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• Notstumpwm
  • Window layout
  • run-or-raise
  • Quoting C-z

Notstumpwm   notion wm lua config

I have just returned from an excursion into the land of exherbo, which is an awesome source-based distro, and I found that while I was gone, something changed that made stumpwm cause a segmentation fault in X11 a few seconds after starting up.

I have tried everything I can think of to get it running again, but alas, to no avail. So I started looking at alternatives again. Feeling a little crazy I decided to give notion another try. And it fits strangely well.

It's configured/extended in lua, which I'm not particularly fond of, and it has a (in my opinion) crazy default configuration. But it also allows Emacs-like key combinations out-of-the-box, which is a very big plus in my book. So the quest to bring it closer to my stumpwm setup has begun.

Window layout

One of the nicest additions to my stumpwm configuration I made in the last few weeks was a loaded window configuration which put my Emacs frames in a big chunk of my left monitor, my terminals on my left monitor with just enough space for 80 columns and my web browser filling my right screen. I had also set-up some rules to always place them in the correct spots.

I have not yet tried to automatically place the windows in the right spots, but I do have the proportions right. I just had to delete the right frames and resize the one for terminals and, by default, notion remembers this set-up and automatically restores it when I log in.

I will look at creating a special layout for this so I don't have to worry about (accidentally) changing things.

run-or-raise

I found this interesting page about run-or-raise-like functionality for Ion3, which notion is a fork of. This is a little outdated, though, since notion has changed (apparently) the workings of some functions and lua 5.2 introduced the goto keyword, so I had to change it to this:

  function oni_match_class(class)
     local result = {}
     ioncore.clientwin_i(
        function (win)
           if class == win:get_ident().class then
              table.insert(result, win)
              return false
           end
           return true
        end
     )
     return result
  end

  function xsteve_run_byclass(prog, class)
     local win = oni_match_class(class)[1]
     if win then
        win:goto_()
     else
        ioncore.exec(prog)
     end
  end

There is no function to get a list of all the client windows, only a function to iterate over them. For the moment I am only interested in finding the first window with class CLASS, so I return false when a match is found, this stops the iteration process. I also had to use the WRegion.goto_ function, instead of WRegion.goto because of the mentioned change in lua 5.2, but they are the same.

I then only have to bind it:

  defbindings("WScreen", {
      -- ...
      submap("Control+Z", {
          -- ...
          kpress("E", "xsteve_run_byclass('emacsclient -ca emacs', 'Emacs')"),
          kpress("W", "xsteve_run_byclass('conkeror', 'Conkeror')"),
          kpress("C", "xsteve_run_byclass('urxvt', 'URxvt')"),
      }),
  })

Quoting C-z

One of the coolest things about using a prefix in stumpwm that I have been able to find in precious few other solutions is the ability to send the prefix key to the applications you use, so you don't entirely miss its functionality. In stumpwm this is easy, but in notion its a little more work:

  defbindings("WClientWin", {
      -- ...
      submap("Control+Z", {
          -- ...
          kpress("Q", "WClientWin.quote_next(_)"),
      }),
  })

This means that I have to type C-z q C-z to send the C-z key to, for instance, Emacs. That a few more keys than I was used to in stumpwm, but at least it's possible.