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[Feature] Ability to query and change desktop names #447

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tauchris opened this issue Jan 17, 2024 · 0 comments
Open

[Feature] Ability to query and change desktop names #447

tauchris opened this issue Jan 17, 2024 · 0 comments

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@tauchris
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Desktops can be given names other than "Workspace 1", "Workspace 2", etc. This can be done interactively through the Workspace Switcher tool, in Preferences dialog on MATE and other gnome-based window managers.

EWMH specifies API functions to retrieve and set desktop names as an array of strings. It would be super helpful if xdotool provided a mechanism to do this for any given desktop. e.g.,:

  get_desktop_name [options]
      Return name of desktop as a string
  
      --desktop N
          Return name of specified desktop (default is "%1" or current desktop)
  
      --all
          Return names of all desktops, each name as a string on a separate line
  
  set_desktop_name [options] new_name
      Set name of desktop to given string
      
      --desktop N
          Set name of specified desktop (default is "%1" or current desktop)

Note that window managers will blithely allow you to use the same name for multiple desktops. Hard for me to imagine why that would be useful, but I guess it doesn't matter to the window manager, as it's just a label. But as someone whose work style has me frequently (daily!) creating and destroying workspaces, and using workspace names to keep them straight, I depend on being able to do this programmatically. I currently do this with a python library that implements ewmh, but xdotool seems like a much cleaner/nicer way to handle it. Managing desktop names is one of the very few things missing from xdotool that I'd need.

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