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Don't get the idea that i3 is somehow deficient just because it's less intensively geeky than xmonad (written in Haskell) or dwm (requires recompiling to activate configuration changes). It is a highly functional, efficient, productivity enhancing tiling window manager. Xmonad offers the ability to make use of all the same general capabilities that i3 offers and a bit more, however, and nothing I have encountered challenges the Spartan minimalism of dwm.
The Alt key is often useful in applications that use menus, so in xmonad I remapped its use of Alt to the mod4 (Windows) key. I assume there's a way to do that in i3 as well.
There definitely is a way to do that, but I don't think I actually use any applications that make use of the Alt key at present. I mean . . . Firefox does by default, but with Pentadactyl that's not an issue.
... but other X11 apps use Alt for menu navigation if you don't want to lean on the mouse. For instance, gnumeric, libreoffice, gimp, etc. Even if you use cinepaint instead of gimp, it has Alt-key shortcuts.
I don't use Gnumeric or LibreOffice, really, and my GIMP usage is rare enough, and requires the mouse enough for many operations, that it really isn't a problem to use the mouse instead of keyboard shortcuts.
I haven't been using Cinepaint much, because of my little operating system issue. Evidently, stupid OSes that used to be pretty good don't have Cinepaint.
I haven't been using Cinepaint much, because of my little operating system issue. Evidently, stupid OSes that used to be pretty good don't have Cinepaint.
I tried a few different tiling window managers before sticking with the Awesome Window Manager. I am very happy with it.
Do you mean things like window borders and title bars? I'm not aware of any such configuration. Windows do have titlebars, but they are very minimal and provide nothing but a title and a place to click if you really want to use the mouse to switch windows within a workspace (or to drag if you set a window to "floating" mode, which can be toggled on and off using LAlt-Shift-Space). Borders are basically just a color difference a couple pixels wide or so to give you a place to click-and-drag with the mouse to change window sizes.
I have yet to figure out how to eliminate these decorations entirely; I have not really tried to find out. I might look into it, and into the possibility of altering the decorations rather than simply removing them as well. At present, I'm not aware of any such configurability.
Assuming you were asking what I think you were asking, that's a good question. (Otherwise, I guess I'm just babbling about something unrelated.)
I have yet to figure out how to eliminate these decorations entirely; I have not really tried to find out. I might look into it, and into the possibility of altering the decorations rather than simply removing them as well. At present, I'm not aware of any such configurability.
Assuming you were asking what I think you were asking, that's a good question. (Otherwise, I guess I'm just babbling about something unrelated.)
I don't communicate very well sometimes. If I'm not pressed for time I tend to overwork an idea, stirring it up until muddy. I was slacking yesterday... =\
I asked for one of the reasons you mention; how to eliminate this entirely. I was impressed with the win8 demo, NO chrome anywhere, which is mitigated by the multi-touch capability. That's the way it's going into the future. BTW gnome 3 does a good job in this dept, and I am presently trying to find where I might eliminate any of the window manager's chrome, or at least shrink it to near invisibility.
I bet anything you'd call "chrome" in i3 is a matter of the base programming of the executable(s). That is there's no config file it reads to determine border sizes, colors etc. Should be easy enough to tell, something like that would either be in a users home or under /etc. ( --- I love Linux!)
So you read my mind correctly somewhere between the lines in what I wrote. Is there anything you can't do?!
I asked for one of the reasons you mention; how to eliminate this entirely. I was impressed with the win8 demo, NO chrome anywhere, which is mitigated by the multi-touch capability. That's the way it's going into the future. BTW gnome 3 does a good job in this dept, and I am presently trying to find where I might eliminate any of the window manager's chrome, or at least shrink it to near invisibility.
I bet anything you'd call "chrome" in i3 is a matter of the base programming of the executable(s). That is there's no config file it reads to determine border sizes, colors etc. Should be easy enough to tell, something like that would either be in a users home or under /etc. ( --- I love Linux!)
So you read my mind correctly somewhere between the lines in what I wrote. Is there anything you can't do?!
> I bet anything you'd call "chrome" in i3 is a matter of the base programming of the executable(s). That is there's no config file it reads to determine border sizes, colors etc. Should be easy enough to tell, something like that would either be in a users home or under /etc. ( --- I love Linux!)
