i3ipc-dynamic-tiling

A i3ipc-python implementation of dynamic tiling for the i3 and sway window managers, trying to mimic the tiling behavior of the excellent dwm and xmonad, while utilizing the strengths of i3 and sway.

Status

If someone actually, against all odds, find this code, here is a gently warning: This code is to be considered alpha and have only been tested in Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 with i3 4.18.1 and sway v1.5.

Requirements

This software relies on the on the i3ipc python package which can be obtained via pip

pip3 install i3ipc

Features

The software creates a main and a secondary container dynamically similar to the tiling mode of dwm and xmonad. The containers have independent layouts and the secondary container can be toggled to be on the side of the main container of underneath it. There are also several alternatives to mimic the monocle mode of dwm and xmonad implemented.

For sway there is also the possibility to add opacity to the focused and inactive windows similar to sway/contrib. The difference here is that here one can also apply transparency to the focused window and also that the tabbed and stacked layouts all get the focused opacity which leads to less flickering when switching focus within the split container.

Focus

Beyond the normal i3 and sway focus commands, the following are implemented:

• i3ipc_focus next/prev: Focus the next window on the active workspace with wrapping at the boundaries. For example, if focus next on the last window of the workspace then the first window will be focused.

• i3ipc_focus other: If the focused window is in the main container then the last focused window in the secondary container will get focus and vice versa.

• i3ipc_focus toggle: Toggle the focus between the last two focused windows.

All focus commands in the list above respects the fullscreen state of the focused window, that is, if the focused window is in fullscreen then the focused window after the command will also be in fullscreen mode.

Move

Beyond the normal i3 move commands, the following are implemented:

• i3ipc_move next/prev: Move the window within the parent container, without leaving the parent container.

• i3ipc_move other: If the focused window is in the main container then move the window to the secondary container and vice versa. The focus is kept within the original container.

• i3ipc_move swap: Swap the focused window with the focused window in other container. The focus is moved to the main container.

Secondary container position

It is possible to change the position of the secondary container:

• i3ipc_reflect: This command toggles the position of the secondary container between the horizontal and vertical relative to the main container.

• i3ipc_mirror: This command toggles the position of the secondary container between the right and left hand side of the main container.

Monocle alternatives

There are several alternatives the monocle layout of dwm and xmonad:

• fullscreen: It is possible to use the i3 fullscreen mode to emulate the monocle mode if the focus commands described in Focus are used. This is probably the fastest alternative with the downside is that it is easy to get lost.

• tabbed: This package implements two different tabbed layouts:

  • i3ipc_tabbed_toggle: This version keeps the main and secondary containers but creates a global split container and applies the tabbed layout on all containers. This means that there will be two tab bars instead of one and therefore taking more screen real estate. I do not find this as intuitive as the version described below, but it is more in line with the i3 workflow and does not alter the focus history.

  • i3ipc_monocle_toggle: This version toggles the fullscreen mode on the focused split container (the main or the secondary) and then applies the tabbed layout. This might be, in my opinion, the most intuitive alternative to the monocle layout.

Configuration

The configuration is done in two ways:

Argument passing

When execution the python3 dynamic_tiling.py there are some options the can be set:

• --workspaces-ignore: Workspaces to ignore, that is, use i3 defaults and do not apply dynamic tiling for these workspaces. Example:

  python3 dynamic_tiling.py --workspace-ignore 1 2 3

• --workspaces-only: Only apply dynamic tiling to these workspaces and let i3 defaults rule the others. This takes precedence over --workspaces-ignore. Example:

  python3 dynamic_tiling.py --workspace-only 1 2 3

• --tabbed-hide-polybar: Hide the polybar when in global tabbed or monocle mode. This require enable-ipc = true in your polybar config.

  python3 dynamic_tiling.py --tabbed-hide-polybar true

• --opacity-focused: Apply opacity to the focused window. Defaults to 1, that is, no opacity.

  python3 dynamic_tiling.py --opacity-focused 0.8

• --opacity-inactive: Apply opacity to the inactive windows. Defaults to 1, that is, no opacity.

  python3 dynamic_tiling.py --opacity-inactive 0.8

For debugging purposes, one can also change the level of logging with

• --log-level: The level of logging.

  python3 dynamic_tiling.py --log-level debug

Configuration file

These are my special settings that I use for this framework. Notice the nop on i3ipc-dynamic-tiling special commands.

# Start the dynamic tiling.
exec_always $HOME/src/i3ipc-dynamic-tiling/i3ipc-dynamic-tiling --tabbed-hide-polybar true

# Disable the window title bar.
default_border pixel 2

hide_edge_borders smart
focus_follows_mouse no
workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
show_marks yes

# Focus next cycle.
bindsym $mod+j nop i3ipc_focus next

# Move next.
bindsym $mod+shift+j nop i3ipc_move next

# Focus previous cycle.
bindsym $mod+k nop i3ipc_focus prev

# Move previous.
bindsym $mod+shift+k nop i3ipc_move prev

# Focus previous window toggle.
bindsym $mod+i nop i3ipc_focus toggle

# Focus the other container.
bindsym $mod+o nop i3ipc_focus other

# Move to the other container.
bindsym $mod+shift+o nop i3ipc_move other

# Swap window with the other container.
bindsym $mod+Return nop i3ipc_move swap

# Toggle tabbed mode.
bindsym $mod+space nop i3ipc_tabbed_toggle

# Toggle fullscreen mode.
bindsym $mod+Control+space fullscreen toggle

# Toggle monocle mode.
bindsym $mod+Shift+space nop i3ipc_monocle_toggle

# Toggle secondary to the side of or below of main.
bindsym $mod+backslash nop i3ipc_reflect

# Toggle secondary to the right or left hand side of main.
bindsym $mod+shift+backslash nop i3ipc_mirror

# Toggle workspace.
bindsym $mod+Tab workspace back_and_forth

# Toggle layout current container.
bindsym $mod+semicolon layout toggle tabbed split

Inspiration

I am/was a heavy user of dwm and xmonad and I absolutely love these window managers, but the user base is quite small compared to i3 and sway. This implies a lot of manual patch management or scripting in a not so simple language. Also, there are some programs that I require in my work that does not behave well with these window managers, like Matlab in xmonad.

On the other hand, i3 and sway has a relatively big user base and is under active development, which implies that most programs will either behave well or otherwise will get fixed. Furthermore, "wayland is coming" and there is no, at least to my knowledge, dwm or xmonad implementations on the way.

Unfortunately, the positioning of the spawned windows in i3 and sway needs to be done manually. This can be tedious and I rather like the dynamic/automatic tiling in other window managers like dwm, xmonad, or qtile (there are many more). Fortunately, there is an excellent protocol to talk with i3 and sway that can be used to force the behavior of dynamic tiling.

This code is written in python using the i3ipc-python framework with inspiration from the ideas implemented in budlabs i3ass. I highly recommend the videos of budlabs on my favourite youtube channel.