In tiling mode, where should new windows appear?

[leviport]

When in tiling mode, new windows used to open on the display that the mouse cursor was on. This behavior was changed with 49aba22 so that new windows always branch from the currently active window, no matter which display the mouse cursor is on.

This can lead to some jarring behavior like windows appearing on a different display from the dock or launcher they were launched from, as shown in the recording below:

simplescreenrecorder-2021-10-25_15.15.45.mp4

I am having a hard time deciding whether the old way or the new way makes the most sense, so here's my idea: what if we made it a setting? I think the options could be something along the lines of, "New windows branch from active window" or "New windows follow mouse".

[mmstick]

Windows should open on the display where the mouse cursor is, as that is the active display. Then they should tile onto the active window on that display, if any.

[mmstick]

I think the current behavior is to choose the largest window on the display to attach to. We could of course automatically assign focus to the last-focused window on that particular display if the last-focused window is still around.

[leviport]

Phew, I thought current behavior was the intended behavior. I'll create an issue from this discussion then.

[jacobgkau]

Phew, I thought current behavior was the intended behavior. I'll create an issue from this discussion then.

The current behavior was called intended in #1171, but I think we're all okay with changing it back/defining it better.

[Hyperspeed1313]

Is this thread still in work? I've just moved to Nobara and am trying out the Pop Shell extension and it still behaves as described in #1171.

Seeing as there are multiple ways to launch a new window, I think the best solution to fit most people's need would be an adaptive solution based on the input device that spawned the window, if such a solution is possible: If the last input was via mouse or touchscreen, it opens on the monitor that was just interacted with. But if the last input was a keyboard then it follows the current behavior of tiling off the active window.

[mmstick]

There's no more feature development on pop-shell. I'm working on COSMIC now.