`spaces` QOL for scripting

[eghere]

Description:
I enjoy using spaces as a replacement for workspaces, as I generally use a few main containers with a few containers I want to load in preset layouts. It has been rather troublesome to script around spaces since there is currently no LUA API. In this enhancement I will propose some ideas which would improve the QOL of making scripts around spaces, ordered by importance.

Deleting spaces
scrollmsg space delete <name>: Right now, there's no way to delete spaces outside of restarting the compositor. This causes the list in scrollmsg -t get_spaces to quickly become cluttered.

LUA API integration for scroll.space()
Usage: scroll.space(mode, name, output)

mode: Represents space action. Can be save, load, restore, restore_hide, or delete
name: Represents the space name
output: An optional argument to specify which monitor should perform the space action. If none is specified, it will use the focused monitor. An example use case for the monitor parameter would be in making scripts to load spaces on multiple monitors; with this feature you would not have to focus each monitor before loading.

Richer get_spaces IPC response
Right now, only a flat array of space names is returned from scrollmsg -t get_spaces. This would be nice to query data about a space without having to load it. A proposed change could look something like:

// Instead of: json_object_new_string(space->name)
// Return an object per space:
json_object *entry = json_object_new_object();
json_object_object_add(entry, "name", json_object_new_string(space->name));
json_object_object_add(entry, "tiling_count",
    json_object_new_int(space->tiling->length));
json_object_object_add(entry, "floating_count",
    json_object_new_int(space->floating->length));

I think something that displays the container ID would suffice here, too. It doesn't need to be too fancy, but would be nice to have.

[dawsers]

Could you please explain things you cannot currently do so I understand better the scope of the problem?

I will try to describe the philosophy of how Lua and spaces work right now, and we can start a discussion about things that can be improved.

Currently, I try to "enforce" running commands using scroll.command(...), so there are no C data wandering around the Lua context that could be reused later in the wrong context. For this reason, the recommended way to run space commands would be for example:

local operation = "save"
local name = "myspace"
scroll.command(nil, "space " .. operation .. " "  .. name)

For reference, the master.lua script uses spaces to save and restore the layouts.

Currently, there is no delete command, because the idea was to reuse space names. Most people will use spaces through key bindings, like in the default config, so space save overwrites the previously stored space under that name,

The reason why a space is restored where focus is, is because load just adds the containers in the space to the current workspace. restore instead creates a "clean" workspace, but for consistency, the command affects the focused workspace.

Edit: The output argument you propose can be achieved simply by setting the workspace as first argument of scroll.command(), for example:

local output_name = "DP-2"
local space_name = "myspace"
local outputs = scroll.root_get_outputs()
for _, output in ipairs(outputs) do
  if scroll.output_get_name(output) == output_name then
    local workspace = scroll.output_get_active_workspace(output)
    scroll.command(workspace, "space restore " .. space_name);
  end
end

[eghere]

I found it rather difficult to remember which number represents a specific space. This is why I tried to avoid workspaces, because the mental overhead of mapping a number to what I was doing gets difficult with many workflows. So, when I save a workspace, I open a picker (I use fuzzel) to save and load spaces using a fuzzy find. An external lua script handles the storing of spaces for each monitor that's active. Since I can't delete spaces (say I mistype a space name or do not use one anymore) I have no means of deleting it without losing all other spaces by restarting the compositor.

[dawsers]

OK, I can add a delete argument.

You know you can name your workspaces with strings too, don't you? In fact, there are people who use workspaces in a very similar way to how you use spaces. See #306, specifically this.

Let me know more things that we can improve.

[eghere]

Thank you!

I'm aware of using strings in workspaces, but it doesn't solve the 1:1 mapping of workspace to container. In a sense, I'm using spaces like how riverwm uses tags, which allows a container to be on multiple workspaces. Since the 1:1 mapping is baked into how Sway functions as a window manager, I thought it'd be easier to implement spaces as this solution instead of trying to turn river into Scroll.

[dawsers]

Thank you!

I'm aware of using strings in workspaces, but it doesn't solve the 1:1 mapping of workspace to container. In a sense, I'm using spaces like how riverwm uses tags, which allows a container to be on multiple workspaces. Since the 1:1 mapping is baked into how Sway functions as a window manager, I thought it'd be easier to implement spaces as this solution instead of trying to turn river into Scroll.

Of course! I only mentioned it because of your comment about numbers vs a more descriptive name.

In 4f201db I added space delete <name>.

I will have a look at ways to improve spaces and IPC too.

Edit: at some point I looked at implementing tags, but it is not easy to do when the code is based on sway, and there are also problems with windows that can be seen in multiple monitors at the same time unless the tag applies to all monitors.