Skip to content

grid-scroll.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
95 lines (72 loc) · 3.33 KB

grid-scroll.md

File metadata and controls

95 lines (72 loc) · 3.33 KB
Raw

Grid-scroll development

nbshell keeps Niri's scrolling layout and adds an optional workspace policy: one or two windows remain normal columns, while three or more windows are paired into two-tile columns. Mod+Backspace enables or disables the policy for the focused workspace.

Backends

The stable backend works with stock Niri and remains the default:

nbshell grid backend stable
nbshell grid status

It sends one public Niri IPC action at a time and waits for every confirmed layout transition. This is reliable, but an uncommon full regroup can expose an intermediate frame because Niri returns to its event loop between actions.

The experimental backend sends the same operations as one raw IPC Actions request:

nbshell grid backend status
nbshell grid backend atomic

It requires the nbshell/atomic-actions branch of the nbshell Niri prototype. nbshell checks support before enabling it, so the command cannot silently turn on against stock Niri. Return to the supported path at any time with:

nbshell grid backend stable

When the separate prototype binary is installed, the compositor used for the next login can also be selected without replacing /usr/bin/niri:

nbshell grid compositor status
nbshell grid compositor atomic

Log out and back in, confirm atomic available, then enable the backend:

nbshell grid backend status
nbshell grid backend atomic

The recovery path only changes the next login and leaves the current session running:

nbshell grid backend stable
nbshell grid compositor stable

Prototype design

The compositor patch is intentionally small and generic. It adds an Actions(Vec<Action>) IPC request, validates the complete list before making changes, advances animations once, and executes the list in one event-loop turn. It does not add a Hyprland layout tree or change Niri's normal behavior.

The prototype also accepts a workspace-local SetColumnPairing request. When grid mode is active, the third normal tiled window starts the first pair and each following even window completes the next pair before Niri starts the opening animation. Windows 5, 7, and so on remain the first tile of a new column. This removes the brief 50% column that an external event watcher cannot avoid. Dialogs, floating, maximized, and full-width windows remain on Niri's normal mapping path.

This separation keeps three useful layers:

  1. Niri owns window layout, rendering, focus, and animation.
  2. The generic batch request provides an atomic compositor primitive.
  3. nbshell owns the optional grid policy and can evolve it independently.

The first evaluation should cover three to eight windows, closing a window in every position, opening a replacement, moving a window manually, toggling floating/fullscreen, switching workspaces, and switching grid mode off again. The stable backend is the recovery path if any sequence is incorrect.

Upstream direction

Niri issue #914 already tracks batched actions. The prototype should therefore be treated as a proving ground for a generic upstream contribution, not as the beginning of a permanently divergent compositor. A full dwindle implementation would be considered only if batch actions cannot provide the intended result.