Cortile - auto tiling manager

[Keef]

I tried out Sofiya's latest creation, which use Wayland and the Hyprland compositor. A nice feature of this is the dynamic/auto tiling feature. Had a dig around and found there is a utility that can do this under X.

https://github.com/leukipp/cortile

Scroll down for usage, but you'll probably mostly be using Control+shift and the arrow keys.
It is just a single binary, but a config file can be created if needed . There are pre-compiled binaries available, or compile it yourself with Go.
It works very well with Openbox, but has a few glitches with JWM on FatDog. Had no problems with JWM on EasyOS.
Tried the 32bit version briefly on BionicPup, and that behaved itself too.
I just copied the binary into the Startup folder.

[geo_c]

Wow I've been using this a total of 90 seconds on an Xfce-desktop and I love it already! I'm a big fan of Spectrwm, and this seems just as good, if not better.

I'll keep testing though, I'm rushing to conclusions with my enthusiam. But man, you don't even to have to install it, much less compile it.

[rockedge]

I've been playing with it over JWM on F96-CE_4 and it seems to be working okay!

I am going to try it out with KLV-Airedale, which has very basic tiling functions built into the XFCE4 desktop triggered with key bindings (shortcuts) we added in the configuration so if it gets Spectrwm level abilities directly on the xfce4 desktop which I anticipate, we'll be really a good spot with stack and tiling abilities on the same system.

[geo_c]

I've been playing with it over JWM on F96-CE_4 and it seems to be working okay!

I am going to try it out with KLV-Airedale, which has very basic tiling functions built into the XFCE4 desktop triggered with key bindings (shortcuts) we added in the configuration so if it gets Spectrwm level abilities directly on the xfce4 desktop which I anticipate, we'll be really a good spot with stack and tiling abilities on the same system.

I've been playing with it. I figured it's a good idea to disable snapping functions in Xfce, and other window manager tweaks in Xfce settings that would interfere.

Cortile seems really great. Sensible keystokes, so far none conflicting with Xfce, Easy to switch layouts, move windows, disable or enable tiling altogether, resize individual windows, master and stack just by resizing a window the normal way (clicking the edge with left button and dragging) or by using their keystrokes. Also easy to send windows to master or stack. So it's really the best of all worlds so far, at least in Xfce. I'll try it in F96. Appears to do what the fancy tiling window managers do with only one binary running in an existing window mangager. In addition to the fact that all the benefits of Xfce are right there and available.

So I just now used the built-in sticky keys in Airedale, and they still worked, and to get it back to where it was previously I simply hit ctrl+shift+T to disable cortile, and then ctrl-shift+T again to enable it, and that put the windows back where they were.

All working as smooth and easy to use (at this point I'd say much easier) as Spectr, bspwm, awesome, and hyprland without even touching a config file.

But I'm still being very enthusiastic. After I use lots of applications for a week or so I'll re-evaluate.

[geo_c]

Some interesting, though not necessarily undesirable action when minimizing and maximizing windows from the xfce panel. basically after minimizing windows, the order they are reopened again changes whether they appear in the master or stack, almost like opening them fresh. And maybe that's the way spectr works, but I haven't used the minimized function on it for awhile since I have 10 workspaces to open applications on.

Now this is nice. I don't think I've seen this even with other tiling managers. I went to save the github cortile html page with an enormously long title, and when I went to rename it in Xfe, the floating rename box extended the entire width of the screen showing me the whole name.

I remember @MochiMoppel had a fix for the Rox rename box size, which was unusually small. I haven't applied that fix in Airedale's rox, so let's see if does the same thing.......

NO it does not. Rox is more stubborn I suppose:


Also nice that you can drag a window into the stack and it will switch with the window already occupying the stack.

Another report: Using the minimize all windows button on the xfce panel works, but when windows are restored using the button, whatever was last active moves to the master. But it's so easy in this setup to switch it back, and there are multiple ways to do it (like dragging a window to the master and dropping, using ctrl+shift+4,5,or 6) that it's not really a big deal.

VERY INTUITIVE this tiling manager is.

And so far I see no need to tweak the key-bindings.

Another cool thing. Let's say the stack has two windows, and they are splitting the space in half, you can shade the 1st window and close the second window, when you open a new application is still splits the stack in half so you can unshade the 1st window into that space.

