.  How do you feel 
about it? Does any of you other xinerama users feel this would be a good 
addition? I think it just makes sense in a virtual desktop based window 
manager.  You have many desktops, some are visible and some are not. 
You have two monitors so you can view any two of these desktops in any 
combination you want.  Maybe I'm nuts and this will actually be terrible 
usability wise...

-Scott