Rework window levels and opacity

[koekeishiya]

Making a window appear on top of other windows does not work very well for basically anything that is not a video player.

There are currently three layers in use; "below", "normal", "above".

The window_topmost command (uses layer "above") should be removed. Instead, all managed (read: tiled) windows will appear at a level lower (layer "below") than the standard window level (layer "normal"), effectively achieving the same goal without all the issues. The user will still be able to change the window layer using the respective command or using rules to utilize any layer if they so wish.

The window fading mechanism is useful as a focus-mode kind of option, but it falls short when using multiple monitors. The opacity mechanism should not extend across spaces.

[edofe99]

Hi, sorry but exactly why did you removed this feature? It was really useful.

Plase can you at least provide an explaination on how to use those "layers"? Suppose I use a shortcut to toggle a window from managed to float. Now I have the float window and a managed window. How can I use a keyboard shortcut to make the float window topmost?

With this release you removed lots of features that made this app so special (borders on top of all), I did not experienced any performance issue or whatsoever, don't really understand why deleting features. So weird.

Anyway, I trust you're making the right choices for the app, I'm a noob and barely able to create a config file for yabai. Please could you give an explaination on how to have topmost? It's really important to me. Thank's.

[mefengl]

@ironhak see #1898

[preland]

I'm more or less okay with this change; it should be noted that this change is not reflected in the wiki; nor is it mentioned anywhere other than this PR and the changelog

[mortang2410]

Same as above. I was super confused as to how everything completely broke. There should be a big sign on the home page or wiki announcing the breakage of everything as well as how to effectively migrate.

[koekeishiya]

There should be a big sign on the home page or wiki announcing the breakage of everything

Or you could learn what semantic versioning is, and read the changelog before deciding to upgrade.

Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

This project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

-- https:/koekeishiya/yabai/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md

[alber70g]

What is the migration path to keep the old behaviour? It's not listed in the changelog, nor in the referenced PR, nor in the wiki.

EDIT: Found a reference to LAYER here: https:/koekeishiya/yabai/blob/master/doc/yabai.asciidoc#:~:text=LAYER%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3A%3D%20below%20%7C%20normal%20%7C%20above

I'm using this to center and unmanage my window when I like to do so:

Simple version:

alt - t : yabai -m window --toggle float;\
          yabai -m window --grid 12:12:2:2:8:8

Complicated version when using ultrawide screen:

alt - t : screen_width=$(yabai -m query --displays | jq "map(select(.index == $(yabai -m query --windows | jq 'map(select(."has-focus" == true))[0].display')))[0].frame.w"); \
  screen_height=$(yabai -m query --displays | jq "map(select(.index == $(yabai -m query --windows | jq 'map(select(."has-focus" == true))[0].display')))[0].frame.h"); \
  screen_ratio=$(echo "scale=2; $screen_width / $screen_height" | bc); \
  yabai -m window --toggle float; \
  echo "$screen_ratio"; \
  if [[ $(echo "$screen_ratio > 1.78" | bc) -eq 1 ]] ; then \
    echo '> 16:9';\
    yabai -m window --grid 12:12:3:0:6:12; \
  else  \
    echo '< 16:9';\
    yabai -m window --grid 12:10:2:2:6:8; \
  fi

Edit Solution

Adding --layer below makes everything work as expected.

This one is simplified to one command as well:

- alt - t : yabai -m window --toggle float;\
-          yabai -m window --grid 12:12:2:2:8:8
+ alt - t : yabai -m window --toggle float --grid 12:12:2:2:8:8 --layer below

alt - t : screen_width=$(yabai -m query --displays | jq "map(select(.index == $(yabai -m query --windows | jq 'map(select(."has-focus" == true))[0].display')))[0].frame.w"); \
  screen_height=$(yabai -m query --displays | jq "map(select(.index == $(yabai -m query --windows | jq 'map(select(."has-focus" == true))[0].display')))[0].frame.h"); \
  screen_ratio=$(echo "scale=2; $screen_width / $screen_height" | bc); \
-  yabai -m window --toggle float; \
+  yabai -m window --toggle float --layer below; \
  echo "$screen_ratio"; \
  if [[ $(echo "$screen_ratio > 1.78" | bc) -eq 1 ]] ; then \
    echo '> 16:9';\
    yabai -m window --grid 12:12:3:0:6:12; \
  else  \
    echo '< 16:9';\
    yabai -m window --grid 12:10:2:2:6:8; \
  fi

Same goes for all "presets" in .yabairc

yabai -m rule\
  --add app="(Gnucash|PrinterProxy|Telegram|Inkscape|PIDtoolbox|QuickTime Player|System Preferences|System Settings|Music|Finder|Parallels|LastPass|Jetbrains Toolbox|Sublime Text|Company Portal|Authy|OpenVPN|Citrix Receiver|Steam)"\
  manage=off\
  layer=below
yabai -m rule --add app="^Microsoft Outlook$" title="^Inbox"    manage=on layer=below

[koekeishiya]

If you want the old behaviour simply add a blanket rule. This only works on the master branch currently, but will work in v6.0.3:

yabai -m rule --add app=".*" layer=normal

[Vanderhoof]

@koekeishiya the fix above stopped working : {
Even after I changed the layer to sub-layer. What am I missing?

Screen.Recording.2024-04-24.at.08.25.25.mov

[imshenshen]

@koekeishiya the fix above stopped working : { Even after I changed the layer to sub-layer. What am I missing?

Screen.Recording.2024-04-24.at.08.25.25.mov

only work for new window?