It seems that i3 has defaults that kick in when there's no conflicting configuration. As such, I didn't know whether the window decorations are configurable, because it appears to have hard-coded defaults that can be overridden with configuration (but aren't overridden).
What I have discovered is that i3's borders can be configured. The i3 user guide (see the message in which I referred to the email Michael Stapleberg, the i3 maintainer, sent me) offers options for three ways to handle borders: normal borders, one-pixel borders, and no visible borders at all. I did not see anything about titlebars, though.
I haven't tried it yet. This also apparently affects titlebars, which is unfortunate because I'd like to be able to eliminate borders while still having a titlebar of some sort.
By the way, I've only heard the term "chrome" applied for similar stuff when referring to the decorations inside So you read my mind correctly somewhere between the lines in what I wrote. Is there anything you can't do?!
Plenty. For example, I have discovered that (given time and diligence) I can change someone's mind about how to vote -- but I can't prevent him from having a panicked last-minute "unconversion" that causes him to revert to his original "lesser evil" choice. That sort of thing (the ability to convince people of the Right Way To Do Things, but not to make the change of heart stick) frustrates the hell out of me.
. . . but seriously, thanks for clarifying.
It seems that i3 has defaults that kick in when there's no conflicting configuration. As such, I didn't know whether the window decorations are configurable, because it appears to have hard-coded defaults that can be overridden with configuration (but aren't overridden).
What I have discovered is that i3's borders can be configured. The i3 user guide (see the message in which I referred to the email Michael Stapleberg, the i3 maintainer, sent me) offers options for three ways to handle borders: normal borders, one-pixel borders, and no visible borders at all. I did not see anything about titlebars, though.
I haven't tried it yet. This also apparently affects titlebars, which is unfortunate because I'd like to be able to eliminate borders while still having a titlebar of some sort.
By the way, I've only heard the term "chrome" applied for similar stuff when referring to the decorations inside So you read my mind correctly somewhere between the lines in what I wrote. Is there anything you can't do?!
Plenty. For example, I have discovered that (given time and diligence) I can change someone's mind about how to vote -- but I can't prevent him from having a panicked last-minute "unconversion" that causes him to revert to his original "lesser evil" choice. That sort of thing (the ability to convince people of the Right Way To Do Things, but not to make the change of heart stick) frustrates the hell out of me.
. . . but seriously, thanks for clarifying.
I received an email from the i3 maintainer:
people using and/or writing about my software
process is far too complicated and therefore not worth it user's guide will be beneficial for all readers.
I really don't know how I overlooked the bindsym command in configuration. He's right: that's a much better approach to configuration than using the bind command.
I understand his reasoning for using jkl; as movement keys, but I still need to keep using hjkl in other vi-like environments, so I'll keep using an altered i3 configuration to match vi's movement keys rather than using the default i3 movement keys.
I'll thank him in email as well, but I wanted to say here that I appreciate his feedback on the article, and wish I had encountered both his reasoning for the use of jkl; and the bindsym configuration command before writing the article. I probably should have sought him out and shown him a draft of the article, I suppose.
edit: Check out the i3 user's guide for more about i3 configuration.
another edit: I did not actually thank Michael Stapleberg (the i3 maintainer) in private email, because his mail server is rejecting my reply.
people using and/or writing about my software
process is far too complicated and therefore not worth it user's guide will be beneficial for all readers.I really don't know how I overlooked the bindsym command in configuration. He's right: that's a much better approach to configuration than using the bind command.
I understand his reasoning for using jkl; as movement keys, but I still need to keep using hjkl in other vi-like environments, so I'll keep using an altered i3 configuration to match vi's movement keys rather than using the default i3 movement keys.
I'll thank him in email as well, but I wanted to say here that I appreciate his feedback on the article, and wish I had encountered both his reasoning for the use of jkl; and the bindsym configuration command before writing the article. I probably should have sought him out and shown him a draft of the article, I suppose.
edit: Check out the i3 user's guide for more about i3 configuration.
another edit: I did not actually thank Michael Stapleberg (the i3 maintainer) in private email, because his mail server is rejecting my reply.
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