Big bucks for big trucks?
Last 25 years I have been using a couple of different tiling window managers. My main workstations usually have four monitors, accessed by AltGr+number.
I heavily base my workflow on virtual desktops, accessed by Ctrl+number.
Each virtual desktop have a specific type of programs on it:
- Development
- Terminals
- Browsers
- Communication / documentation
- Multimedia
- Graphics
- SQL
- Debugging
- Virtual machines / monitoring
So with this I can access nearly every program with AltGr+number, Ctrl+number which is quite quick. As long as I remember the monitor I placed it on, I always know which virtual desktop.
I use chained keyboard shortcuts for window manager shortcuts, here: https://files.ahall.se/images/i3-keybindings.svg (old one, this has grown a bit...)
The chaining allows me to easier remember shortcuts with mnemonics, and they are fast enough, especially considering the amount of shortcuts I can scale it to.
- Alt+T to start the chain, L for Layout, R for Resize.
- Alt+T, R for Run, I for Inkscape.
- Alt+T, A for Audio, N for Next.
There are some exceptions for the most used focus- and window moving operations, as well as for managing a clipboard buffer system. There are too many times when one goes back and forth to copy something, paste it somewhere else and going back for the previous one. So I can copy something, press Ctrl+Shift+3 to put in buffer 3. After a few other copy/pastes, I bring it into clipboard again with Ctrl+Alt+3. This also allows me to for example reload a page I'm working on and login with user/pass easily accessible in buffer 1 and 2, or login to four different network devices again and again without going to a text file and copying one of four passwords each and every time.
I wrote a special session manager via socket for i3 to be able to press Ctrl+number and go to a certain predefined desktop on the current monitor I'm at.
I'm still using a Kinesis Contoured daily with PS/2 connection. Pretty impressed a new motherboard still came with a combo mouse/keyboard PS/2 port.
Oh god, I had a guy on work practise a couple of weeks. He was about 15, and pressed capslock, another key, and then capslock again for capital letters.
I suddenly stormed into the room screaming, with a knife. I plucked out the capslock key, and ran out of the room, still screaming. Then I popped my head back in through the door in a much calmer fashion and told him he would get the key back after his practise time at our company.
After 25 years of using vim I have replaced a lot of otherwise useful reflexes and brain capacity with vim keybindings (using a swedish variant of Dvorak none the less). I am way too old for needing a cheat sheet stuck on the keyboard, and it would even then be wrong not using QWERTY.
We also had fun playing through Leisure Suit Larry 1 a couple of weeks ago :)
I'm using ed for small edits when I know exactly that only a certain line needs to be deleted, or a word changed.
Only if it doesn't need to be run in electron and can be embedded in a webpage, running with a git repo local to the kraken installation.
I liked the look of Dashy, but it felt somewhat too heavy software for the simple dashboard I needed, and so I wrote the first version of Dashie.
It only uses Javascript and doesn't need any server components except a webserver. Configuration is done by editing YAML files.
Themes are implemented, and multiple pages which can be used to make more complex navigation of multiple dashboards.
Check it out :)
I have a 49" ultrawide, running a tiling window manager under Linux.
I heavily utilize virtual desktops in my workflow. Always 10 on each monitor, accessed by Ctrl-{0..9}. Switching between monitors by AltGr+{1..n}. Programs always stay on the same virtual desktop no, so terminals on 2, browsers on 3 and so on. This enables me to access more or less any window in under a second, never having to look for it visually.
I usually work with 4 or 5 24" monitors, as a single program seldom needs more space for me. What he ultrawide brings to the table is the capability under Linux to create arbitrary virtual monitors.
I can for example have two evenly created monitors (two 27"). My usual for development is three, split as 2:3:2.
Another possibility is using a small script that analyses movie resolution and creates two monitors, one with the exact aspect ratio of the movie, eliminating black borders, and another for using while watching said movie :)
As Linux sees them as separate monitors, I can also have easily managed screen sharing.
Having the flexibility of software defining my monitors has been great as a developer; separation of many, screenwise often small, applications is highly useful to me. A couple of quick scripts to switch between different setups has integrated it nicely into the workflow, and I usually changes monitor config at least a couple of times per day.
I just love when I get these ingrown things like 0.5mm thick in diameter (in my beard) :) They have a tendency to just slide right out, leaving a small hole in the skin.
First thing I do on a new laptop is remapping a key I won't be using much to Insert, which I use all the time :)