Multiheaded X.org with a single workspace-pool

Posted by blauwblaatje on Super User See other posts from Super User or by blauwblaatje
Published on 2009-09-22T13:01:51Z Indexed on 2010/03/27 18:33 UTC
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I've got an idea for x.org/$randomwindowmanager in combination with a multiheaded setup, but I haven't figured out how it should work. Also I don't really know where to place the feature request.

Now for the idea. I've been working with screen (wikipedia:GNU_Screen) for some years now. One thing I like about it, is the fact that I can get a multi-display mode (screen -x), so you can have multiple terminals all connected to the same screen. The fun thing about it, is that you can get 2 terminals with the same content and switch my onscreen layout, without moving the terminals. I admit, in screen it's not extremely useful, but I think for a wm it can be.

Imagine this. You've got two monitors and 4 workdesks. On one workdesk I've got my IDE with code, on the second one I've got the output, on the third one I've got the documentation and on the forth one I've got my e-mail and IM clients. At one moment, I want my IDE and output on my monitors, another moment my code and documentation and Yet another moment my IM to consult a colleague and documentation or code. Finally my colleague comes to help me at my desk. I'd like it if we could both watch the same workdesk without him sitting on my lap, so I turn one monitor so he can see it better. It would be great if we could see the same thing that's on my monitor (exclude mousepointer).

The thing with most WMs is that your workspaces on the two monitors are either separated or glued together. If they're separated, you can change workspaces on each monitor autonomous, but you can't exchange applications between monitors because they're different x-clients (iirc). If they're glued together (xinerama), you can exchange the applications, but when changing your workspace, the other monitors change too.

So, what I'd like to know is this. Is this already possible or should I submit a feature request somewhere (and if so, where?)

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