Switch to Urgent Workspace
Is it possible that whenever an urgent flag appears from an application, meaning the workspace where the application is from becomes red or flagged, i3 will automatically switch to that workspace/application?
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3 answers
This is actually a horrible idea as getting an email or message on irc will for example take you out of your game. Instead you can set up a key binding to take you to the urgent workspace.
Yes, it is (somewhat) possible, but as Michael Rose wrote probably not a good idea.
If you add
for_window [urgent="latest"] focus
to your ~/.i3/config, then i3 will automatically focus a window once it becomes urgent.
You could also combine criteria if you only want to focus certain applications:
for_window [urgent="latest" class="XTerm"] focus
Note: There seem to be some cases where these - both single and multiple criteria - do not work reliably, but I am unsure what may be the cause. It may be a problem specific to my setup as for me [urgent="latest"] focus sometimes focuses windows, that are not even urgent anymore (although they once were).
Bouncing around work-spaces, etc. in an unmanaged fashion is certainly not the way to go, but the idea does have its merits. If user defined precedence levels were an option then, like interrupts there would be a manageable environment. In addition to the precedence management, also user configurable, application processes could be paused until focus is returned.
Case: Jim wants to play some Doom, but is waiting on a critical eMail notification about a friend's health. Jim sets the game's process management to pause when it loses focus and assigns a process priority of 1 above the general default of 0. Jim intuitively sets his eMail manager at a process priority of 2 so that it takes focus from any system below it. Now, when Jim gets an eMail the mail manager takes focus due to its priority the game process(es) pause as it loses focus; Jim reads his eMail then closes the eMail manager and returns to the game. Because the game now has focus again it resumes normally.
One consideration when returning to a paused process(es) is delay the execution of the thread a bit in order to let the user get settled in. The delay could use a user defined counter set to their tastes and enjoy a win win scenario.
The aforementioned services are quality, professional grade considerations and would serve well to round off i3 nicely.
Thanks for the inspiration and hope my suggestions inspire you all here at the i3 group & user group as much.
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Asked: 2014-12-12 06:18:14 +0000
Seen: 520 times
Last updated: Jan 22
