Re: Thoughts on window sizing

[Greg K Nicholson <greg gkn me uk>]

On the subject of resizing: what is the use-case for it?—why do we
need to be able to resize windows to arbitrary sizes?

Obviously, sometimes you want to see multiple windows side-by-side,
which is a good argument for tiling (instead of maximisation all the
time), but doesn't require arbitrary sizing.

Idea 1: As a compromise between free-resizing and enforced tiling, we
could allow windows sized (only) to twelfths of the screen width or
height. So when resizing (using the familiar UI), the window edges
always snap to the nearest twelfth. I propose twelfths in particular
because this allows having two, three or four equally-sized windows
side-by-side.

Idea 2: Imagine if window-list buttons had tick-boxes: all of the
ticked windows show tiled (in some sensible arrangement). Different
sets of windows can be ticked on different workspaces. Clicking the
main part of a button ticks that window and unticks all others,
leaving just that window occupying the whole screen—much like how a
tab bar works. (I'm not sure, however, how this would apply to
whatever gnome-shell replaces the window list with.)