Docking windows?

[Jasper Huijsmans]

xivulon schreef:
> What about having an option to use a dockable/notebook interface at the 
> window manager level? 

Why?

> It could probably be done with fairly little 
> overhead/code 

_Never_ say that, especially if you hope other people will do the work.

> provided the following are implemented:
> 
> 1) Border locking, i.e . when a border is resized, the adiacent windows 
> are also resized. It can be implemented by registering a resize action 
> of a window whith the border resize event of an adjacent window. Such 
> "registration" takes place whenever a new window is docked or undocked.
> 
> 2) Drop zones. i.e. 9 icons displayed whenever a window is moved. 4 
> icons on the borders of the screen (screen-dropzones). 5 icons in the 
> middle of the docked window under the cursor (window-dropzones). When a 
> window is dropped on one of such icons it gets docked in the appropriate 
> position ( i.e. other windows are appropriately resized and the borders 
> are locked). The 4 screen-dropzones  will place the window on the  
> sides/top/bottom of the screen with the window maximed either vertically 
> or horizontally. The 5 window-dropzones dock the window using half of 
> the space available in the window under cursor (up/down/left/right) or 
> as a new tab (middle).  If a window is dropped anywhere else or is 
> maximized it becomes a floating window. When a docked window is 
> maximized and then restored it gets docked in its previous position.
> 

Huh? That's a wee bit complicated, wouldn't you say?

> 3) Windows tabs. Could be inserted inside current window borders (below 
> the statusbar) as opposed to being attached on the outside as in 
> fluxbox. This will allow to use current themes and have little impact on 
> other windowing operations.
> 
> Other than the dropzone icons, tabs and some pointer feedback 
> (bidirectional arrow when pointer is over a border),  no other change to 
> visual elements is required. Most of the code involves "smart resizing", 
> half of which can be implemented via border locking. 
> 

Other that that, eh? ...

I don't think Xfce is ever going to implement something like this. It 
sounds like some merger of fluxbox and ion features and personally I 
think I would hate it. Not to mention that I doubt anyone will write the 
code for it...

	Jasper