wmii
wmii is the greatest tiling window manager invented.
Screenshot
Overview
When you start an application, you don't have to worry about moving the new program to somewhere on your screen. wmii puts the new window in a predictable place, and you can easily move it around and resize it using the keyboard.
Columns
wmii has a concept of columns. At first, each app that you open goes into the same column. If you open three applications, they'll be stacked like this:
1
2
3
If you want, you can press Alt + Shift + h. The application that you're in will be moved to a different colum on your screen, divided into about 60/40 sections.
After pressing Alt + Shift + h in window 3:
1 | 3 | 2 |
Keyboard
Speaking of keyboard, here we go!
wmii uses Vi movement keys, so learn Vi first.
| Key | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Alt + Enter | Open a terminal. Cool! |
| Alt + Shift + K | Move the current window upward. In the example above, switch 2 with 1 |
| Alt + M | Put current view in maximized mode. |
| Alt + D | Put current view in default mode. |
| Alt + S | Put current view in stacked mode. |
| Alt + Shift + T | Tag the current window with what you type in next. You can type in foo + bar to tag the window with both foo and bar |
| Alt + 1 | Go to tab #1 |
| Alt + 2 | Go to tab #2 |
| Key | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Alt + P | Wmii shows you a list of programs that it found. The list is on the bottom of the screen by default. You can quick-type program's name you're trying to run. |
| Alt + A | Show a list of actions. I don't know where these come from, but, this is a good way to quit wmii. Choose quit from the menu |
| Alt + Shift + C | This will close the window. Kinda like pressing the X button in a GUI windows thingy |
Typical Setup
Wmii has a great default setup. You can start working with only about 5-10 minutes of playing around with it. Compare that to learning Windows or OSX.
Anyway, I usually have 3 tabs:
- Tab 1 has my browser, and 2 terminals open
- Tab 2 has a code editor, and 2 terminals open
- Tab 3 has a full screen
