Simple Tiling

A lightweight, opinionated, and automatic tiling window manager for GNOME Shell 3.38.

Introduction

Simple Tiling is a GNOME Shell extension created for users who want a clean, predictable, and automatic tiling layout without the complexity of larger, more feature-heavy tiling extensions. It is designed to be simple to configure and intuitive to use, focusing on a core set of essential tiling features.

This extension was built from the ground up to be stable and performant on GNOME Shell 3.38.

Features

Automatic Tiling: Windows are automatically arranged into a master and stack layout without any manual intervention.
Master & Fibonacci Stack Layout: The first window becomes the "master," occupying the left half of the screen. All subsequent windows form a "stack" on the right half, which is tiled using a space-efficient Fibonacci-style algorithm.
Tiling Lock: The layout is strict by default. If you manually move a window with the mouse and drop it in an empty space, it will automatically "snap back" to its designated tile position, preserving the integrity of the layout.
Interactive Window Swapping:
- Drag & Drop: Swap any two windows by simply dragging one and dropping it over the other.
- Keyboard Shortcuts: A full set of keyboard shortcuts allows you to swap the focused window with the master or with its nearest neighbor in any direction (left, right, up, down).
Configurable Gaps: Easily configure inner and outer gaps by editing variables directly in the extension.js code to achieve your desired aesthetic.
External Exception List: Use a simple exceptions.txt file to list applications (by their WM_CLASS) that should be ignored by the tiling manager.
Smart Pop-up Handling: Windows on the exception list, as well as dialogs and other pop-ups, are automatically centered and kept "always on top" for a smooth workflow.

Requirements

Please note that this extension has been developed for a very specific environment:

GNOME Shell Version: 3.38
Session Type: X11 (Wayland is not supported).
Monitor Setup: Single monitor only. Multi-monitor support is not yet implemented.

Installation

Manual Installation

Clone the repository into your local extensions directory:
```
git clone https://github.com/Domoel/Simple-Tiling.git
```

Compile the GSettings schema. This is a mandatory step for the keyboard shortcuts to work.

cd ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/simple-tiling@domoel/
glib-compile-schemas schemas/

Restart GNOME Shell. Press Alt + F2, type r, and press Enter.
Enable the extension using the GNOME Extensions app or GNOME Tweaks.

Configuration

Keyboard Shortcuts

All keyboard shortcuts can be configured through the standard GNOME Settings panel:

Open Settings.
Navigate to Keyboard -> View and Customize Shortcuts.
Scroll down to the Custom Shortcuts section at the bottom.
You will find all shortcuts for "Simple Tiling" listed there and can change them to your preference.

Ignoring Applications (`exceptions.txt`)

To prevent an application from being tiled, you can add its WM_CLASS to the exceptions.txt file in the extension's directory.

Each application's WM_CLASS should be on a new line.
Lines starting with # are treated as comments and are ignored.
The check is case-insensitive.

To find an application's WM_CLASS, open a terminal and run the command xprop WM_CLASS. Your cursor will turn into a crosshair. Click on the window of the application you want to exclude.

An Example of an exceptions.txt can be found in the repo.

Adjusting inner and/or outer window gaps and tiling delays

To adjust the inner and/or outer gaps of the windows you need to open the extensions.js (~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/simple-tiling@domoel/extension.js) and look at line 214. Here you can also adjust some timing delays if you have race condition issues.

Future Development

This extension was built to solve a specific need. However, future enhancements could include:

Multi-monitor support.
Additional layout algorithms.
A more detailed settings panel to configure gaps and other options via a GUI.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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