[geo_c]

After about an hour and a half of using it, my conclusion: Cortile is fantastic. Nice find @Keef!

There's simply no reason not to have it on hand. It doesn't need to be installed, it can be enabled or disabled with a simple keystoke, and it's very small.

note though I'm running in Airdale with Xfce, it may perform differently under JWM

[rockedge]

@geo_c I am running it on both a F96-CE_4 and a KLV-Airedale-RT

This thing is fantastic. Going to include it with a splash help window, similar as in KLV-Spectr. It is extremely versatile and so far seems to be working on the F96-CE_4 on top of JWM just as well. Much easier to implement Cortile than getting Spectrwm configured on F96, with testing of Cortile ongoing on the F96 system.

On KLV-Airedale-RT it is really cool.....too cool....must be dreaming......as a single binary this is the monster we've been waiting for in compact OS distro design.

@fredx181 and @Sofiya 's mksplash included in KLV's will do the job nicely I believe, in assisting building the key binding controls listings script.

[geo_c]

On KLV-Airedale-RT it is really cool.....too cool....must be dreaming......as a single binary this is the monster we've been waiting for in compact OS distro design.

My thoughts exactly. It's extremely versatile. I'm wondering how this isn't world famous by now. It just uses EWMH and it's like 8.8MB. Crazy.

I just noticed it puts an icon in the tray with an enable box, and four window functions.

Since I have this Airedale-pwJ audio remaster so tweaked and running so well, adding Cortile makes it a dream system like I never imagined.

@fredx181 and @Sofiya 's mksplash included in KLV's will do the job nicely I believe, in assisting building the key binding controls listings script.

I'll put together the keybindings this week along with an updated desktop.file and utility script gz.

[wiak]

Cortile sounds great for use with Xfce.

Personally, I really wish Xfce would move to full Wayland support, but despite or perhaps because of their 'roadmap' I rather doubt that will happen in any near future.

labwc may be best option in between times. I take it cortile is just for X?

From an actual practical viewpoint it is extremely difficult (painful) to make the move from the likes of Xfce to some Wayland compositor. Yes some of these tiling window managers cropping up for Wayland are fantastic, but if you want a mix of tiling and stacking really we are so spoiled via Xfce - not the fastest WM, but on modern systems it is pretty fast enough... and Cortile sounds endearing.

[rockedge]

@geo_c That would be a big help producing the mksplash reference splash for Cortile. I will add it to the rootfs for KLV-Airedale I think.

The tray/panel icon with those controls available is quite helpful and I noticed it first when going over the configuration file!

Snagged this demo from the Cortile GitHub repo:

[geo_c]

@geo_c That would be a big help producing the mksplash reference splash for Cortile. I will add it to the rootfs for KLV-Airedale I think.

The tray/panel icon with those controls available is quite helpful and I noticed it first when going over the configuration file!

So far in Airedale it looks like most of the key-bindings work, but not my page-up key.

The other consideration is that several of these keybindings use the number pad, and that's great when you have one, but what about laptops and keyboards that don't have number pads?

So as much as I like the number pad bindings, I'm considering what other combinations might be practical. However I want to keep the number pad bindings as they are really logically laid out. And maybe it would work to have two combinations for each function that uses the number pad.

[Keef]

Cortile does not detect the JWM tray, so the bottom of windows are hidden behind it. The solution is to alter this line in the config file:

Code: Select all

# Margin of the tiling area on primary screen ([top, right, bottom, left]).
edge_margin_primary = [0, 0, 30, 0]

In my case I have changed it to 30, but it depends on the height of your tray of course, and this is for a tray at the bottom.

[gychang]

https://github.com/leukipp/cortile

I just copied the binary into the Startup folder.

very interesting, running it on bionicpup64 running jwm, I simply copied the binary into the Startup folder. Had basic tiling feature when opened 3 rox-filers... There is a basic config file /root/.config/config.toml file. I played around for 10min only..., but interesting and plan to spend some time with it.

[geo_c]

I just configured cortile for F-96, and did the screen border modification not to cover the tray. It'd be nice to get the tray icon working. I don't how to get that going. I would assume adding a line to jwmrc-tray but I don't know what to add or where it would be located.

