qtile MutableScratch

This package is a series of functions and a class to create a "scratch" space in qtile more similar to i3's. qtile has the ScratchPad group type, but the (documented) purpose is to only host Dropdown windows that must be specified ahead of time.

Instead, what MutableScratch does is piggybacks onto an "invisible" qtile Group (ie. a group named '') and provide functions to dynamically add and remove windows to this group. Viewing the "hidden" windows is done via a toggle function, which cycles through the windows in the Scratch group. All windows added to the MutableScratch group will be automatically converted to floating. This emulates the scratch functionality of i3 as closely as possible.

See repository README for most up-to-date documentation.

Installation

You can now install via pip:

pip install qtile_mutable_scratch

Setup

Put the following default configuration in your config.py:

import qtile_mutable_scratch
from libqtile.config import EzKey
from libqtile import hook
...

mutscr = qtile_mutable_scratch.MutableScratch()
groups.append(Group('')) # Must be after `groups` is created

keys.extend( [
    EzKey('M-S-<minus>', mutscr.add_current_window()),
    EzKey('M-C-<minus>', mutscr.remove_current_window()),
    EzKey('M-<minus>',   mutscr.toggle()),
] )

hook.subscribe.startup_complete(mutscr.qtile_startup)

Each MutableScratch instance has two parameters to chose from, scratch_group_name and win_attr. It's not necessary to set these, as the default configuration should work for every configuration. scratch_group_name (default '', or the empty name group) sets the name of the group that will old the scratch windows. win_attr (default mutscratch) sets the attribute that will be set on each window to tag it as being apart of the MutableScratch system.

Usage

1. Add the current window to the MutableScratch group via MutableScratch.add_current_window()
   • This will move the window to the invisible group
2. Rotate through windows in the MutableScratch group via MutableScratch.toggle()
   • If the current window is apart of the MutableScratch group, then it will be moved back to the invisible group
   • If the current window is not apart of the MutableScratch, then the next MutableScratch window in the stack will be moved to the current group
3. To remove a window from the MutableScratch group, use MutableScratch.remove()

Hastily thrown together demo video:

It's ugly, but it get's the point across...hopefully.

simplescreenrecorder_MutScratchDemo-2021-12-23_10.07.00.mp4

Implementation Details

Tracking members of the MutableScratch group

This is done by dynamically adding an attribute (by default mutscratch) to the window object that simply stores a boolean.

Cycling through windows in MutableScratch

MutableScratch has something similar to qtile's focus_history for groups. It's effectively just a stack of windows belonging to the MutableScratch group, where windows are pushed and popped from the stack. Doing this,MutableScratch controls the order in which the windows are stored in the stack. This ensures that the every window in the MutableScratch group can be accessed via toggle.

Initializing the MutableScratch on qtile start

When restarting qtile, the MutableScratch instance in config.py will be overwritten, losing the stack history and the floating window status of it's windows. To stop this, we add a hook function to startup_complete that will reinitialize a new MutableScratch instance with the windows that are located in the MutableScratch.scratch_group_name.