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Fancy Zones, a tiling window manager

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Re: Fancy Zones, a tiling window manager

#11

Post by nailer »

clscott wrote: post #10

This looks neat. This is a kind of window manager I have wanted for quite a while on OSX

Yeah keyboard shortcuts and tiling are a good way to multitask without having to think about window placement. Just specify which zone you want the window in and let the WM do the resizing work.

Direct link to PowerToys inc Fancy Zones: https://github.com/Microsoft/powertoys/releases

- You probably want to turn on 'On Override Windows Snap hotkeys (win+arrow) to move windows between zones'.

- Default zone is boring, I like 'Priority grid' which is two thin columns and a thick one.

After a while you don't really think about window management.

PS 'jenmsft' in the thread below is a Software Engineer & Community Manager for Microsoft.

Re: Fancy Zones, a tiling window manager

#12

Post by UI_at_80x24 »

I know that several of my Windows-based co-workers will like this. Looking at the screenshots it does look cumbersome though. The real power of i3 is it's simplicity. You are not overwhelmed by complicated constructs. This appears to be a more static approach to tiling 'I want Layout #3' vs 'Open a new window here'.

I really hope this catches on. It's a fantastic productivity booster that I feel is on-par with having a second monitor.

Re: Fancy Zones, a tiling window manager

#15

Post by phkahler »

This sounds like a feature for sysadmins and programmers. It's something you need to "configure".

There are three thing I'd like regarding window layout:

1) the WM remembers the last placement of each app (and child window, and second or 3rd instance), and put them there when relaunched.

2) since I use a huge 4k monitor, I almost never want a window to drag beyond any edge of the screen. I dont need snapping, just a large hysteresis (in one direction) at the edge of the screen.

3) an easy way to set which thing launch at login. This may want to be in one of the common menus, not off in a config tool or .login file.

BTW I use gnome (on wayland), so if you know how I can get any of these behaviors I'd like that.

Re: Fancy Zones, a tiling window manager

#16

Post by jplayer01 »

UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #12

I know that several of my Windows-based co-workers will like this. Looking at the screenshots it does look cumbersome though. The real power of i3 is it's simplicity. You are not overwhelmed by complicated constructs. This appears to be a more static approach to tiling 'I want Layout #3' vs 'Open a new window here'. I really hope this catches on. It's a fantastic productivity booster that I feel is on-par with having…

I actually like it this way. I moved from i3 to AwesomeWM years ago, which basically has a bunch of pre-defined layouts. It's incredibly convenient, imo. Not sure what's complicated about it. I just hope it has hotkeys that let you switch layouts and it can assign the windows automatically (or remembers previous assignments). Otherwise it would be tedious.

edit: Just checked. It has a hotkey to switch between saved layouts. And you can set it so a newly opened program goes to its last known zone. That's pretty cool. I'll have to try it.

Re: Fancy Zones, a tiling window manager

#18

Post by UI_at_80x24 »

jplayer01 wrote: post #16
UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #12

I know that several of my Windows-based co-workers will like this. Looking at the screenshots it does look cumbersome though. The real power of i3 is it's simplicity. You are not overwhelmed by complicated constructs. This appears to be a more static approach to tiling 'I want Layout #3' vs 'Open a new window here'. I really hope this catches on. It's a fantastic productivity booster that I feel is on-par with having…

I actually like it this way. I moved from i3 to AwesomeWM years ago, which basically has a bunch of pre-defined layouts. It's incredibly convenient, imo. Not sure what's complicated about it. I just hope it has hotkeys that let you switch layouts and it can assign the windows automatically (or remembers previous assignments). Otherwise it would be tedious. edit: Just checked. It has a hotkey to switch between saved l…

Ahh that's pretty cool. I've never used Awesome, so my experience is biased.

Re: Fancy Zones, a tiling window manager

#19

Post by [deleted] »

UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #12

I know that several of my Windows-based co-workers will like this. Looking at the screenshots it does look cumbersome though. The real power of i3 is it's simplicity. You are not overwhelmed by complicated constructs. This appears to be a more static approach to tiling 'I want Layout #3' vs 'Open a new window here'. I really hope this catches on. It's a fantastic productivity booster that I feel is on-par with having…

[deleted]

Re: Fancy Zones, a tiling window manager

#20

Post by nickjj »

I got REALLY excited when I read this title until I read the documentation and now I probably won't even bother testing it.

If anyone is looking for an i3-like tiling window manager (a Linux tiling wm) Fanzy Zones isn't it. This one requires pre-setting a bunch of layouts up front, unlike i3 where you can just seamlessly open and move windows that auto-split as you go with zero window configuration up front.

IMO the mods should change the title of this post to define what type of tiling window manager it is, such as "Fancy Zones, a pre-defined layout based tiling window manager from Microsoft". In the title's current form it's borderline clickbait.

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