I'd say after using it for a few hours, coretile runs a little goofier on JWM than it does on Xfce, but not so much as to be a deal breaker.

It helps to add these kinds of lines to the coretile config for both JWM and Xfce, the two gtkdialog entries at the bottom I added, any suggestions as to what other window classes should go there?

Code: Select all

window_ignore = [
    ["nm.*", ""],
    ["gcr.*", ""],
    ["polkit.*", ""],
    ["wrapper.*", ""],
    ["lightdm.*", ""],
    ["blueman.*", ""],
    ["pavucontrol.*", ""],
    ["firefox.*", ".*Mozilla Firefox"],
    ["Gtkdialog.*", ""],
    ["gtkdialog.*", ""],
    

  

[rockedge]

It'd be nice to get the tray icon working. I don't how to get that going

I'll working on it also in a bit to see if we can get it going in the tray. So far on F96-CE_4 working with coretile it seems to be doing the the basic tiling configuration correctly, but have not done a lot of switching and toggling yet.

Also using the window bottom limiter modification in the config. I'll also be adding your suggestions to the F96 setup first.

[MochiMoppel]

Pure chaos! Crashed my system, had to reboot!

What happened?
1) Downloaded binary and started in BW64
2) Existing windows tiled but I couldn't find a menu to configure
3) Can't maximize windows anymore. I see a "fullscreen" notification but actually it's fairly big normal size, not reaching screen edges, but covering half of bottom tray and half of top panel
4) Usually small pop-up dialogs are now blown up to half screen size
5) None of the windows is the size it is supposed to be - I miss my maximized browser
6) My monitor is positioned in portrait mode and subsequently I'm running the desktop 90degree rotated. I thought that maybe reverting to landscape would fix the phony "fullscreen" issue, so I used xrandr to rotate the desktop back.
The screen went completely blank - no backlight anymore . Keyboard is dead. Time to reboot

[geo_c]

It'd be nice to get the tray icon working. I don't how to get that going

I'll working on it also in a bit to see if we can get it going in the tray. So far on F96-CE_4 working with coretile it seems to be doing the the basic tiling configuration correctly, but have not done a lot of switching and toggling yet.

Also using the window bottom limiter modification in the config. I'll also be adding your suggestions to the F96 setup first.

Yeah, when I say goofy, it's probably just me doing things in the wrong order, but I get apps in the master window switched in unexpected ways sometimes.

Since I have the tray at the top, I haven't messed with the bottom window borders. It's a great addition to F96, which is now feeling like my KLV tiling setups. But still this is better than a strict tiling environment., I really like the hybrid arrangment.

[geo_c]

Pure chaos! Crashed my system, had to reboot!

What happend?
2) Existing windows tiled but I couldn't find a menu to configure
3) Can't maximize windows anymore. I see a "fullscreen" notification but actually it's fairly big normal size, not reaching screen edges, but covering half of bottom tray and half of top panel
4) Usually small pop-up dialogs are now blown up to half screen size
5) None of the windows is the size it is supposed to be - I miss my maximized browser

Those 4 things are really just basic tiling window manager operation.

For 2) you'll have to look at /root/.config/cortile/cortile.toml for the key-bindings to operate it, and then change the window borders not to cover the tray in JWM. It doesn't do that in Xfce.

For 3) You can maximize windows with the key-binding ctr-shift-space. Or a quick toggle disable of cortile with ctrl+shift+T etc

For 4) You can config exceptions to windows like in my post above https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 85#p110985

For 5) Tiling is different, not everyone's cup of tea, but once used to it a lot of productivity comes of it.

6) My monitor is positioned in portrait mode and subsequently I'm running the desktop 90degree rotated. I thought that maybe reverting to landscape would fix the phony "fullscreen" issue, so I used xrandr to rotate the desktop back.
The screen went completely blank - no backlight anymore . Keyboard is dead. Time to reboot

It may not handle this setup well.

[MochiMoppel]

For 3) You can maximize windows with the key-binding ctr-shift-space.

Tried it, but doesn't work. Let's call the result "pretty big", but it's not maximized and definitely not "fullscreen" as it claims to be.

[geo_c]

For 3) You can maximize windows with the key-binding ctr-shift-space.

Tried it, but doesn't work. Let's call the result "pretty big", but it's not maximized and definitely not "fullscreen" as it claims to be.

