Re: emacs for everything?

[Floyd L. Davidson]

Micha Feigin <michf@post.tau.ac.il> wrote:
>Kai Grossjohann wrote:
>> floyd@barrow.com (Floyd L. Davidson) writes:
>> > Kai Grossjohann <kai@emptydomain.de> wrote:
>>
>> >>There is a feature sometimes called "window tabs", or "piles".[...]
>> >
>> > Wow, that looks very useful.
>>
>> Perhaps fvwm has a module for this?
>>
>> ... surfs fvwm.org ...
>>
>> No, I couldn't find anything.  Hm.  But I think I heard something
>> about it.  Hm.
>>
>
>You are probably talking about fvwmtabs
>http://users.tpg.com.au/users/scottie7/fvwmtabs.html

After looking at that web page, I'll admit that I just don't see
much value in what it does compared to using the FvwmPager module
with simply a large number of virtual desktops.

For one, the pager window is not tied to any other window, but
is placed where ever you like it on the screen (and in theory
can be move whenever you wish, though I don't use it that way).

The pager window of course has an entirely different type of
system to cue the user about what is available.  The two systems
perhaps use different means to access tabs or desktops, but I
don't see that as significant.  What they index, however, is
very different and I find that very significant.

I didn't look into exactly how the tab system decides what label
to apply in each tab.  Hopefully it is something useful, though
in fact I have yet to see one that is for me.  I don't relate
short names (or icons) to what a program is being used for.  In
particular I may have several similar projects going, all of
which use some of the same programs.  Hence just a program name
is no clue at all to which tab I might be interested in.

The pager doesn't have labels at all though!  It does provide
some slight clue with a graphic representation of the physical
size of the windows open on each desktop.  But essentially it
requires that the user remember the physical position of a
virtual desktop in relation to the project on that desktop.

I can see where either of those two systems might be of more or
less use to different people with different styles.  For me the
window tabs are not useful, and the pager is very useful.

But aside from that aspect, the tab system is just too
restricted.  I don't want to switch between projects on the same
screen or worse yet the same window.

I very much like having a desktop with multiple programs running
in multiple windows, each positioned in on the screen in
whatever way works best for the immediate task at hand (which
might be very different, even for the same project, from day to
day or even for a few minutes for one particular task).

When I switch to some other project, I don't want to upset the
layout for the one I'm leaving.  And rarely ever does any
project take up a fullscreen window all by itself, as opposed to
having several windows (some of which might, such as emacs, have
the ability to multiplex various displays too).  Which is to say
that sometimes the tabbed window would be useful, but that would
not be often, and would never replace using virtual desktops and the
FvwmPager to manage them.

I suspect that the smaller the actual physical size of the screen
being used, the more useful window tabs would be.  If I used a
laptop a lot that might be *very* nice.

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson           <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)                         floyd@barrow.com