Add an overview/zooming feature

[TheCodedProf]

I'm wondering if it's feasible to add a zooming feature into niri, I'd be happy to work on it if pointed in the correct direction.

I currently have the issue that windows and columns tend to get lost between workspaces and I think one the best ways to fix this is adding zoom functionality. Zooming out should show the workspace above and below, show additional columns left and right (if they exist), make the windows showing non-interactable, and you should be able to click on a column to focus it.

[YaLTeR]

I thought about this a bit, I do have some vague ideas but nothing concrete yet. I'd need to experiment myself to tell what design I like.

[TheCodedProf]

If you'd be up to it, I'd be happy to call or just chat about possible designs, and issues that may come up with them :)

[YaLTeR]

Something I thought about was zooming out "all the way" so that you see all your workspaces top to bottom, then however many windows fits left and right on each of them. Then you can click on the window that you need, or scroll the strip on every workspace left and right.

Which is basically what you're suggesting, but zooming out even more.

[TheCodedProf]

That would work well. Though I wonder if it's better to have zoom stages, like adding more workspaces above and below the more you zoom out. Though doing it this was may be more work, it may be easier to tell what's on a window/what a window is, unless the thought is just to show the app icon on the area the window takes up.

[tv42]

I would love this. I still lose windows with Niri, I simply lose track of where I put them. Not having a workspace indicator, and workspaces disappearing when they're empty so their numbering keeps shifting, is probably what's causing that for me -- with Sway, I'd always have notes on 1, web on 2, code on 3, mail on 8, music on 9, etc.

ChromeOS's overview mode has been nice to me. If you haven't used it, note how it has both zoomed-out windows to pick from, and shows miniature workspaces.

https://chromeunboxed.com/how-to-try-new-window-snapping-overview-feature-on-your-chromebook-beta-channel-120/

Of course, Niri's window layout would make that look quite different -- but it's definitely proving the concept animated zoom out.

[morenathan]

I have this same problem. Sometimes I'll end up with 5 or 6 terminals and not realize it.

As much as I hate alt-tab in this type of setup, something that would just bring-up a mini live view strip of windows at the bottom, top, etc for that screen, when used, would really push Niri forward in usability.

I'm thinking along the lines of the "large icons" switcher for KDE, but with live window preview.

EDIT: re-reading other's posts, maybe when such a hotkey is pressed, a strip is shown for each active screen.

[salman-farooq-sh]

Only ~3 strips when zoomed-out, vertically scrollable, is better with window mini-previews.

All workspaces visible zoomed-out, is better with icons.

Strips being individually scrollable horizontally is great in either case.

The problem with choosing between window previews and icons is neither one has solved the problem at least for me. Same icons can be present multiple times, e.g. in case of terminal windows but mini-previews can also make windows difficult to identify e.g. in case of terminal windows again. Assigning icons with window rules or something will be almost ideal. I know Brodie Robertson makes news videos on this wayland protocol.

Maybe choose between icons and mini-previews dynamically based on number of workspaces?

[YaLTeR]

GNOME Shell shows both previews and icons, seems to work well.

[salman-farooq-sh]

The position at which the gnome shows the icons on the previews by default looks better with a bit of empty space in-between the previews, at least at the bottom. I had in my mind even padding on each side of the previews for the overview in niri. Maybe have icons positioned in the center of the previews? Just throwing my personal preference vote into the discussion.

^Random image from google visualizing what I mean (replace the touch thing with mouse scrolling, though I think with properly thought out touch and touch gesture support niri will be an absolute futuristic looking beast!! I can totally see niri being full operable with only a touchscreen on tablets)

[artlessgarden]

Cool, it is minimap in game.

Hopefully, may add one-click to destination key bindings.

[boomskats]

My opinionated take on this, in case it helps. As a user who transitioned to niri after a decade+ with i3/sway, here's how I would intuitively expect this to work:

I wouldn't override any keybindings or mouse behaviour as users will have already configured and customised that to their liking. Instead, keep the same key bindings and use the same workspace navigation actions, just within a zoomed-out view.

In terms of additional actions to implement, I can see this working very well with just one: zoom-monitor-toggle. I can see myself using this very regularly to zoom out and either navigate or reorganise my workspaces using all of my other bindings for move-xxxxxx-xx-xxx while in that mode (which is the killer feature here imho). I don't think anything else would be required for a first release. I don't have an opinion on whether it should toggle the zoom mode on the active monitor or across all of them, although I expect it would be easier to implement across all monitors simultaneously with a single state.

Further down the line you might want commands for zoom-monitor-out, zoom-monitor-in and zoom-monitor-cancel, but the more I think about this the less I think they'd be needed. Just that toggle would be amazing.

[YaLTeR]

Indeed, this is pretty close to what I had in mind too. Thanks for the animation!

I don't have an opinion on whether it should toggle the zoom mode on the active monitor or across all of them, although I expect it would be easier to implement across all monitors simultaneously with a single state.

Across all of them makes the most sense.

Instead, keep the same key bindings and use the same workspace navigation actions, just within a zoomed-out view.

That is an interesting idea!

[tv42]

Ideally, the zoom in/out should track a touchpad pinch gesture or multi-finger drag from bottom or such.

[ThatOneCalculator]

Imo, this looks beautiful!

[elkowar]

For the keybind stuff: I'd think one cool approach could be allowing doing something like double pressing mod before holding it, which could then just let you stick to all the same keybinds as usual, but in the zoomed out view, until you let go of the mod-key

[mastoca]

I agree this is the right approach. I'd advocate to tackle it iteratively beginning with just having view - select/jump action, as that wouldn't change state of all the windows and likely has a lot less edge cases to contend with.

[vncnz]

The zoom-out idea is very good, I miss the KDE's "exposè" effect and this zoom-out idea in @boomskats animation is the best for a scrollable-tiling compositor.

Another way to resolve the lost-windows-problem is to have a sort of horizontal scrolling bar and below each window its appicon: center aligned for visible windows, piled up on the left/right for not visible windows. I was thinking about something like that done with EWW but I know that it's not possible for now to retrieve the list of open windows through niri msg.

[tv42]

Personally, icons are much less useful to me than thumbnail previews or titles. "A browser window", "a terminal window" or "an editor window" tells me practically nothing, but almost all of my windows are one of those.

[salman-farooq-sh]

I don't want a bar taking so much screen space when it's possible to do without. But it's a cool idea.

[ilyist]

I would like to have things modular since the point of WMs is to be extremely customizable, modular, and unbloated, so could this be a separate program or plugin?

[salman-farooq-sh]

I don't think there's any plan for plugins yet.

[boomskats]

How or why would this add bloat?

[ThatOneCalculator]

Plus an entire plugin system would be far more "bloated" than having an overview feature built in

[YaLTeR]

It's much, much harder to do a good plugin system that would allow you to make something like a good overview than to implement a good overview in the code.