Well it's not full screen, you're right. It's a difference in terminology. In full screen mode the window will occupy all the space defined by the window borders set in the config, and any active window will cover that exact same space. So it's like one window taking up the entire defined window workspace and all windows display as chosen in that space.

The flow as I see it for a feature like that is once toggled, all windows are sized to that space and can be cycled through or activated from the tray. Where this saves time is when you toggle once and don't need to constantly hit the maximize button.

The same works using the master space against the slave. I tend to run in horizontal-top mode, the master is on top, I size it and the other windows share the bottom space. So I'll put a file manager in the master on top and open terminals from the file manager and there will like three terminals in the slave below. It all depends on what the task at hand is. This tiler is nice because you can drag a window from the slave area and it swaps with the window in the master.

[geo_c]

Still a work in progress but I added and changed some key bindings. A handy one for F96 since the the tray icon is not showing up in JWM is Control+Shift+x to exit Cortile. Also added a desktop file to start it, goes in /usr/share/desktops

files attached, cortile.toml goes in /root/.config/coretile

cortile_files.tar.gz

(2.33 KiB) Downloaded 179 times

I set the top margin to 30 for tray panels at the top, but if your panel is on the bottom then line 71 & 81 need to be changed to accommodate the size of your tray

Code: Select all

# Margin of the tiling area ([top, right, bottom, left]).
edge_margin = [30, 0, 0, 0]

# Margin of the tiling area on primary screen ([top, right, bottom, left]).
edge_margin_primary = [30, 0, 0, 0]

here's the key-binding section

Code: Select all

# Enable tiling on the current screen (Home = Fn_Left).
enable = "Control-Shift-comma"

# Disable tiling on the current screen (End = Fn_Right).
disable = "Control-Shift-period"

# Disable tiling and restore windows on the current screen.
restore = "Control-Shift-R"

# Toggle between enable and disable on the current screen.
toggle = "Control-Shift-T"

# Cycles through next layouts (Next = Page_Down).
cycle_next = "Control-Shift-N"

# Cycles through previous layouts (Prior = Page_Up).
cycle_previous = "Control-Shift-P"

# Activates the fullscreen layout (Space = Blank).
layout_fullscreen = "Control-Shift-Space"

# Activates the vertical-left layout (Left = Arrow_Left).
layout_vertical_left = "Control-Shift-Left"

# Activates the vertical-right layout (Right = Arrow_Right).
layout_vertical_right = "Control-Shift-Right"

# Activates the horizontal-top layout (Up = Arrow_Up).
layout_horizontal_top = "Control-Shift-Up"

# Activates the horizontal-bottom layout (Down = Arrow_Down).
layout_horizontal_bottom = "Control-Shift-Down"

# Make the active window a master (KP_5 = Num_5).
master_make = "Control-Shift-KP_5"

# Make the next window a master (KP_6 = Num_6).
master_make_next = "Control-Shift-KP_6"

# Make the previous window a master (KP_4 = Num_4).
master_make_previous = "Control-Shift-KP_4"

# Increase the number of masters (KP_Add = Num_+).
master_increase = "Control-Shift-KP_Add"

# Decrease the number of masters (KP_Subtract = Num_-).
master_decrease = "Control-Shift-KP_Subtract"

# Increase the number of slaves (Plus = +).
slave_increase = "Control-Shift-Plus"

# Decrease the number of slaves (Minus = -).
slave_decrease = "Control-Shift-Minus"

# Increase the proportion of master-slave area (KP_3 = Num_3).
proportion_increase = "Control-Shift-KP_3"

# Decrease the proportion of master-slave area (KP_1 = Num_1).
proportion_decrease = "Control-Shift-KP_1"

# Moves focus to the next window (KP_2 = Num_2).
window_next = "Control-Shift-KP_2"

# Moves focus to the previous window (KP_8 = Num_8).
window_previous = "Control-Shift-KP_8"

# Exit cortile
exit = "Control-Shift-x"

Another nice feature is increasing/decreasing the master using the mouse bottom corners, and moving previous windows to/from the master with the mouse top corners

[geo_c]

Another nice feature is increasing/decreasing the master using the mouse bottom corners, and moving previous windows to/from the master with the mouse top corners

Now I understand what I was doing that caused me to say Cortile is a little goofy in F96, NOT AT ALL in fact, what was happening is I was drifting my mouse in to the upper right corner which automatically switches the active stack window to the master, as designed.

A nice feature, but if not preferred it can be changed in the config.

[geo_c]

Well a tiling window manager makes tasks like using terminal based lilypond to score sheet music WAY easier. The three necessary windows are opened, and resizing one in the stack automaticall resizes the other, and the stack/master works the same. So I open the applications, set and forget and minor adjustments to one window keep all the others 100% visible.

So coretile is even better because it turns a cascading window manager into a hybrid, like this example in XFCE. No Xfce functionality is lost, but the tiling functions are all available just like using a dedicated tiling window manager. I'm pretty spoiled with that setup already. And cortile makes it much easier to resize windows in the stack, and pop them out and shade them, and all the benefits of Xfce available. There's only one resaon I might use a tiling manager like Spectrwm now, that being that it occupies a very small chunk of RAM, and is super fast.

[Keef]

If you move the mouse pointer to the bottom left or right corners, you can make the master window bigger or smaller, which can be handy. The increment can be altered in the config.

[Keef]

The gap around the windows can be altered here:

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# How much space should be left between windows (0 - 100).
window_gap_size = 0

Set to 0, there is no space, default is 10.
Maximise windows should work as normal when set to 0. Tested on Openbox.

[geo_c]

I ran Airedale with cortile on my dual monitor setup and it's fantastic in that regard. Open one application on each monitor, drag one to the other montior and they switch. I wasn't sure it would be a good fit for multiple monitors, but it well exceeds my expectations.

The fact Xfce is actually providing the desktop makes a big difference. Spectrwm could never quite get the dual monitor setup quite right, and I would have had to do some kind of manual config to get them both to fit properly.

[geo_c]

@rockedge

As I'm working with the keybindings and altering the cortile config, I've been running into problems in Airedale with the process not restarting properly and hanging with the process having to be killed.

Simply reverting to the stock config and logging out and back in doesn't seem to fix it. I have to reboot.

I moved the executable to /usr/local/bin, as the documentation suggests that location, and I went back to the stock config and started over.

But I'm wondering when considering the tray icon not showing up in F96 if these socket scripts are helpful in some way, though I don't understand them:

https://github.com/leukipp/cortile/tree ... ts/scripts

[rockedge]

@geo_c I have not seen the processes hang yet, but I do have the cortile binary in /usr/local/bin in Airedale. Sometimes I do see some odd stopping of cortile or somethings going on. But not sure if that's operator error or configuration issues.

I also am looking at the scripts to possibly solve the missing tray icon in F96-CE_4. I am breaking things wildly but have instance1 - instance10 of F96's to jump around. (jump jump, jump around........)

I tried cortile in F96 in /usr/local/bin for minute then moved it, but will also move it there now from /root/my-applications/bin, where it does work but doesn't seem like a good default location for it.

[geo_c]

Although, I'm just noticing this in regards to F96
https://github.com/leukipp/cortile/tree ... velopment-

Systray:

Code: Select all

Adjust the bindings in the [systray] section, as some pointer events may not fire across different desktop environments.
Window managers not supporting StatusNotifierItem for displaying systray icons will need to install snixembed.

edit: NO actually this:

Window managers not supporting StatusNotifierItem for displaying systray icons will need to install snixembed.

[geo_c]

@geo_c I have not seen the processes hang yet, but I do have the cortile binary in /usr/local/bin in Airedale. Sometimes I do see some odd stopping of cortile or somethings going on. But not sure if that's operator error or configuration issues.

Yeah, I could be messing it up. At first I was trying to start it with Xfce keybinding Shift+Ctrl+S and stop with a cortile keybinding Ctrl+Shift+x. The latter works fine in F96 as does running the executable from /root/my-applications/bin or straight from /root/Startup.

But what I found in airedale was that stopping it with the cortile keybinding left me unable to restart it again. Though it could be something else going on in the config. I ran it from a terminal to see if I got any verbose error messages, but nothing showed up, it just didn't start and sat there running.

EDIT: Yeah, I think I'm just adding something to the config it doesn't like, because now when it doesn't start and I kill it with the task manager I can revert to the stock config and it starts again. So maybe changing executable location helped.