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| -rw-r--r-- | docs/superpowers/specs/2026-09-12-window-switcher-design.md | 39 |
1 files changed, 32 insertions, 7 deletions
diff --git a/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-09-12-window-switcher-design.md b/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-09-12-window-switcher-design.md index ce95f3e..0fabe2f 100644 --- a/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-09-12-window-switcher-design.md +++ b/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-09-12-window-switcher-design.md @@ -35,11 +35,32 @@ Per card, top to bottom: - The window title, left aligned, elided at the card width. - The workspace, centered, in brackets and in the accent colour. -Cards are a fixed size and the grid wraps, centered. A preview is 21:9, so a -card readable at arm's length is around 380px wide and DP-1 at 2560px fits six -per row. Six or fewer windows therefore render as the single row this started -as; more wrap rather than shrinking, so a large window count degrades by -growing downwards instead of becoming unreadable. +## Card size and the grid + +Previews are not one shape. DP-1 is landscape and its windows are 2556x1034, +near 21:9. DP-3 has `transform=1`, so it is rotated and its windows are +1076x1916, portrait 9:16. A fullscreen app is portrait there too. That is a +4.4x span of aspect ratio inside one grid, so a card cannot take its shape from +its preview. + +Instead the card is a fixed 16:10 box and the preview is fitted inside it, +preserving aspect. A landscape preview letterboxes slightly, a portrait one +pillarboxes to roughly a third of the box width, and the empty space reads as +framing given the box has a background. 16:10 is the compromise: less extreme +than either input, so neither orientation is punished. The alternative, sizing +each card to its own preview, was rejected because ragged rows would break the +alignment of the three text lines under each card, which is what makes a grid +scannable. + +The grid centres, and its column count is the window count capped at six. One +window sits dead centre, two straddle the middle, three centre on the middle +one. Seven wraps to a centred 4 and 3. + +Cards grow to fill the row they are in, up to a ceiling of 640px wide. So a +lone window gets a 640px card, where a DP-1 preview renders 640x259 and a DP-3 +one 226x400: bigger, but still a preview rather than something pretending to be +the window. Six windows give cards around 380px. The ceiling is what stops a +single preview from becoming a full-screen mirror. The name is redundant with the icon and usually with the title too. It is kept deliberately: it is short and stable, so the eye has something to land on when @@ -125,6 +146,9 @@ Against Hyprland 0.56.2 and quickshell 0.3.1, in a scratch config: `window-close` and for app icons. - `DesktopEntries.byId` returns null for bare app ids such as `firefox`. The app id itself resolves as an icon name, so lookup falls back to it. +- DP-3 reports `transform=1`, and the window on it measures 1076x1916 against + 2556x1034 on DP-1. Both orientations are live at once, which is what the + fitted card box exists for. ## Theme @@ -142,8 +166,9 @@ which is fine. window when another is fullscreen on the same workspace. Whether plain `focuswindow` still needs it is unknown; it goes back in only if a fullscreen window is actually observed staying on top. -- **Multi-monitor overlays.** DP-1 only. DP-3's windows appear as cards, the - overlay just does not paint there. +- **Multi-monitor overlays.** The overlay paints on DP-1 only. DP-3's windows + still appear as cards, and being portrait they are the reason the card box is + a fitted 16:10 rather than the shape of a preview. - **Hold-and-release ALT + TAB.** Considered and rejected: it depends on the switcher seeing the ALT release, and a missed release leaves a stuck full-screen overlay. |