Maximize scratchpad on current monitor without fullscreen?

[Oisov]

I tried at reddit, but it seems this is the correct place =)

So I teach at a university, and the teaching is done online from my office. Here I often like to maximize a calculator to quickly show my students how to compute something.

It is there extremely important that the calculator is transparent so the maths behind it is visible, fullscreen fails to do so, In my config I have this

exec --no-startup-id alacritty --class "qalc" --config-file /home/oisov/.config/alacritty/alacritty_xxl.yml -e qalc
for_window [instance="qalc"] floating enable
for_window [instance="qalc"] move to scratchpad
for_window [instance="qalc"] resize set 100 ppt 100ppt
bindsym $mod+u exec ~/.config/i3/scratchpad_qalc.sh

The bash script is implemented as

#!/bin/bash
if  [ -z "$(xdotool search --classname 'qalc')" ]; then
    alacritty --class "qalc" --config-file /home/oisov/.config/alacritty/alacritty_xxl.yml -e qalc & sleep 0.5
fi

i3-msg "[instance=\"qalc\"] scratchpad show, resize set 100 ppt 100 ppt, move position 0 0"

Where the alacritty config file is nothing more than a much bigger fontsize. How it looks maximized is something like this

My issue is that move position 0 0 maximizes the calculator always on monitor 1 (of 3) instead of on 2. Is there a way to make the calculator appear on my current monitor, not on a specific one while still being maximized?

Any ideas how to fix this? I use a laptop with 3 monitors docked with different screen sizes, so forcing the calculator to open on one specific monitor is not a viable solution.

[Airblader]

fullscreen fails to do so

Why? If you're using compton/picom, you might try setting unredir-if-possible to false, perhaps that interferes.

My issue is that move position 0 0 maximizes the calculator always on monitor 1 (of 3) instead of on 2. Is there a way to make the calculator appear on my current monitor, not on a specific one while still being maximized?

From quickly scanning the code, this may be a bug (but one that is hard to fix in a non-breaking way now); move position seems to always be treated as "absolute", meaning across all outputs.

That means the only way for you right now would probably be to use the IPC to figure out the position of the output and plug in those numbers into move position.

[Oisov]

So here it how it looks with a floating window right?

If I maximize the terminal here it how it looks

This is why fullscreen does not work. I am unsure about setting unredir-if-possible to false, but it seems the "issue" is that fullscreen hides everything except the maximized window. Which is a good thing normally just not in this case. I am not familiar with how the fullscreen is implemented in i3 nor how to change it for a single application.

[Oisov]

I was able to solve my issue using the following Python code

for_window [instance="qalc"] floating enable
for_window [instance="qalc"] move to scratchpad
for_window [instance="qalc"] resize set 100 ppt 100ppt
exec --no-startup-id alacritty --class "qalc" --config-file /home/oisov/.config/alacritty/alacritty_xxl.yml -e qalc
bindsym $mod+u exec python ~/.config/i3/qalc.py

Where calc.py is implemented as follows

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import i3ipc
import subprocess
from collections import namedtuple

Pos = namedtuple("Pos", "x y")

i3 = i3ipc.Connection()


def current_output():
    workspaces = i3.get_workspaces()
    focused_workspace = [w for w in workspaces if w.focused][0]

    focused_output = i3.get_outputs()[0]
    for output in i3.get_outputs():
        if output.name == focused_workspace.output:
            return output


def get_output_pos(output):
    return Pos(output.rect.x, output.rect.y)


def calculator_running():
    return (
        subprocess.run(
            "xdotool search --classname 'qalc'",
            shell=True,
            universal_newlines=True,
        ).returncode
        == 0
    )


def run_calculator():
    subprocess.Popen(
        [
            "alacritty",
            "--class",
            "qalc",
            "--config-file",
            ALACRITTY_CONFIG,
            "-e",
            "qalc",
        ]
    )
    subprocess.run(["sleep 0.5"], shell=True)


def open_calculator(monitor):
    pos_monitor = get_output_pos(monitor)
    i3_message = f'i3-msg "[instance="qalc"] scratchpad show, resize set 100 ppt 100 ppt, move position {pos_monitor.x} {pos_monitor.y}"'
    subprocess.run([i3_message], shell=True)


ALACRITTY_CONFIG = "/home/oisov/.config/alacritty/alacritty_xxl.yml"


if __name__ == "__main__":

    print("hello")
    monitor = current_output()

    print(calculator_running())

    if not calculator_running():
        run_calculator()

    open_calculator(monitor)

This issue can be closed, but I feel like there should be a cleaner way than using IPC to figure out the position of the output and plug in those numbers into move position.

[Airblader]

This issue can be closed

It's not an issue, it's a discussion – you can mark your reply as the answer, though. :-)

but I feel like there should be a cleaner way than using IPC to figure out the position of the output and plug in those numbers into move position.

As I said, I think this is actually a bug, because we have move position [absolute] center where absolute distinguishes current output from the screen, but move position [absolute] x y doesn't seem to do that if absolute is not given.

[Oisov]

I forgot to mention I tried using absolute but that gave really really strange results so I did not include it. Thanks for looking into this btw =)