linuxmemes

and the whole scrolling window manager thing...tmux wasn't that far behnd

I remember one time reflecting on how many layers I have at which one can expand workspace.

1. Linux virtual terminals. By default, Debian runs 7 login sessions on seven virtual terminals and sticks the GUI (Wayland/Xorg) on the eighth. So Control-Alt-F1 through Control-Alt-F7 will get me a Linux terminal. I can stick more programs on more virtual terminals with openvt. That's the first layer.

2. Okay, so on virtual terminal 8, I've got Wayland running. On that, I'm running Sway. That has an infinite number of workspaces that can be created. Currently, I only have bindings set up for 10 (and I use nonstandard bindings for them, Super-q N to switch to the Nth workspace) because I didn't find myself actually using named workspaces. This is the second layer.

3. Within a workspace, I can have Wayland windows. Say I can have two or three windows reasonably visible. This can be expanded whenever opening a window; for example, Super-t to open a new virtual terminal emulator window. This is the third layer.

4. One of the most common windows I use is a virtual terminal emulator, foot. That can run a program. I typically have it running tmux, which can have its own list of concurrently-running terminal programs (I use Control-O as the tmux meta key). This is the fourth layer.

5. I often use emacs. Emacs has multiple "frames"; one can "clone" the current frame with C-x 5 c. When run in a terminal, this basically acts like another tmux-like layer where one shows one frame at a time. This is the fifth layer.

6. Inside an emacs frame, one can have multiple emacs windows (analogous to what is typically called "panes" in other software) showing various things at the same time. One can open a new window with C-x 2 or C-x 3, cycle with C-x o. This is the sixth layer.

7. Emacs has a list of buffers, any one of which can be shown in a given emacs window. A "buffer" is vaguely analogous to "an open file" in some other programs, but could also be showing a terminal emulator or similar. One can switch with C-x b. This is the seventh layer.

8. Say I'm running a terminal emulator in one running bash (M-x term RET RET). bash has its own job control; one can suspend a running program and bring bash to the fore with Control-Z, list running jobs with jobs, then resume a suspended job in the background with $bg %1 to background the first or bring a job to the foreground with $ fg %1. This isn't quite the same thing as the other layers, since the screen state isn't maintained for separate programs and restored, but it can reasonably allow one to run simultaneous things and follow each. This is the eighth layer.