[kde-linux] Multiple konsoles side-by-side please?

[Duncan]

Mark Knecht posted on Fri, 24 Jan 2014 16:04:55 -0800 as excerpted:

> In a recent update to KDE on my Gentoo machine it seems that a
> second copy of konsole no longer comes up to the side of the existing
> konsole but rather is directly on top. What "More Actions->Special
> Windows Setting" feature might I set so that they come up side-by-side?
> 
> Currently nothing seems to be set but that's also true for all
> other apps I've looked at and I do get side-by-side or at least spread
> out for all other apps. (Chrome, Dolphin, etc.)
> 
> This is stable KDE on Gentoo - kde-meta-4.11.2-r1

(As you probably remember) Gentooer here too, but ~arch by default, and 
for kde I run the latest live-branch ebuilds from the gentoo/kde overlay, 
so currently (gentoo version) 4.12.49.9999 or (kde) 4.12-live-branch.

I regularly use side-by-side konsole windows and would find it hugely 
disruptive if that failed to work correctly, so I can definitely identify 
with your problem!

Here's my general purpose konsole window rules settings.  You won't need 
all of these to get side-by-side, but what ones apply to your case should 
be reasonably apparent (obviously my active opacity setting doesn't apply 
to your case, for instance, but I'm including it in case someone might be 
interested).


Window matching tab:

Window class: Exact Match: konsole
Match whole window class *NOT* checked.

Window role: Substring Match: mainwindow#

Window types: Normal

Window title and machine hostname: Unimportant

That should match konsole main-windows, without matching for example 
settings dialogs, etc.


Size & Position tab (only listing checked/active):

Size: Apply Initially: 956,1080

Maximized vertically: Force: Yes

Initial placement: Force: Default

Minimum size: Force: 956,530

Obey geometry restrictions: Force: No

The one of interest to you here (and probably the only one other than the 
window matching tab settings) is initial placement, force, default.  I 
believe konsole remembers its size and placement and requests the same 
thing each time, which obviously isn't what you want since that will put 
multiple konsole windows on top of each other.  This forces standard 
placement, which is normally "Smart", unless you've set kwin to use a 
different policy by default.  "Smart" attempts to maximize the viewable 
area of each window, which is what a lot of people (including me and it 
appears you) prefer by default.  Of course that means if your default 
window placement is NOT "smart", you can specifically select "smart" 
instead of "default" to get the desired behavior.

I set the size options here for one reason:  That's what I prefer for a 
standard konsole window, but I have a special case (a bash-scripted menu 
system implemented in konsole popup windows, which I want smaller, always 
centered and always on top... with a special-case window-rules set that 
matches JUST those konsole windows, not my general purpose konsole 
windows) konsole setting that applies to SOME windows, and because konsole 
remembers its last size and position, without the general purpose size 
settings here, it would remember the special-case windows and try to use 
that size instead. =:^(  So I have the size settings here to prevent the 
special-case size memory from applying to this general case. =:^)

And FWIW, I'm running full-HD monitors so 1920x1080, which makes the 
initial 956x1080 about half-size horizontal, maximized vertical.  Given a 
2 px window frame and two sides thus 4 px of frame horizontally, that's 
960 width, half of 1920, thus fitting two side-by-side windows per 
monitor screen.  Likewise, the 956x530 minimum size allows for 2x2 
quarter-size placement, with just a bit of vertical titlebar overlap.

Forcing no-obey geometry restrictions likewise works around the problems 
konsole's placement memory triggers due to the special-case konsole 
session window size ratio memory interfering with this general case.


Arrangement & Access tab:

(I have no activated settings on this tab.)


Appearance and Fixes tab (checked/active only, just one setting):

Active Opacity: Force: 85%

My default active window opacity is 99%, but I like just a bit more 
transparency for the konsole window.  85% opacity is the best compromise 
I've found so far, between the beauty of transparency and the 
practicality of actually needing to read the text.  (FWIW, my default 
inactive opacity is 80%, which works well for my konsole windows too.)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman