How can I sort windows inside a container automatically?

answered 2014-01-09 13:41:22 +0000

Adaephon
2299 ●3 ●16 ●42

updated 2014-01-10 14:06:02 +0000

Here is a solution I came up with using Python, ziberna's i3-library

#!/usr/bin/env python

parentContainer = i3.parent(currentWindow['id'])
if parentContainer['layout'] in ['splitv', 'stacked']:
    direction = 'up'
else:
    direction = 'left'

nodes = parentContainer['nodes']

for i in range(len(nodes)):
    for j in range(i):
        moves = 0
        if nodes[i]['name'] < nodes[j]['name']:
            moves += 1
        if moves:
            i3.focus(con_id=nodes[i]['id'])
            for m in range(moves):
                i3.move(direction)

i3.focus(con_id=currentWindow['id'])

Compared with Bubble-sort this cuts down on the refocusing needed, as each window is only focused once for sorting.

While it works, I'm still not really happy with it:

• Moving a lot of windows, each multiple times, takes seconds (depending on the initial order)
• Anything that changes focus during the sorting, will prevent proper sorting and could even lead to hang-ups (could be at least partially prevented if criteria could be used with move) non-adjecent windows.

This algorithm (like Bubble-sort) already does only the minimum number of move operations for in-place sorting (see here for some theory on that).

This means that for any real improvements, the windows would probably have to be moved elsewhere for sorting and than moved back.

I tried sorting by moving the windows temporarily to scratchpad or another workspace. While this needs on average far less move commands, it needs even more time. I guess the problem is, that the windows are resized on every move.

Anyway, here is the code for the scratchpad version for reference.

#!/usr/bin/env python

import i3

currentWindow = i3.filter(focused=True)[0]

parentContainer = i3.parent(currentWindow['id'])
if parentContainer['layout'] in ['splitv', 'stacked']:
    direction = 'down'
else:
    direction = 'right'

nodes = parentContainer['nodes']

snodes = sorted(nodes, key=lambda n:n['name'])

for node in snodes[1:]:
    i3.focus(con_id=node['id'])
    i3.move('scratchpad')

i3.focus(con_id=nodes[0]['id'])

for node in snodes[1:]:
    i3.focus(con_id=node['id'])
    i3.floating('disable')

i3.focus(con_id=currentWindow['id'])

The workspace version is similar, but slower and confuses with switches to another workspace during sorting.