MochiMoppel wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 1:28 am
So your ROX-Filer windows are masquerading as ROX panels. Turning those fake panels into a "fanned out" window with more normal ROX-Filer display (visible title bar is essential, list view is preferable ) and then resizing it back to a window strip sounds like a lot of work.
Actually, I've found the title bar is not essential for me. If I need to reference my address quickly, I just press the '/' key and navigate with the 'enter path' bar. I also have used the speed-dials and bookmarks extensively, editing the ROX bookmark.xml manually, and creating all the locations I need. I use list view with bigger icons. I simply grab the side of the window and fan it out, use bookmarks or speed-dials to open my locations and right click for all other menu operations. So I have no menus or title bars and it doesn't slow me down a bit. In fact, I would say that because I put the work into the bookmarks and speed-dials, and utilize the 'enter path' dialogue, it's actually a lot zippier.
When opening an application, window size and placement allow switching between filer windows, browser, and apps by simply clicking on the top or bottom edges of the screen.
That's the part I don't understand. When you do your careful setup of windows, your screen is covered with application windows, leaving small strips at top and bottom to reach the underlying pinboard, right? When you now launch an application from your vertical ROX-Filer strips the application will be opened on top of your setup, making it partly inaccesible. How would clicking on the top or bottom edges of the screen prevent that? And one more question: Are your setup windows all sticky, i.e. shown on all virtual desktops? I just wonder how you make this carefully crafted setup accessible on more than 1 desktop.
Well it depends on the application. Some of the applications remember window postion and size, so I put them in the 'application space' between the rox strips and with top of the window below XFE and the librewolf browser/file-viewer. So I click on the top of the screen over the filers or browser to manage files and view docs, browse the web etc, and click on the bottom of the screen to see the application. I also am using dual monitors, so some of my applications, like email and notecase, grsync, etc open on the laptop monitor. That's why I call this secondary monitor the 'work monitor.' It's big, vibrant display with this window sizing/positioning allows me to switch between windows quickly.
A sample task for my daily work would be:
1) Edit a musical score in Musescore
2) Open up a scheduling website and upload it.
3) Email a notification to my bandmates.
4) Upload a zipfile of my music library on dropbox.
So with this setup, from the ROX launcher strip I open the Musescore window which is set to allow the XFE, ROX and LibreWolf menus to show on top (though ROX has no menus) while Musescore is very minutely exposed on the bottom. I can click on the top of the screen to see XFE, find the associated file and double click to open up in Musescore. Edit and save my document. Click on top to see LibreWolf and XFE again, drag the file from XFE to the upload field on the website. Launch my email from the ROX launcher (which opens on the laptop display, but sometimes I put in the same space as musescore, in that case I might use the JWM tray to switch between those two application windows, though everything else is still accessible with the edge clicking method, or there's always alt-tab.) I send my email. Then fan out the ROX window and speed-dial to my sheet music library to zip the file using a ROX right-click. Then upload with libre-wolf.
One of the reasons this works so well, is that I use XFE associations to open documents and files, while still keeping the 'system associations' available in ROX, all a click and a right-click away.
I use two desktops, and rarely need the second one with this setup. I have made the ROX strip sticky in the past. But I haven't felt the need to do it. I'll experiment with that a little.