exwm-workspace vs tab-bar-mode

[progfolio]

Now that we require Emacs 27.1 it would be worth evaluating which features of exwm-workspace.el are not covered by tab-bar-mode and trying to get them upstreamed, or reimplement them ontop of tab-bar-mode. Personally I don't use the workspace feature, as tab-bar-mode covers my needs.

[progfolio]

Notes from a brief review:

Option/Command	Tab-bar-mode equivalent?	Comments
exwm-workspace-switch-hook	none	Request upstream; Advise tab-bar-select-tab in mean time?
exwm-workspace-warp-cursor	none	Implement in terms of above hook/advice
exwm-workspace-minibuffer-position	none	Implement in terms of above hook/advice; remove EXWM restart requirement?
exwm-workspace-show-all-buffers	none	Deprecate; suggest use of third party packages (bufferlo, bufler, tabspaces, etc)
exwm-workspace-switch/switch-create	tab-bar-switch-to-tab, tab-list, etc	Obsolete/alias to tab-bar equivalent
exwm-workspace-swap, exwm-workspace-move	none	Implement in terms of tab-bar-move-tab
exwm-workspace-add/delete	tab-bar-new-tab/-close-tab	Implement in terms of tab bar functions
exwm-workspace-move-window	tab-bar-move-window-to-tab	Not quite 1:1, but we could request a parameter upstream to allow picking the destination tab
exwm-workspace-switch-to-buffer	none	Deprecate in favor of existing buffer switching commands
exwm-workspace-switch-attach/detach/toggle-minibuffer	none	Implement in terms of tab-bar-mode?

[Stebalien]

exwm-workspace-switch-hook

This now exists as tab-bar-tab-post-select-functions.

exwm-workspace-warp-cursor

We probably need a new exwm-monitor (screens?) module to replace exwm-workspace, but only with respect to multiple monitors. This option would go there.

Honestly, we may want to merge that with randr... but maybe not?

exwm-workspace-minibuffer-position

IMO, we should have a new exwm-floating-minibuffer-mode minor-mode (or just tell users to, e.g., use miniframe and make sure it works well with EWM).

[progfolio]

This now exists as tab-bar-tab-post-select-functions.

Cool. Only available in 30+, though.

We probably need a new exwm-monitor (screens?) module to replace exwm-workspace, but only with respect to multiple monitors. This option would go there.

That sounds like a good idea.

IMO, we should have a new exwm-floating-minibuffer-mode minor-mode (or just tell users to, e.g., use miniframe and make sure it works well with EWM).

I'm a fan of delegating to third-party packages when possible, too.

[medranocalvo]

This is related to #8. I personally use workspaces and would not like them go away. I'm OK with tabs becoming workspaces and frames becoming something else (e.g. monitors). In principle I wouldn't like the number of frames to be restricted to the number of XRandr monitors. I hope I can comment over there soon.

I agree with all proposals above. Some comments:

• exwm-workspace-show-all-buffers: this should be removed together with exwm-layout-show-all-buffers. Been meaning to do that for years.
• exwm-workspace-switch-attach/detach/toggle-minibuffer: this should be moved to exwm-monitor

In general, I find it great that this proposal leads to EXWM relying more on Emacs functionality and leaves custom behaviour to it and other packages.

Thank you for working on this.

[Stebalien]

I'm OK with tabs becoming workspaces and frames becoming something else (e.g. monitors)

💯

My main goal is to unify them (implement workspaces in terms of tabs). There's still a question of if/when/what to deprecate (to avoid having a bunch of workspace features that just delegate to directly to tab features).

In principle I wouldn't like the number of frames to be restricted to the number of XRandr monitors.

I'd be curious to hear your usecase. The one case I can think of would be floating editor frames (and/or frames on other displays), but that's not covered by workspaces.

[ethanmoss1]

Imo, exwm-minibuffer-position can be manipulated by other packages and should be user defined. If they want to use a posframe package or create thier own implementation. It adds additional scope.